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.