Word: vanderhof
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...title indicates, a whimsical little comedy, faintly defeatist, emphasizing the fact that shrouds don't have pockets. In the capable hands of Frank Capra, this negative moral was moulded into a powerful eulogy on the value of Friendship. One of the most stirring scenes is that in which Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore) is fined $100 and scores of equally penniless friends take up a collection in court...
Laugh, win friends, do as you please! Why grub for gold when "You Can't Take It With You?" Thus speaks Grandpa Vanderhof, who, when entering his office one day, hearkens to his own words, turns on his heel, and never goes to work again; who is the patriarch of the maddest and merriest household establishment ever on exhibition. By the adequate light of a firmament of stars, Frank Capra has depicted well the story of the Vanderhofs, with their fire-works, ballet-dancing, xylophones, and discus-throwers. His touch has provided healthy humor in abundance and a dash...
Most titanic rebel in the group of legendary rebels which You Can't Take It With You assembles in the living room of a shabby urban household is Grandpa Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore), retired for 35 years because he decided one morning 'that working was no fun. His daughter, Penny Sycamore (Spring Byington). writes plays because someone once delivered a typewriter to the house by mistake; his son-in-law (Samuel Hinds) manufactures fireworks in the basement; his granddaughter, Essie (Ann Miller), studies ballet with a ferociously impecunious Russian (Mischa Auer); and the assorted camp followers of the Vanderhpf...
...play, the climax of the clash, like all the rest of the action, occurred in the Vanderhof living room, where the Kirbys, arriving the night before they had been invited for dinner, were just in time to be carted off to jail when the fireworks in the basement exploded prematurely. Unimpeded by the restrictions of the stage, the camera follows the party to jail, then into court, then into the newspapers, then into a board meeting at the Kirby bank in a series of scenes which lifts the feud between the Kirbys and the Vanderhofs to the plane of that...
...Boston cast is not supposed to compare very favorably with the New York cast, but taken by itself, it leaves very little to be desired. Priestly Morrison is a perfect Grandpa Martin Vanderhof, his starting statements and dry wit made doubly effective by the subdued tone he uses. All the people are very real, albeit somewhat incredible, down to Ulla Kazanova as the Grand Duchess Olga, who comes one night from Childs Restaurant to cook the supper...