Cinema Tuesdays {You Can't Take It With You}

This is Frank Capra's adaptation of Kaufman and Hart's Pulitzer Prize winning 1936 play. It won Best Picture in 1938, one of the few comedies to ever win Best Picture. It's also one of the most delightful movies ever with an absolutely wonderful message.

Edward Arnold plays Anthony P. Kirby, the big tycoon banker of Wall Street. Naturally, because he's a big tycoon, he suffers from indigestion.

Lionel Barrymore plays Grandpa Vanderhof, who could have been a rich man thirty years ago, but he wasn't having any fun at business and wasn't enjoying life, so he quit. Now he collects stamps, goes to the zoo, plays the harmonica and throws darts. This is the last movie Lionel Barrymore made before he needed to use a wheelchair, which is why he's on crutches.

Tony Kirby is unhappy at being a vice president in Daddy's company, but he loves his secretary Alice Sycamore, who's the only "normal" member of Grandpa's family. I love Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur together, they're so adorable and really work well together.

If you haven't seen the movie (and I'd be shocked if you haven't) I'm not going to summarize the movie like I normally do, since to do that would ruin Capra's message. Instead I'll just include some random shots. If you have seen the movie before, enjoy the caps then go watch it again or just do the Big Apple.

That's the character actor H. B. Warner playing Ol' Twitch Face. Almost everyone in this movie has been in other Frank Capra movies as well. Warner was also in Mr. Deeds and It's A Wonderful Life.

Spring Byington playing Penny Sycamore, her hobby is writing plays and using a kitten as a paper weight.

Yes, Ann Miller really was fifteen when she played Essie and she wore pointe shoes throughout the movie, which must have been tough.

That's the only full length shot I could get of Jean Arthur's gown.

Remember when kids used to go out into the park and play instead of sitting at home all day playing video games?

Mischa Auer as Kolenkhov the White Russian ballet teacher.

I love her suspenders!

If there was one movie family that I would want to live with, it would be the Sycamores and their philosophy of not doing anything that you wouldn't enjoy doing. Besides, all of the really interesting people have to be at least slightly eccentric.

Look, a fur wrap with a bow in the back!

"You're an idiot Mr. Kirby" is a terrific speech, but I couldn't find a clip of it.

I had no idea anyone could have that many friends. Of course, this was back when cities had neighbourhoods and everyone knew everyone and there were small shops on the street and around the corner. I blame the suburbs and supermarkets.

I also had no idea that anyone needed that many lawyers for a misdemeanour

You Can't Take It With You is on DVD (both individually and as part of various Frank Capra collections) in Regions 1, 2 and I think 4. It will also be on TCM next month and at the moment is on YouTube in 12 parts.

This is the famous income tax scene:

The Greatest Show You've Never Heard Of

This is the greatest vintage television show you've never heard of. Ellery Queen ran for only 22 episodes from 1975-76, but is one of the smartest detective shows you'll ever see. It's also great fun to watch, since the puzzles are fantastic and the characters are great. Every week there's a seemingly impossible murder, a limited number of suspects and the victim usually left a dying clue. None of this fuss with evidence, Ellery just had to figure out if all of the alibis were correct and interpret the dying clue, which was hard since no one thinks clearly when they're bleeding out quietly in the corner.

The star of the show is Jim Hutton, who you may remember from Walk, Don't Run and Where the Boys Are. In this incarnation, Ellery Queen is a successful mystery writer, but a little absent minded. He also wears sweaters, jackets with elbow patches, Buddy Holly glasses and that funny little hat. And Jim Hutton's son also did his own detective series, which is my second favourite TV show ever.

David Wayne (of How To Marry a Millionaire and The Tender Trap) plays Ellery's father: Inspector Richard Queen of New York's Homicide department and his three-piece suits. He often calls upon his son to help him with the more interesting or bizarre murders. They live together in a brownstone, but we only ever see the kitchen and the living room/study.

Assisting Inspector Queen is his right-hand man Sergeant Velie. He calls Ellery "Maestro" and wears awesome ties like that one.

Going against Ellery in almost every episode are two, I wouldn't say nemeses, but rather confused sleuths. There's Frank Flannigan the star reporter for the Gazette. He isn't so much interested in solving the crime as he is in writing a front page story, whether it be true or not.

Next we have Simon Brimmer, the star of that popular radio series "The Casebook of Simon Brimmer" and he also fancies himself as a great amateur detective. Even though he usually thinks that the red herrings are the real clues, he is still desperate to solve the murder before the police do and is always livid when Ellery tells him that he's wrong, since it damages his reputation, not to mention his inflated ego.

Ellery Queen takes place in 1947. Most of the costumes are accurate (just not the ladies shoes), but the hair is usually slightly Seventies -two eras in one show! A lot of episodes also focus on radio and just how important radio was. And there are some inside jokes, like television being just a passing fad.

In every episode there was also at least one famous guest star, usually more. Vincent Price, Betty White, George Burns, Joan Collins, Eva Gabor, Roddy McDowall, Dana Andrews, Eve Arden, Ida Lupino, Donald O'Connor, Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians and Ray Milland. Basically more stars than you could shake a stick at.

There were two terrific aspects about Ellery Queen that made it unique and a shame that it was cancelled. First, there was the swell theme and score by Elmer Bernstein:

Then there was what Ellery Queen was famous for. Every week just before the last commercial break, Ellery finally figured out whodunnit and would turn to the audience and sum up the clues and the suspects, even though he was sure that we had solved it long before he had. What makes this surprising is that the creators, Levinson and Link, also created Columbo and Murder, She Wrote, the two easiest detective shows ever. Ellery Queen assumed that the audience was intelligent and not only interested in, but capable of solving the puzzle of the week. This is probably why it was cancelled after one season.

And now, random screen caps:

After years of bootlegged copies Ellery Queen has finally been released on DVD in Regions 1 and 4! And in probably much better quality then the copies that I used to screen cap, but I am going to buy the DVD. I'm sorry Region 2, you'll have to download the bootlegged copies.