You Can't Take It With You vs. It's a Wonderful Life

Originally written January 23, 2015

I watch It’s a Wonderful Life every year around Christmas with my family. My grandma makes fudge and peanut brittle and my mom cries. When I was a freshman in a Theater Foundations class at a brand new performing arts school, I read the play You Can’t Take It With You, then saw a community theater production of the show.

Maybe because of the differences between the original stage version of You Can’t Take It With You and the film, or maybe because I am bad at analyzing everything, I never realized the extent of the similarities between these two stories. 

That is, until I saw Frank Capra’s film adaptation of You Can’t Take It With You. I mean, there are bound to be similarities; Frank Capra directed both of movies, and Jimmy Stewart stars as the son of a banker. More than that, though, there are some very similar themes. Both films tell us that money isn’t what makes us happy, and that family and friends are the most important things in our lives. There are also some differences (obviously), especially concerning Jimmy Stewart’s character.

In It’s a Wonderful Life, Jimmy Stewart plays George Bailey, the ambitions son of the owner of Bailey’s Building and Loan. He gives up his dreams of travel and and adventure to take over his father’s business. He sacrifices personal aspirations, so much time, and even his honeymoon fund to help people save their homes, and ultimately save the town. 

Poppins, an unhappy office worker, meets Grandpa Sycamore by chance in the beginning of You Can’t Take It With You. From just that one meeting, Poppins realizes that he shouldn’t live his life entirely for money, and moves in with the Sycamore family. The whole family does precisely what they want to do, and doesn’t worry about being sensible or holding a day job.

Both of these films explore how people can find fulfillment even when they have no money, and I think that that is something that Frank Capra was probably very interested in.

These movies both have one incredibly similar scene. In You Can’t Take It With You, the family needs to be bailed out of jail, and in It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey needs to find some money to avoid going to prison. In both films, the main characters are so kind and helpful to other people around them that they have so many, many friends to help them out. The communities come together and pay for the things they need. There are hats passed around large groups of people, as everyone pulls out their wallets and contributes all of the cash and change they can. Even the judge in You Can’t Take It With You, and the bank inspection guys in It’s a Wonderful Life contribute to the collection. 

Both films teach us about the importance of friendship, and that lovingly helping other people out during your life is really good karma, and you may reap the fruits of what you’ve sown some day. 

These films aren’t just carbon copies of each other, though. They answer the question of finding fulfillment completely differently. In You Can’t Take It With You everyone finds happiness by doing exactly what they want to do, whereas in It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey completely sacrifices everything that he wants to do, and instead devotes himself to work that is for the benefit of other people. He finds joy in the end by being kind and unselfish. In You Can’t Take It With You, Jimmy Stewart quits the banking job he hates in order to follow his dreams and be happy. In It’s a Wonderful Life, Jimmy Stewart continues for years in the banking job he hates, and finds happiness in the fact that he has done so much good, and that so many people care about him. 

These films are both so beautiful, and I love them individually. The themes in these films of finding happiness in your friends and family instead of in having a lot of money, and finding what will bring you joy and doing it, can be found in all of our lives, too.  These movies are similar in many ways, but I think that they have value on their own. I am sure that both of these films will become staples in my classic film viewing life.