Two More Movies

Over the last two days, I watched two more Academy Award Best Picture winners.

You Can't Take It with You
1938
Jimmy Stewart
Jean Arthur
Lionel Barrymore
Edward Arnold

I LOVED this movie. Loved it. Not that my loving it was a huge surprise. It's a Frank Capra movie, and has a theme very similar to that of It's a Wonderful Life.

Basically, the story is this. Jimmy Stewart's character, Tony Kirby, is the son of a very wealthy business man, who is buying up all of the property on 12 city blocks in New York, in order to build some huge money making building. Tony holds the office of Vice President in his father's company, but since he is a wealthy man's son, it's mostly just a title. Tony has an office and a desk, but doesn't really do much. He does, however, have a secretary - Alice Sycamore, played by Jean Arthur.

Naturally, he falls for Alice, and wants to marry her. Alice is not only from a poor family - she's from the only family on that 12 block section of NYC that has said no to selling their house. For most of the movie, though, Tony's parents aren't aware of this fact.

Tony's parents are uptight rich people who look down on all below them (especially his mother). Alice's family is fun loving and is lead by her grandfather, who quit working 35 years before because he wasn't having any fun. Naturally, the two families clash quite a bit, even before you bring the property thing into it.

What I especially loved about this movie, is that Lionel Barrymore got to play a good guy, in direct contrast to a bad guy who was written very much like Mr. Potter from It's a Wonderful Life (who he played), so it was like seeing Mr. Potter in an alternate life, where he wasn't such an ass. I liked him much more in this one, needless to say.

And I'm explaining it horribly, but this is a very fun, feel good movie that made me say, "I loved that" out loud when it ended. (It doesn't hurt that I always loved Jimmy Stewart anyway.) (Oh, and not only was Lionel Barrymore, who played Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life in this, but also the man who plays Alice's father? Also played Peter Bailey, George's Dad from It's a Wonderful Life. That was fun to spot.)

I gave this movie 5 out of 5 stars. :)

The Lost Weekend
1945
Ray Milland
Jane Wyman
Phillip Terry

This one is the story of an alcoholic, 10 days sober, left alone by his caretaker brother and his girlfriend for a whole weekend. Naturally, as soon as they leave him, he's off finding ways to secure the only thing he can think of - rye whiskey. And he proceeds to spend the entire weekend drinking. He has various misadventures over the course of the time his brother is gone, including being locked into an alcoholics ward in a hospital after a fall down a flight of stairs. He sees a disturbing hallucination, and basically goes through the typical ups and downs of a man with this kind of problem. During this time, he had to face himself and his problem, putting his girlfriend through hell in the process.

It's not exactly a fun movie, like the other one in this post, but it sure does show the bad sides of alcoholism. I found myself relating to it a lot as the family member of various people who have/had this problem. Mostly what I felt during it, though, was amazement that this man had been putting his brother and girlfriend through hell for so long, and yet they stuck with him. Not many people would. I found myself telling the girl to hit the road, because people like this don't change very often, in my experience, and when they do, it has to be their decision, not yours.

But, mostly, it just made me grateful that I have never even liked the taste of alcohol enough to drink more than a few sips. I can't imagine having to try to quit something that is this addictive.

This was a very good movie. Like I said, not a fun one, but a good one, with a good story to tell. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.