Holiday (1938)

Intro.
I will be the first to confess, I initially wanted to watch this movie because I thought it would be very similar to Cary Grant's other screwball comedies, like Bringing Up Baby.  At first I was puzzled and then pleasantly surprised to find that it was more of a comedic drama. It is more light in spirit than the later film, The Philadelphia Story (which also paired Hepburn and Grant) and the humor a bit less cutting. In any respect, I felt it was along the lines of a happier sort of Eugene O'Neill play.

Overview
The plot seems a lot like many romatic comedies - boy meets girl, they fall in love, she doesn't tell him she's rich, her family objects, complications ensue. In this case it's Grant as the clueless, independent free spirit who has fallen for Julia Seton (played by Doris Nolan), heiress to one of the largest fortunes - and snobbiest families - in all of New York. Grant's character, Johnny Case, comes home elated that he has found "the one" - a girl who wants what he wants: the same house, the same life, the same dreams. He agrees to meet her at Christmas to tell her father, but upon arriving at her mansion and learning of her fortunes, he immediately feels out of place. As Julia's father, sister and brother soon learn, Johnny Case is a working boy who has worked his way to a promising job at a financial house. His future looks bright and his charm soon wins them over. On New Year's Eve the engagement is to be announced, but there is a hitch - Johnny reveals that he wants to take the money he's earned and live a rich, full life - take a holiday and learn who he is and what he wants out of life. You can almost hear the air sizzle out of he and Julia's relationship. His audacity to consider such a reckless life instead of a secure one working at her father's bank is more than Julia can take. While this is happening, Johnny finds that he has more in common with Julia's sister Linda, the black sheep of the family who shares Johnny's sense of fun and adventure. I won't give away the ending, but it does have a few twists and turns to try and keep you guessing. One thing you can't miss though, is the undeniable chemistry between Cary and Katharine. It turns what would normally be an average film into a superb one.

Highlights
With such strong personalities in the two lead roles, it is hard to believe that the supporting cast could shine, but shine they do. Most notably is Lew Ayers, who plays Julia's brother Ned. Ned has landed in the role of the reluctantly dutiful son who must forgo his own dreams to learn the family business.  To compensate, he drinks to excess each night.  While humorous, there is a deep pathos to his alcohol-induced talks with his sister Linda, and he soon becomes a scene-stealer.  Neither he nor Linda accept the cold, social-climbing life they have, and find relief in their mother's old playroom - the only room of the house decorated in a cozy, homey way.  There is a fireplace and flowery sofas instead of marble and pillars.  While Julia and her father find this way of life childish, there is a sense of joy and hope that doesn't exist in the rest of the house.  It creates an interesting dynamic for the film - where different scenes take place says as much about what's happening as the dialogue does.

Also worthy of note are Johnny's friends Nick and Susan Potter (Edward Everett Horton and Jean Dixon), who come to the engagement party, but feel completely out of place.  They even tease Johnny that they can't recognize him in his tux and slicked back hair.  They too take refuge with Linda in the playroom and bring a sense of life back into the house.

Finally, Cary Grant's performance should be mentioned.  I love watching him when he's alone in the mansion at the film's opening - he's curious and uneasy and trying to entertain himself.  He even gets seperated from the butler and hollers that he's lost.  It's very similar in appearance to Jimmy Stewart's character in The Philadelphia Story.  On top of that, Cary brings his real-life acrobatics into the picture, doing tumbles and flips throughout, which not only makes him more endearing and child-like, but also highlights his refusal to conform.

My personal favorite highlight is that Johnny Case is supposed to be a Baltimore boy, born and bred.  I've lived in and around Baltimore my whole life, and no one born and bred here has an English accent like Grant's.  However, I do have to give him credit, unlike Julia's father, he actually pronounces the name of the town with the local drawl instead of emphasizing the 'i'.  It's not "Ball-TEE-More", it's "Balw-mer" or "Bal-da-more", hon.

Review & Recommendation
All in all, I highly recommend this movie.  You may laugh at Cary Grant doing somersaults and cartwheels, but the film has a serious, deeply moving heart to it.  It is a picture about childhood dreams - those we sacrifice and those we need to fight for.  It is a grim picture of our economic culture as well, and reminds us that there is much more to life than money.

If you'd like to read more, check it out at IMdB.  There's a great write-up about the film by a reviewer with the screenname 'Glenn Miller'.  His piece is far more eloquent than I am and it's definitely worth reading.  Also, just because it's Baltimore, I still think the two best Baltimore accents I've heard in films by non-Baltimore natives are John Travolta in Hairspray and Robert Mitchum in Cape Fear.  Although Mitchum does have a general Southern drawl in that film which could be from anywhere, when he says Baltimore, you believe him!