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Holiday (1938)
Before The Philadelphia Story, Phillip Barry, Donald Ogden Stewart and director George Cukor collaborated on the 1938 comedy Holiday, the third onscreen teaming of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn that charms with its sophisticated dialogue and effervescent performances from the stars.
Grant plays Johnny Case, an eccentric playboy who has found himself engaged to an icy socialite named Julia Seton (Doris Nolan), unaware that she's from an extremely wealthy family. Julia and her father (Henry Kolker) are initially charmed by Johnny until he shares his outrageous life plan where he plans to take his retirement, or "holiday" as he calls it, now while he's young instead of working for 20 or 30 years. Julia is horrified but her sister, Linda (Hepburn) is fascinated by Johnny and his life plan, as is Julia and Linda's baby brother, Ned (Lew Ayres).
The story is based on a play by Phillip Barry that premiered on Broadway in 1928 and ran for over 225 performances. As he would later with The Philadelphia Story, Donald Ogden Stewart, along with Sidney Buchman, adapted this witty adult comedy for the screen, which has a real Noel Coward sensibility to the proceedings...a bunch of people chasing after the wrong people and unaware that they're chasing after the wrong people while the right people are standing right under their noses, or sacrificing their own happiness for other people because it's the right thing to do.
When we met Grant and Hepburn at the opening of The Philadelphia Story, they were divorced, but their characters are strangers when they meet here and Grant's character is engaged to Hepburn's sister, so we strap ourselves in for what could be a long and complex journey to what we've been promised. It is a pretty complex journey but surprisingly economic and Cukor and company make us wait until the final frame for what we know is coming.
Cukor gets the expected splendid performances from Grant and Hepburn but works wonders on his supporting cast as well. Lew Ayres is very amusing as the drunken Seton heir (Ayres' resemblance to a young Jack Lemmon in this movie is spooky), as are Edward Everett Horton and Jean Dixon as Johnny's married buddies whose last name keeps getting mispronounced and Doris Nolan brings an effective level of bitchiness to the snooty Julia, but they and Cukor never forget who the stars are and the work of Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant alone makes this ticket worth the price of admission.
Before The Philadelphia Story, Phillip Barry, Donald Ogden Stewart and director George Cukor collaborated on the 1938 comedy Holiday, the third onscreen teaming of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn that charms with its sophisticated dialogue and effervescent performances from the stars.
Grant plays Johnny Case, an eccentric playboy who has found himself engaged to an icy socialite named Julia Seton (Doris Nolan), unaware that she's from an extremely wealthy family. Julia and her father (Henry Kolker) are initially charmed by Johnny until he shares his outrageous life plan where he plans to take his retirement, or "holiday" as he calls it, now while he's young instead of working for 20 or 30 years. Julia is horrified but her sister, Linda (Hepburn) is fascinated by Johnny and his life plan, as is Julia and Linda's baby brother, Ned (Lew Ayres).
The story is based on a play by Phillip Barry that premiered on Broadway in 1928 and ran for over 225 performances. As he would later with The Philadelphia Story, Donald Ogden Stewart, along with Sidney Buchman, adapted this witty adult comedy for the screen, which has a real Noel Coward sensibility to the proceedings...a bunch of people chasing after the wrong people and unaware that they're chasing after the wrong people while the right people are standing right under their noses, or sacrificing their own happiness for other people because it's the right thing to do.
When we met Grant and Hepburn at the opening of The Philadelphia Story, they were divorced, but their characters are strangers when they meet here and Grant's character is engaged to Hepburn's sister, so we strap ourselves in for what could be a long and complex journey to what we've been promised. It is a pretty complex journey but surprisingly economic and Cukor and company make us wait until the final frame for what we know is coming.
Cukor gets the expected splendid performances from Grant and Hepburn but works wonders on his supporting cast as well. Lew Ayres is very amusing as the drunken Seton heir (Ayres' resemblance to a young Jack Lemmon in this movie is spooky), as are Edward Everett Horton and Jean Dixon as Johnny's married buddies whose last name keeps getting mispronounced and Doris Nolan brings an effective level of bitchiness to the snooty Julia, but they and Cukor never forget who the stars are and the work of Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant alone makes this ticket worth the price of admission.