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Success or Snub? You Can't Take It With You (11th Academy Awards Review Pt. 2)

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 To see part 1, click here . The Adventures of Robin Hood Suite~Erich Wolfgang Korngold - The Adventures of Robin Hood As far as years from the Golden Age of Hollywood go, 1938 is interesting in that there’s nothing here that was a cosmic “oh my God, this is such a mainstay epic” that came out this year. That’s not to say nothing notable did, just saying that there’s not as many colorful complaints here or films that the average filmgoer is likely to have seen. Maybe heard of? Meh, who cares, let’s see if we can find anything to measure up to snuff for ol’ Capra. First, the milestones. There’s actually a few films here that were sort of prototypes for even larger successes in later years (and, thus, showed them up, making them a curious piece of history forever in their successor's shadow). Like Pygmalion , which has the same plot points as My Fair Lady (1964). Or Jezebel , which has similar themes, settings and characters to Gone With the Wind (1939). Or Roy Rogers (the infamous

Oscars Retrospective: You Can't Take It With You (11th Academy Awards Review)

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   Polly Wolly Doodle~Burl Ives You Can’t Take It With You was the 2 nd movie made by Frank Capra to finally win the Oscar for Outstanding Production, after two years running where his films were contenders. It also ended up being the highest-grossing picture of 1938 so, as mentioned before, people really loved this guy’s movies back in the day. What’s interesting about it, though, is this is one of only two movies that he made that won Best Picture yet more contemporary reviewers seem to place it lower on his totem pole of quality. By no means do they consider it bad, but compared to It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Lost Horizon (1937), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and It’s A Wonderful Life (1946), it’s considered a bit of a lesser movie. I personally disagree as I still think this is an all-American classic Capra film. You Can’t Take It With You is one of the prime examples of the old-school screwball comedy, a genre that was one of the