Just saw one of my favorites, You Can’t Take It with You. Grandpa Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore) as the old patriarch of a family of cooks, each lilies of the field; and James Stewart as the rich Tony Kirby, out to marry his granddaughter Alice (Jean Arthur). When things finally come to both families meeting, Tony throws a monkey wrench into Alice’s plans by bringing his parents to dinner a day ahead of schedule, before she can script her eccentric family into being “Normal”. Mr Kirby’s scheme to buy up the old Vanderhof house in a business backfires, and lands them all in the drunk tank. “Do you know who I am! I am Anthony P. Kirby!!!”.
After provoking an incident, Mr Kirby gets a proper mouth full, when grandpa Vanderhof tells him what he thinks of him and his craving for money. 3 or 4 lawyers finally show up to defend the Kirby’s in court, but just about everyone in the dang gum city turns out to support their friend, old grandpa Vanderhof. The judge finds the Vanderhofs guilty, after they admit to manufacturing fire works without a license in their basement; fining them $100.00, Mr Kirby offers to pay the fine but is turned down. Despite them all being as poor as Grandpa, the people chip in to pay the fine, even the judge contributing two bits himself! When it comes to why the Kirby’s were present at the arrest, grandpa Vanderhof tries to plagiarize himself to keep the Kirby’s out of the news papers, and Mrs Kirby pounces on it to save her social reputation; Alice flies off the handle with the truth as Tony Kirby finally sticks up for the truth.
Alice flees to Connecticut, the Kirby finical empire hinges on the biggest deal of Mr Kirby’s life, and the Vanderhofs sell the house so they can go to Connecticut and keep the family together. Tony is set up to be the President of the most powerful company in the America, and resigns to go follow his own dreams; then like grandpa Vanderhof so many years ago, brokken hearted Mr Kirby takes the elevator up to the top floor, where everyone is waiting to seal the big deal…. and he goes straight back down, out the door, and never looks back ;-). Tony asks grandpa Vanderhof how he can get in touch with Alice, but gets the hopeless truth, that she doesn’t want to see him and left to forget the past; but Tony also gets a bit of advice. The trouble with young people today, being that they never use the ol’bean, lol. He mentions that there is a large trunk in Alice’s room that will be going to where she is staying, and Tony gets the hint hehe. Alice shows up to question grandpa about selling the house, and locks herself in her bedroom when she sees Tony Kirby coming down the staircase.
Mr Kirby shows up to ask advice of old man Vanderhof, so he tells him to stop thinking in terms of fortunes, and sit and play a duet with him on the harmonica. Grandpa Vanderhof explains that whenever he has troubles, he just sits and plays his harmonica until it passes, and somehow it all works out ok in the end. Of all things, they play Polly Wolly Doodle until the rest of the family and friends helping with the move join in, Tony and Alice eventually joining in, and getting Mr Kirby’s approval of their marriage. When Mrs Kirby shows up looking for them, and finds the party going on, she out right faints xD. In the end, grandpa Vanderhof says grace at the big family dinner:
Quiet, please, quiet! Well, sir, here we are again. We’ve had quite a time of it lately, but it seems that the worst of it is over. Course, the fireworks all blew up, but we can’t very well blame that on you. Anyway, everything’s turned out fine, as it usually does. Alice is going to marry Tony; Mr. Kirby, who’s turned out to be a very good egg, sold us back our house – he’ll probably forget all about big deals for a while. Nobody on our block has to move; and, with the right handling, I think we can even thaw out Mrs. Kirby here. We’ve all got our health; as far as anything else is concerned, we still leave that up to you. Thank you. Bring it on, Reba!
Hmm, this movie reminds me of my favorite verse in the Bible, should look it up & post it someday. lol, that also reminds me of the last time I quoted it…. My pastor reminded me to stand behind the bible, rather then next to it, less my mother throw something at me >_>
Hahahaha !!!!
