You Can't Take It with You

A tie between the following two:

Lost Horizon - reason: Ronald Coleman at the height of his "whatever it was he had, and it was without equal"

It Happened One Night - reason: chemistry chemistry chemistry

I almost chose Rendezvous in Space but realized I had never seen it, can't wait to see it though, and Marcia McBroom as "The Pedestrian"

Ah, very good choices! I need to rewatch Lost Horizon since I was not a huge Capra or Colman fan when I first saw it. And yes, It Happened One Night is pure bliss for screwball comedy fans.

Though personally, my runner-ups to You Can't Take It with You are:

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington mostly for the brilliance of James Stewart's performance (okay, let's not forget Jean Arthur either!)

It's a Wonderful life because, well, how could it not be(?)

Never before have I heard of Rendezvous in Space. I had a look at the link, and it sounds very strange and obscure. Interesting though, not your usual Capra fare.

Yes, Frank Capra directs many wonderful films at Columbia during the 1930's, and by 1940, their contract expires.

And so, Capra decides to venture into "Frank Capra Productions," and collaborates with screenwriter Robert Riskin, to script a story based upon writings of Richard Connell and Robert Presnell Sr.

Capra and Riskin then head off into the desert to create a treatise about an ambitious newspaper columnist about to lose her job because a wealthy tycoon purchases the media to launch a corrupt political campaign, but when the reporter convinces the reluctant newly-installed editor to hire a skid row bum to protest state of the national economy (impoverishment because of bad politics), a popular idealistic movement is created, which the corrupt would-be-national party self-coroneted tyrannical nominee twists to claim the nation and its resources for himself and his conniving, scheming cronies.

Couldn't happen here, right?

But the resulting film, which Capra and Riskin write, rewrite, rewrite, over and over, even after most of the cast signs on (because it's a Capra film, after all), goes into overtime filming with alternate endings.

Of course, Meet John Doe (1941) ultimately becomes one of Frank's own favorites, although a rather dark, dismal, somewhat hopeless account of impoverishment caused by corrupt tyrants, but with a ray of hope with the will of the people, should neighbor help neighbor, instead of fighting and complaining about the dismal state of affairs.

• Gary Cooper as Long John Willoughby
• Barbara Stanwyck as Ann Mitchell
• Edward Arnold as D.B. Norton
• Walter Brennan as The 'Colonel'
• Spring Byington as Mrs. Mitchell
• James Gleason as Henry Connell
• Gene Lockhart as Mayor Lovett
• Rod La Rocque as Ted Sheldon
• Irving Bacon as Beany
• J. Farrell MacDonald as 'Sourpuss'
• Regis Toomey as Bert Hansen
• Ann Doran as Honey Hansen

Then what's not to like with many of these fine and wonderful talents delivering some of their most notable and memorable performances here?

This film does well with public and critical response in 1941, but, ironically, because "Frank Capra Productions" debuts as a new company, the US Government taxes the entity 90% of its earnings, and so Capra has to call it quits, and to began his stint in the US Military, producing a series of "Why We Fight" films throughout the duration of WWII.

(As they say, "If you can't beat 'em, then join 'em.")