Posted on 06/24/2008 5:03:49 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
HOLIDAY, an adaptation of the play by Philip Barry; screen play by Donald Ogden Stewart and Sidney Buchman; directed by George Cukor; produced by Everett Riskin for Columbia Pictures. At the Radio City Music Hall.
Linda Seton………….Katherine Hepburn
Johnny Case…………Cary Grant
Julie Seton…………...Doris Nolan
Ned Seton……………Lew Ayres
Nick Potter…………..Edward Everett Horton
Edward Seton………..Henry Kolker
Laura Cram………….Binnie Barnes
Susan Potter…………Jean Dixon
Seton Cram………….Henry Daniels
Ten years after its Broadway presentation, eight years since Ann Harding was doing it for the screen, Philip Barry’s “Holiday” came to life again yesterday at the Music Hall in a smooth, workmanlike and thoroughly entertaining film. A lot of water has spilled over the dam, and a lot more damns have been spilled, since 1928 when Mr. Barry first inspected the moneyed Setons of Wall Street and Fifth Avenue, but they remain an interesting tribe.
Donald Ogden Stewart and Sidney Buchman, who adapted the play for Columbia and Katherine Hepburn, have brought them up to date a little. Tycoon Edward Seton is smelling revolution in the air these days; idealist Johnny Case, who wanted his holiday and so upset the Seton ménage, talks a bit (and a bit generally) about new ideas being abroad in the land, ideas which he wants to think over before resigning himself to a place in the Seton bank. Their modernization work has not gone too far, though: they still would have you believe that a place in the Seton bank is economically desirable.
So it remains Mr. Barry’s play, slight perhaps as to story, but cleverly written and providing in its framework for a number of amiable characterizations. Columbia, like Nelson, has expected every man to do his duty and it has found more than a dutiful cast. Miss Hepburn – the “New Hepburn,” according to the publicity copy – is very mannish in this one, deep-voiced, grammatically precise (she even remembers, in moments of stress, to say “this must be he”) and is only a wee bit inclined to hysteria. We can’t get over our feeling that her intensity is apt to grate on a man, even on so sanguinary a temperament as Cary Grant’s Johnny Case.
Mr. Grant’s Mr. Case is really the best role, although it is quite possible that neither Mr. Barry nor Columbia saw it that way. He – in case you have forgotten the story – is the terribly impractical young man who meets a Julia Seton at Lake Placid and only after the proposal discovers she is one of the Setons. Julia (who is nicely played, within the contradictions of the part, by Doris Nolan) seems to be a good sort at first, but it becomes apparent later that she is actually a fuddy-duddy and that Sister Linda (Miss Hepburn) is the girl for Johnny. Anyway, Mr. Grant steals the show. He turns cartwheels for one thing, immaculately wears a patient, pained expression, and he tells the Setons where to go. It gives one a vicarious contempt for Fifth Avenue millions. Very comforting while it lasts.
All told, what with George Cukor’s sense of directorial balance, good dialogue, the amusing supporting presence of Edward Everett Horton, Jean Dixon, Lew Ayeres, Binnie Barnes and others, “Holiday” comes satisfactorily close to being one. In fact, it is, and a pleasant one too.
Though the movie is taken from a 10-year-old Broadway play, it is fairly typical for the type of movie they were watching in 1938. The rise of totalitarianism with its wars and rumors of war seems not to have entered the popular public discussion yet. When a movie has a serious theme or a serious aspect to its setting (see "My Man Godfrey"-1936) it is likely to be the depression.
This one wasn't too bad.
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