Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this Frank Capra classic is delightful family viewing. The only red flag is the slightly condescending treatment of two African-American characters.
Families can talk about whether they would like to live in a family like this one. Which family member is most like you? Why did Tony tell his parents the wrong night for dinner at the Sycamore's? Notice the difference between the way that the Sycamores and the Kirbys react when they get arrested. Why? What does the title mean?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Nell Minow
The Sycamore family, a group of loving and lovable eccentrics presided over by Grandpa (Lionel Barrymore), includes daughter Penny (Spring Byington), who writes lurid plays, her husband Paul (Samuel S. Hinds), who makes fireworks in the basement, Mr. DePinna (Halliwell Hobbes), the iceman who came by to deliver ice nine years before and just stayed. Mr. Poppin (Donald Meek), who loves to make mechanical toys, has just joined them. The Sycamores have two daughters. Essie (Ann Miller) loves to dance, and her husband Ed (Dub Taylor) plays the xylophone. They sell candy to make a little money. The other daughter, Alice (Jean Arthur), is the only one in the family with a job. She works for a banking firm, and has fallen in love with the boss' son, Tony Kirby (Jimmy Stewart).
A man from the IRS visits, to find out why Grandpa has never paid any taxes. The neighbors are all being evicted because the land is being sold to developers who intend to build a factory. And Tony's very elegant and snobbish parents arrive for dinner on the wrong night, descending upon the Sycamore family just as Ed is arrested for enclosing seditious statements in the candy boxes and all the fireworks blow up. Various crises of finance and embarrassment and misunderstanding ensue, but all are straightened out, and everyone lives happily ever after.
The well-loved play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart is given the Frank Capra treatment, sometimes called "capra-corn." The entire populist sub-plot about the land being sold and the appearance of most of the characters in court are the additions of Capra and his screenwriter, Robert Riskin, and they make the film seem a bit dated. But children will enjoy the way that everyone in the family joyfully pursues his or her own dreams, and the way they all respect and support one another.
Families who enjoy this movie will also like Jimmy Stewart in two other Capra classics, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It's a Wonderful Life. For more quirky families, try Arsenic and Old Lace and On Golden Pond.
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Social BehaviorThe two black characters, a maid and her out-of-work boyfriend, are treated with some affection but also condescension. |
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