You Can't Take It with You (1984) Reviews

This 116-minute TV adaptation of Kaufman and Hart's Pulitzer Prize-winning You Can't Take It With You was taped during a stage performance before a live audience. Staged by Ellis Rabb, this is a faithful rendition of the original, concentrating on the zany goings-on of the Sycamore household, stage-managed by Grandpa Vanderhof (Jason Robards). With everyone doing just what he or she wants, regardless of what outsiders may think, there is eccentricity to spare at the Sycamores. Their freewheeling lifestyle is briefly threatened by the IRS and by the staid parents of Alice Sycamore's boyfriend Tony Kirby, but everything turns out OK by the final curtain. The cast of 19 includes George Rose as a snide ballet impresario, Elizabeth Wilson as would-be novelist Penny Sycamore, and James Coco as iceman-turned-model Mr. DePinna. First telecast in May of 1984 on the Showtime Cable service, You Can't Take It With You was repeated the following November on PBS. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi