Holiday

"Holiday" is one of those films that should be talked about more. Why isn't it talked about more? It's a serious comedy made in the 1930s golden age, it was directed by George Cukor, one of the most prominent filmmakers of that era. The stars at its center are Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, they made four movies together, this one was squeezed in between their more revered comedies "Bringing up Baby" and "The Philadelphia Story". Great as those comedies are, I can't seem to shake the feeling "Holiday" gives me everytime I watch it.

"Holiday" starts off like most comedies of that era do, with an engagement. Johnny Case (Grant) is a young idealistic man who is love with a rich socialite Julia (Doris Nolan). Johnny fell head over heals for Julia right away, so quickly in fact he had no idea she was rich. Julia introduces him to the rest of her family which includes her sister Linda (Hepburn) and her brother Ned (Lew Ayers). Right away Johnny is being groomed to meet Julia's father (Henry Kolker), a hard nosed businessman who thinks making a lot of money is what makes a person successful. This is contrary to what Johnny believes, he's still young, he wants to find out more about the world. He has this silly idea about taking a holiday once he has enough money saved up to figure out what he wants to do, and what he wants to be.

The only person who seems to understand where he's coming from is Linda who is the self-proclaimed black sheep of the family. Linda is the only one who seems to be able to stand up against their father and give him a piece of her mind. She spends most of her time in the family playroom which is a place of escape for her. To her Johnny represents a breath of fresh air in the family, and although she loves her sister very much, she can't help but fall in love with him. It's obvious at the very beginning Johnny is in love with the wrong woman, and by the end of the film, he'll end up with the right one, but "Holiday" isn't as frivolous as all that, this is in fact a comedy with a certain philosophy on how one should live their life.

Johnny Case isn't just the romantic lead of the film, he's also the hero, in a way he's pretty much a representation of what young people usually come to feel, what is their purpose in the world? Is life all about making a lot of money? These are at least questions that plague me. I remember I saw "Holiday" for the first time when I was very young and still fairly new to classic films. I didn't think too much of it at the time, yet as I grow older I see it as a very wise film and unconventional.

It's a rather melancholy film with scarred characters, the most of which is Ned the brother. Ned is portrayed as a drunk, who was a promising musician, but was forced to focus on business by his father. Ned had to live up to certain expectations, he was the only son and therefore had to carry on his family name. He basically became someone he hated, so he is usually seen drowning in alcohol. The character as played by Ayers gives the film a certain reality largely unseen in films of that time.

Linda is also scarred, she doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of her family, she dotes on Ned and loves her sister, but she's mostly a loner, and isolates herself. It's hard to say what kind of a person she was before Johnny came into her life, with him she seems to have found a soulmate, someone she could feel free to discuss things.

There is indeed much discussion in "Holiday", different ideals are debated, there are emotional battles between characters, the tone shifts from high comedy to sombre drama, it never goes for an easy answer. Much of the dialogue probably has to do with the fact it was adapted from a play. It was written with great literal style by Donald Odgen Stewart who also wrote "The Philadelphia Story" and Sydney Buchman. The dialogue is one of the great things about this film, the people are always speaking about something, they are intelligent sophisticated human beings with a certain point of view. It's a film full of wit, but it never sacrifices human emotion for it.

Johnny is the man you root for, yet there is empathy towards the father who can mostly be seen as a miser, yet he is a stubborn old man set in his ways, and even Julia who has a sweet exterior but may be shallow underneath. The characters do remain very human and are given a bit of grace at some point or another, and of course it must be capped off with a happy ending like they do in those days, although my heart goes out to poor Ned who doesn't seem to even muster up enough courage to stand up to his father making the ending somewhat bittersweet.

Here it was back in 1938, with the world still in the throws of "The Great Depression" and a Hollywood film comes along with ideas. It doesn't happen too often these days, and when it does it's time to cheer. But "Holiday" speaks for our society today just as it did back then. It doesn't matter if you saw the film when it was released or you saw in on the eve of 2012, it's nice to see a film that has something to say on where you should put your priorities.

The Bandwagon

What I love most about "The Bandwagon" is just how light it is, not just on its feet, but also in tone. This is no frivolous musical, but it is a musical comedy that doesn't take itself too seriously, nor does it want to be. It is one of the great MGM musicals from the same era of MGM musicals which produced, "Singin in the Rain", and "An American in Paris". It's about the highs and lows of putting on a show, the tragedy of when one doesn't work out, and the joyousness when one does. But mostly "The Bandwagon" is about entertainment, giving the people what they want, and it doesn't skimp on riches, it's bright, witty, and dreamlike, it's there for us to enjoy time and time again.

