Product: Holiday (1938)
Rating: 4.0
Too, too marvellous!
The third pairing of Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant brings them together under Hepburn's dear friend and best director, George Cukor, working off a brilliant screenplay written by Donald Ogden Stewart (based on the Philip Barry play of the same title). Grant plays the free-spirited Johnny Case, who thinks he's in love with the wrong rich girl throughout the movie. Julia Seton is worlds away from her determined and fiercely independent sister Linda (Hepburn), and it doesn't take a great stretch of the imagination to realise which sister Johnny is right for, and who he will end up with.But the journey to the ending is a wonderfully fun one to take--from the witty dialogue, the charming co-stars (especially Lew Ayres as Neddy Seton) and the chemistry between Hepburn and Grant... through to those delightful scenes in the playroom, where both Hepburn and Grant show off their natural athletic prowess and appear to be having the times of their lives. Cukor's light directorial touch, again (as always) favouring the actors, is a delight to behold.Grant is definitely in his element here--he's charming, he's vibrant, and his character almost leaps off the screen, beckoning you to join him in the story. Hepburn, again playing a role that seems tailor-made to her particular beauty and talents, proves that there's simply no one better at playing the unconventional female character than... well, Katharine Hepburn. (Incidentally, she understudied the role of Linda for an earlier stage version of Holiday--she also chose a scene from the play as her first screen test for Hollywood. The screen test was shown at a wrap party celebrating the end of filming, and, in her words, "the company laughed themselves sick". Thank goodness she's improved since then!)Although Hepburn and Grant sizzled more in The Philadelphia Story, and charmed their way even faster into the audiences' hearts in Bringing Up Baby, this little gem of a romantic dramedy (for it is hardly a screwball comedy) is a definite must-watch. Why not take a holiday from your own life and troubles, and settle back with Johnny and Linda? You might learn something about the value of life and living along the way. If not, you can still admire two top-notch performances from two of the best actors ever to grace the silver screen.