This best picture winner by director Frank Capra is based on the Pulitzer prize-winning play of the same name. The majority of the action takes places in a large house owned by Grandpa Vanderhof that houses a strange variety of eccentric family members that do whatever they please. The family includes a wannabe ballerina, an aspiring accidental playwright, and a fireworks manufacturer. This family is all about having a positive, happy life doing what you love with your friends and that money does not buy happiness as the greedy villainous banker finds out. I suspect this was a refreshing message back in 1938 during the Depression. Frank Capra was supposedly known for making movies about themes such as this one in this era. Although the movie is a comedy, it is not laugh-out-loud funny. But it is still a charming story that has its moments that made me smile.
