Film Review
Between
Bringing Up Baby (1938) and
The Philadelphia Story (1940),
Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn appeared together in this less well-known
comedy, adapted from a popular play by Philip Barry. Hepburn had
in fact understudied the role of Linda (the character she plays in the
film) in the Broadway production. The play had previously been
adapted in 1930, directed by Edward H. Griffith and starring Ann
Harding, Mary Astor and Robert Ames. In both versions of the
film, Edward Everett Horton played the amiable Nick Potter.
Barry's play was presumably intended as a send-up of the American
dream, specifically that bit of it which made a great virtue of piling
up stacks of wealth on Earth. The theme may still be relevant,
but today the anti-capitalist posturing looks about as subtle as a
mauve hippopotamus on rollerskates. The film's laboured
moralising is made bearable by the exquisite chemistry between its two
lead actors, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, who rarely performed as
well together as they do here. The part of Linda Seton
looks as if it was especially created for Hepburn - no one was better
suited to play the part of the feisty, independently minded
heroine. Grant is pretty good too, especially when he starts
doing back somersaults. If he had failed as an actor, he would
have made a respectable acrobat.
Hepburn and Grant may be the main attraction but there is also much fun
to be had from the contributions of their supporting artistes. Edward
Everett Horton and Jean Dixon form a superlative double act (which at
one point morphs seamlessly into a Punch and Judy act), whilst Henry
Daniell and Binnie Barnes make a deliciously evil upper crust couple,
comedy villains who look as if they have tumbled from the pages of a
novel by Dickens or Trollope. Lew Ayres - the handsome star of
Lewis Milestone's
All Quiet on the Western Front
(1930) - is reduced to playing a drunken socialite, but does it so
brilliantly (and so tragically) that he almost steals the film.
With such a strong cast, directed with aplomb by George Cukor,
Holiday is a sparkling social satire
that cannot fail to delight.
© James Travers 2010
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Next George Cukor film:
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Film Synopsis
On his return to New York after a vacation, Johnny Case breaks the news
to his dearest friends Nick and Susan Potter that he is about to get
married to a girl he met at Lake Placid, Julia Seton. Johnny
knows nothing about his intended's family and is surprised at what he
finds when he drops in on her New York residence. Julia, he soon
discovers, is the daughter of a millionaire banker and lives in one of
the city's larger mansions. Johnny immediately hits it off
with Julia's unconventional sister, Linda, and her dipsomaniac brother
Ned. Julia's father is harder to please. Having been
apprised of Johnny's humble background, Seton Senior believes that
Julia is marrying beneath her, but he finally relents and agrees to the
marriage. Then, just when he has won the girl he loves, Johnny
drops his bombshell. He intends to retire on the money he has
earned so far and take a long holiday. Naturally, Seton Senior is
opposed to this foolhardy plan, but so, surprisingly, is Julia...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.