KING'S THEATRE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 91, 19 April 1939, Page 5

KING'S THEATRE

"You Can't Take It With You."

An artfully constructed tale which delightfully harmonises superb nonsense, whimsical romance, deft drama, and a leavening of sentimentality, Frank Capra's "You Can't Take It With You" opens on Friday at the Kings Theatre. Robert Riskin, who penned the screen-plays of "Lost Horizon, "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, It Happened One Night," and other sensational Capra films, is the author of the (current screen masterpiece, which is 'based upon the Pulitzer Prize play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. "You Can't Take It With You" is the heart-warming story of two families whose philosophies of life are poles apart. One family, presided over by happy-go-lucky Grandpa Vanderhof, lives merrily and somewhat madly in a suflicient-unto-the-day atmosphere of untroubled fun. The other family, the social-conscious, (money-grubbing, power-mad Kirbys, are the purest of wealth worshippers. The two families clash when the Kirby son and the Vanderhof granddaughter fall in love. Tonk Kirby, not so dol-lar-bound as his father, nor so classconscious as his mother, believes his parents are genuine at heart and only synthetic stuffed shirts. He hopes that contact with the Vanderhqfs will change their attitude towards his marriage to Alice. But the meeting of the two families is marked by an exhibition of typical Vanderhof good humour which winds up with everybody—the Kirbys as well as the Vanderhofs—in gaol on suspicion of anarchism. Lionel Barrymore is peerless in the part of Grandpa Vanderhof. Jean Arthur, prettier and livelier than ever, supplies a perfect performance as the light-hearted granddaughter, Alice, and James Stewart is unforgettable in the role of Tony Kirby. Edward Arnold, playing the difficult part of Kirby, the tycoon, offers a convincing portrayal of this couponclipping gentleman who, it transpires in the end, was not so bond-hearted after all. Such player? as Ann Miller, Mischa Aver, Spring Byington, Halliwell Hobbes. Dub Taylor, H. B. Warner, Mary Forbes, and Samuel S. Hinds are in the supporting cast.