"The Bandwagon" is about Tony Hunter (Fred Astaire), a washed up movie star who heads to New York to star in a Broadway Musical written by two friends of his, Lester and Lily Martin (Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray). They've got a part tailor made for Tony, it's light and funny, just what he's known for. But before you could say Broadway smash, the Martins entrust their show to an ego driven director named Jeffery Cordoba. Jeffery currently has three shows running on Broadway simultaneously, while he himself is performing "Oedipus Rex". Very quickly Jeffery changes the Martin's show show it parallels the story of "Faust". It no longer is light and funny, but dark and tragic. However everyone seems to go against their better judgment because Jeffery just happens to be a genius.

There is also an acting coup, when Jeffery also hooks up famed ballerina Gabrielle Gerard (Cyd Charisse) to star opposite Tony. At first Tony is terrified of this, since he is a hoofer, while Gabrielle is much more refined. It becomes obvious early on that the show is not working, Jeff's demands become more and more outrageous, soon it is preview night, and no one is prepared, but of course this is a crowd pleasing musical, all they need is to go back to the drawing board and all will turn out well.

When you look at all the plot points, you could say that "The Bandwagon" is sort of the companion piece to "Singin in the Rain". That film took aim at the movie business, while this one is about Broadway. The dreadful show within a show in "The Bandwagon" mirrors the similar situation in "Singin in the Rain" which had a movie that needed fixing. This probably isn't just coincidence, since both films were produced by Arthur Freed, the mastermind behind the best MGM musicals. Freed basically had the same idea for both films, he wanted to use existing musical numbers that MGM had the rights over and make a musical surrounding them. Both films had the same screenwriters who Betty Comden and Adolph Green, they had the difficult job of taking all these songs and somehow making a story around it. Luckily they were witty writers and had a great flare for comedy. The characters played by Levant and Fabray were loosly based on them, however they weren't married in real life.

The other creative force behind "The Bandwagon" was Vincent Minnelli, probably the best known director of musicals. However Minnelli never just stuck to one genre, he could do comedy, and drama, but there was something special when he made musicals. He made magical worlds within his musicals, and "The Bandwagon" lets him play around a bit even making fun of his own pretensions in a musical. The film is warmly lit for most of the time, and Minnelli makes every number memorable.

Let's talk about these musical numbers, there's too many to count, some don't seem to last long enough, you beg for more. The big one for sure is "Dancing in the Dark" featuring Astaire and Charisse. It's a purely romantic sequence with the two characters seeing if they could actually dance together. It begins quite casual almost as if the two dancers are making it up as they go, then it flows into a gorgeous number with a beautiful symphony backing them up.

There is also the triplets number featuring Astaire, Fabray, and Buchanan as toddlers. They do the entire number with fake feet strapped to their knees. According to Fabray in the making of documentary, they each had to learn how to dance on their knees, there was no trick photography included. The final riot comes with the final ballet call "Girl Hunt", which is a parody of Mickie Spillane pulp novels. The mystery doesn't make a lick of sense, but who cares with all the spirited dancing going around.

Each star makes their own mark on the film, but when you think of "The Bandwagon", it's hard not to think of Astaire. This was the beginning of the next great era in Astaire's career. He was semi-retired by the time he made "The Bandwagon", Gene Kelly seemed to have come in as the next generation. You could make comparisons between Tony Hunter and Astaire's own career, however I don't think he was ever that far forgotten. If anything, "The Bandwagon" shows off some of Astaire's best filmed moments, the aforementioned "Dancing in the Dark", as well as early in the film "A Shine on your Shoes". I love watching Astaire dance, it's one of the greatest pleasures the movies can afford. Astaire was known as a perfectionist along with Kelly, from what I've heard and read about him, he was quiet and shy and very insecure about his dancing. Yet when you see him on screen, it all goes away, and you are left with a man who looks to be enjoying himself.

Astaire would go on to call "The Bandwagon" his favorite film, and it probably is his best, unlike the films he did with Ginger, he's more of a solo act here, more well-rounded and perhaps even more comfortable within his own skin. He's free of any expectations because he's been able to grow as an artist and he's able to just have fun and go with it.

I look at "The Bandwagon" today as one of the great entertainments, something that lasts because the people who made it were the best in their field. That was the norm in Hollywood back then, when they could get creative forces behind one project and made magic. Their talent was taking something that looked so difficult and make it seem so effortless.