--- title: "You Can't Take It with You: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/you-cant-take-it-with-you/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/you-cant-take-it-with-you" critics_score: 74 critics_reviews: 7 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # You Can't Take It with You (1938): what the critics said Critics' score 74 from 7 reviews: 5 positive, 1 mixed, 1 negative. Most critics like it, and the warmest notices are the earliest. The 1938 reviews treat it as one of the best pictures of its year: Capra’s boisterous handling of the eccentric Vanderhof household, the set-pieces of the tax inspector’s visit and the night court, and an ensemble in which Edward Arnold, Jean Arthur and James Stewart are picked out again and again. Later writers keep the praise for the cast and for the romance between Alice and Tony, which more than one finds the most natural thing on screen. The spread is wide. The reservations cluster around sentiment and message. Time Out finds Capra at his preachiest and thinks the appealing leads cannot save a trite story, and Empire calls the plotting clumsy, the characterisation lazy and the view of capitalism naive. Even admirers concede that some scenes run too long and that the broader comedy carried over from the play has not aged well. The dissent, notably, comes from British publications decades on. ## Los Angeles Times Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 1 October 1938. The review calls the Capra-directed film one of the most amusing and satisfying pictures in months, rich in human elements with a fine cast and a message of good will. It highlights the boisterous Capra style, strong teamwork among the ensemble, and standout performances especially by Edward Arnold. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/story/2022-09-21/from-the-archives-you-cant-take-it-with-you-prize-winning-film-event) ## The New York Times — Frank S. Nugent Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 2 September 1938. The critic finds the film one of the year's best, praising how Capra and Riskin have expanded the Pulitzer-winning play's characters into fuller people while retaining its humor, though noting it is less purely comic on screen due to added seriousness and sentiment. The cast, including Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Edward Arnold, and Spring Byington, is enthusiastically admired. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1938/09/02/archives/the-screen-one-of-the-best-is-you-cant-take-it-with-you-the-music.html) ## Variety — Roy Chartier Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). The film is hailed as a big hit, with Capra skillfully capturing the play's comedy from the eccentric Vanderhof family and the romance between Stewart and Arthur serving as its keystone. Sequences like the income tax man visit and night court are singled out as highlights for their timing and laughs. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1938/film/reviews/you-can-t-take-it-with-you-1200411891/) ## The AV Club — Noel Murray Rating B+. 9 December 2015. The critic views the film as marking the end of one era for Capra and the beginning of the next, praising its move beyond screwball roots to a more expansive vision of America while noting darker shadings. They single out the charming romance between Alice and Tony as a naturalistic precursor to later work and a moving populist set-piece where the neighborhood rallies together, while complaining that some scenes run too long with diffused focus and that broader comic elements from the play have not aged well. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/frank-capra-depicted-america-as-a-happy-madhouse-in-you-1798185959) ## Empire — Emma Cochrane Fi1m's normalised score 55/100 (inferred from the text). 3 March 2006. The critic finds the film enjoyable in parts thanks to its excellent ensemble cast and strong farce scenes, but views it as problematic due to clumsy plotting, lazy characterisation and a naive approach to capitalism. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/take-2-review/) ## Time Out — BC Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. The critic finds Capra at his most sentimental here, with the story of a munitions tycoon's son falling for a woman from an eccentric family proving trite and preachy overall. The appealing cast, particularly Stewart and Arthur, is not enough to save what is mostly a damp squib. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/you-cant-take-it-with-you) ## Collider — Jeffrey Harris Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 14 December 2025. The critic highlights the film's status as Capra and Stewart's first collaboration and their only Best Picture winner, praising it as a heartwarming ensemble comedy with universal themes of family joy over material wealth and Stewart's strong supporting turn. [Read the review](https://collider.com/you-cant-take-it-with-you-jimmy-stewart-frank-capra/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/you-cant-take-it-with-you.md