From BYU collection of James Stewart Papers
"You Can’t Take It With You," the 1938 Academy Award-winning film for Best Picture, will be shown at Brigham Young University on Tuesday, May 20, to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the birth of the film’s star, actor James Stewart.
The film will begin at 7 p.m. in the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium, and the doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free, but seating is limited. No food or drink is permitted in the auditorium and BYU dress and grooming standards apply.
"You Can’t Take It With You," the film version of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play, is a tale about an eccentric retiree (Lionel Barrymore) who realizes that money isn’t everything and invites every other eccentric who loves life into his home. Stewart portrays the son of a prosperous businessman, who falls in love with the retiree’s daughter (Jean Arthur) and is introduced to a wild world of very distinctive personalities.
The film print of "You Can’t Take It With You" is from the permanent collection in the BYU Motion Picture Archive, housed in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections. The Special Collections has been the home of the James Stewart Papers since the actor donated his papers, films, and memorabilia to BYU in 1983.
James V. D’Arc, the curator of the BYU Motion Picture Archive who acquired the collection for BYU from Stewart, will introduce the film and excerpts from Stewart’s home movies.
"James Stewart is, to many, Mr. America," said D’Arc. "His multifaceted career in American film classics mark him as one of the greatest film actors as well as one of the finest, most respected members of the motion picture industry. We are privileged to be the home of the Stewart Papers."
For more information, contact James V. D’Arc by e-mail at james_darc@byu.edu, or by phone at (801) 422-6371.
Writer: Marissa Ballantyne
