Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Holiday (1938)
 
Holiday stars Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn under the direction of George Cukor two years before they would make their acclaimed Philadelphia Story.  Holiday has a similar comic presentation but I like it even better than the later story.

The story of Holiday takes place almost entirely in a single set as it is a stage adaptation.  The set is the opulent museum-sized mansion of the Seton family; one of New York’s richest that Cary Grant is marrying into. 

The main idea is that Cary Grant is a fish out of water - a boy from the poor side of the tracks among the ultra rich and we see their foibles which is appealing as most of us naturally see things more from Grant’s perspective than the society side. 

So this has elements of screwball comedy with Cary Grant up to his patented comic hijinks that rival any of the slapstick comics you could name.   But the movie also has a tender side and shows how the various characters come to adapt to the changing circumstances. Or not.  As it boils down, it's a chick flick.

Grant, a small town fellow, meets the one sister at the ski lodge and comes down for a visit to the family on Park Avenue where he sees how the other half lives - the society half.  At the house he interacts with the various characters and finds that nonconformist big sister Katharine Hepburn is much more to his taste than the lovelier but by comparison duller  Doris Nolan, who seems to be wrapped up in status seeking like the rest of her family while Grant is more about enjoying himself and ditto for Katharine Hepburn.

Holiday and Philadelphia Story had a lot of overlap starting with director George Cukor and story from a play by Philip Barry; the stars Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, and script adaptation by Sidney Buchman and Donald Ogden Stewart.

This play ran on Broadway and the movie is fairly stage bound except for a few outdoor scenes inserted.  Cary Grant in one of his liveliest performances turns cartwheels a few times. If you didn’t appreciate Grant as a comic before this you will after you see it. He is at his best in this film and it is watchable for all viewers even though it is a chick flick.  Binie Barnes, Henry Daniell, Lew Ayres, and Edward Everett Horton play supporting characters and are excellent.

The DVD is on Warner Bros and is in black and white, full frame, and a running time of 95 minutes.  There is a featurette, deleted scene still photos, and film trailers as extras on Holiday. Part of the Cary Grant Box Set.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV