Character dramas are often at their best when exploring inside worlds and not running free outside.

Ahead of its time, this romantic comedy suggests that happiness may be found in freedom, away from the pernicious wealth of high society - but it is also a bit naive, reducing the complexity of its themes to matters of right and wrong while ending with an easy, predictable resolution.

Cary Grant plays an up and coming self-made man who falls in love with a girl who unbeknownst to him, is a debutante and member of one of the wealthiest families in the country. Combining romance, sparkling dialogue and social commentary, it comes as no surprise that Holiday was created by much of the same team who brought us Philadelphia Story two years later. With the same director, writer and the star power of Hepburn and Grant, there's much common ground between the two films but although it's not quite in the same league as the later film there's still much to admire about it. Hepburn has never been more vivacious as the rebellious would-be sister in law of a charming and carefree Grant who finds in her a kindred spirit which causes complications in this stuffy social environment. They are aided by a fine supporting cast including Lew Ayres who provides comic relief as her soused but perceptive brother and Binny Barnes and Henry Daniell as the awful socialites who represent the kind of people Grant is seemingly being strong armed into marry into. Breezy, charming and full of enjoyable dialogue and likeable characters, Holiday may not be as well known as some of the other comedies of manners of the golden age but is certainly worth looking up if it's a genre you enjoy.