Holiday

1938

Holiday

Critics Consensus

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100%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 24

89%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 6,637

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Movie Info

Both film versions of Phillip Barry's stage comedy +Holiday have their merits, but the 1938 version has the added advantage of supercharged star power. Katharine Hepburn and Doris Nolan play Linda and Julia Seton, two daughters of a very well-to-do family. Linda feels a bit lost in the shuffle as sister Julia prepares to marry self-made financier Cary Grant. Hepburn has always rebelled against her privileged trappings, and finds a kindred spirit in the unorthodox, iconoclastic Grant. On the verge of compromising his down-to-earth values with his marriage to the wealth-obsessed Nolan, Grant chooses instead to plight his troth with soul-mate Hepburn, celebrating his "liberation" by doing several cartwheels. Donald Ogden Stewart is careful to bring the pre-Depression frivolities of the Barry play up-to-date, first by changing the character of Grant's best friend (played in both films by Edward Everett Horton) from a lazy socialite to a dedicated professor, and by including several lines indicating how out of touch the privileged classes are--and choose to remain--with 1930s realities. The only element in which the remake does not improve on the original is in the casting of Hepburn's alcoholic younger brother; charming though Lew Ayres is in the 1938 film, he is still outclassed by Monroe Owsley in Holiday (1930). Katharine Hepburn managed to temporarily defray her "box office poison" onus when Holiday proved to be a success; alas, her next film, Bringing Up Baby (which reteamed her with Grant), was a financial bust, compelling her to return to Broadway--where she made a spectacular comeback in another Philip Barry play, +The Philadelphia Story.
  • Rating:
    NR
  • Genre:
    Classics, Comedy, Drama, Romance
  • Directed By:
    George Cukor
  • Written By:
    Donald Ogden Stewart, Sidney Buchman
  • In Theaters:
     wide
  • On Disc/Streaming:
  • Runtime:
  • Studio:
    Sony Repertory

Cast

Katharine Hepburn
as Linda Seton
Cary Grant
as Johnny Case
Doris Nolan
as Julia Seton
Lew Ayres
as Ned Seton
Edward Everett Horton
as Nick Potter
Henry Kolker
as Edward Seton
Binnie Barnes
as Laura Cram
Jean Dixon
as Susan Potter
Henry Daniell
as Seton Cram
Harry Allen
Charles Trowbridge
as Banker
George Pauncefort
as Henry
Charles Richman
as Thayer
Mitchell Harris
as Jennings
Neil Fitzgerald
as Edgar
Edward Cooper
as Scotchman
Marion Ballou
as Grandmother
Howard Hickman
as Man in Church
Ruth Donnelly
Hilda Plowright
as Woman in Church
Margaret McWade
as Farmer's Wife
Frank Shannon
as Farmer
Aileen Carlyle
as Farm Girl
Matt McHugh
as Taxi Driver
Maurice Brierre
as Steward
Esther Peck
as Mrs. Jennings
Lillian West
as Mrs. Thayer
Luke Cosgrave
as Grandfather
Bess Flowers
as Dorothy's Party Guest
George Hickman
as Telegraph Boy
Maude Hume
as Maid
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Critic Reviews for Holiday

All Critics (24) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (24)

View All Critic Reviews (24)

Audience Reviews for Holiday

  • May 03, 2014
    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.
    Carlos M Super Reviewer
  • Nov 09, 2013
    A self-made man is engaged to an upper class lady, but will the impending marriage cause him to betray his dreams? Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn have never been more delightful. Their performances, in that quick and lively manner of old cinema, flies off their tongues. The plot and "message" of the film is that one should always "follow one's dreams," and while that's not a new story, it will never be old. Overall, this is a wonderful time at the movies, and Grant and Hepburn are in top form.
    Jim H Super Reviewer
  • Jan 23, 2011
    Wonderfully fun classic with the great pairing of Hepburn and Grant.
    nefnie l Super Reviewer
  • Sep 05, 2010
    I loved this movie, it's hilarious, a great cast, and an interesting if slightly predictable story. Still I love it, one of my favourite 30s movies.
    Aj V Super Reviewer
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