Holiday (1938)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

George Cukor

Writers:

Philip Barry (play)
Donald Ogden Stewart (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

15 June 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

So daring -- so tender -- so human -- so true -- that everyone in love will want to see it!

Plot:

Free-thinking Johnny Case finds himself betrothed to a millionaire's daughter. When her family, with...

Plot Keywords:

Holiday | Mansion | Snob | Free Spirit | Marly Horse

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Katharine Hepburn	...	Linda Seton
Cary Grant	...	John 'Johnny' Case
Doris Nolan	...	Julia Seton
Lew Ayres	...	Edward 'Ned' Seton
Edward Everett Horton	...	Professor Nick Potter
Henry Kolker	...	Edward Seton
Binnie Barnes	...	Mrs. Laura 'The Witch' Cram
Jean Dixon	...	Mrs. Susan Elliott Potter
Henry Daniell	...	Seton 'Dopey' Cram
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Harry Allen	...	Scotchman (scenes deleted)
Frank Benson	...	Scotchman (scenes deleted)
Aileen Carlyle	...	Farm Girl (scenes deleted)
Edward Cooper	...	Scotchman (scenes deleted)
Robert Hale	...	Scotchman (scenes deleted)
Margaret McWade	...	Farmer's Wife (scenes deleted)
Frank Shannon	...	Farmer (scenes deleted)
Charles Trowbridge	...	Banker (scenes deleted)

Also Known As:

Free to Live (UK)
Unconventional Linda (UK) (reissue title)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

South Korea:12 | Australia:G | Finland:S | Germany:o.Al. | Portugal:M/6 | UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #4269)

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The screenwriter of this version of "Holiday", Donald Ogden Stewart, played the role of Nick Potter in the original Broadway production of the play.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: At the start of the movie, Johnny goes to the Seton mansion and meets the family. Linda wants to plan the party announcing the engagement and tells him, "This Saturday is New Year's Eve." We know this scene takes place on a Sunday, because the family has just returned from church. That would make the date Christmas day. There are Christmas decorations on the walls and door of the church, and the church congregation sings the Christmas hymn "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," which is used exclusively during the Christmas season, often only as the closing hymn on Christmas Day.

Quotes:

Linda Seton: You've got no faith in Johnny, have you, Julia? His little dream may fall flat, you think. Well, so it may, what if it should? There'll be another. Oh, I've got all the faith in the world in Johnny. Whatever he does is all right with me. If he wants to dream for a while, he can dream for a while, and if he wants to come back and sell peanuts, oh, how I'll believe in those peanuts!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Two Can Play That Game (2001)

Soundtrack:

Adeste Fidelis (O Come All Ye Faithful)

So Right for Phillip Barry Roles

Katharine Hepburn brought three Phillip Barry characters to life on the screen in Without Love, The Philadelphia Story and first and foremost Holiday. Her upper class upbringing in Connecticut made her the perfect actress for his plays about the fabulously wealthy which Depression Era USA just ate up.

Holiday of necessity had to be updated. It debuted on Broadway in the boom year of 1928 so some lines to acknowledge the Great Depression had to be included. When Henry Daniell says his obscene market profits would be better with the right kind of government, he's taking dead aim at the New Deal, in particularly the newly formed Security Exchange Commission.

One guy who wants out of the money making rat race is Cary Grant as Johnny Case. He's a poor kid who's worked his way up, probably the same as the founder of the Seton fortune did back in the day. But he's decided there's more to life than just making money. Like Grandpa Vanderhof in You Can't Take It With You or Charles Foster Kane who admittedly inherited his. Henry Kolker as Edward Seton and George Coulouris as Thatcher think exactly alike.

Case has a vision of his life and wants to share it with his fiancé Doris Nolan. But he's picked the wrong sister, it's younger sister Katharine Hepburn of the Seton girls who's his soul mate.

As one who's now retired and admittedly not living in the style of the Setons I can empathize with Cary Grant. As long as you have enough to live on and you have interests to occupy yourself and you don't have a family to support, why work? In fact make room for the next generation who might have a family to support.

In that sense Holiday has a message that applies more for today than it did in 1938. Make what you can, take care of those who depend on you, but get out and enjoy life.

And enjoy Holiday.