You Can't Take It with You (1938)

Directed by Frank Capra

Starring Lionel Barrymore, Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold, James Stewart, Mischa Auer, Ann Miller, Spring Byington, Samuel S. Hinds, Donald Meek, H.B. Warner, Halliwell Hobbes, Dub Taylor, Mary Forbes, Lillian Yarbo, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Clarence Wilson, Josef Swickard, Ann Doran, Christian Rub, Bodil Rosing, Charles Lane, and Harry Davenport

With an adaptation of the play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, Frank Capra delights audiences and critics alike once again with You Can't Take It with You. Lionel Barrymore leads a band of eccentrics who all live in his house against the greedy bank tycoon played by Edward Arnold. Jean Arthur is Barrymore's granddaughter, and she is in love with Arnold's son, played by Jimmy Stewart. These are all familiar characters and storylines, but Kaufman and Hart's gift for comedy plays perfectly with Capra's gift for sentimentality without sappiness. When Barrymore and Arnold play a harmonica duet together at the end of the film, the audience truly believes that any dispute can work out happily. These kinds of upbeat movies are a rarity in Hollywood today, so watching a movie like this once in a while is a nice change of pace.

Other nominees: The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz and William Keighley), Alexander's Ragtime Band (Henry King), Boys Town (Norman Taurog), The Citadel (King Vidor), Four Daughters (Michael Curtiz), The Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir), Jezebel (William Wyler), Pygmalion (Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard), and Test Pilot (Victor Fleming)