December 2006

Holiday

• Starring: Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Doris Nolan, Lew Ayres, Edward Everett Horton, Henry Kolker, Binny Barnes, Jean Dixon
• Directed by: George Cukor
• Theatrical release: 1938
• DVD release: 2006
• Video: Fullscreen
• Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
• Released by: Sony Pictures

Director George Cukor is something of an enigma. During the 1930s and ’40s he made movies that were equally appreciated by sophisticates and the masses, and equally loved by both men and women. His name belongs in the same pantheon as John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, Frank Capra, and Billy Wilder. Yet somehow, today, Cukor’s name comes up only for aficionados of Turner Classic Movies.

The actors of Cukor’s day knew the truth: His name on the marquee meant a quality production. Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, James Stewart -- I could go on to list dozens of Hollywood’s finest -- all stood in line to work with Cukor. His secret was that he thought the director should be invisible. Viewers should never notice any directorial tricks. Tell the story and let the actors act. Think of him as the anti-Brian De Palma.

The line formed to work with Cukor for another reason: his legendary parties. Consider the photo from one of those parties: in the frame are directors Wilder, Hitchcock, George Stevens, Luis Buñuel, Rouben Mamoulin, Robert Mulligan, William Wyler, Robert Wise, Jean-Claude Carriere, Serge Silverman, and Cukor -- the one with his mouth open, hamming for the camera. Most hosts could only dream of such an A-list.

Cukor was also popular for his discretion. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn used Cukor’s pool house for their trysts, and the fact that he was openly but discreetly gay never created a problem. No one treated him as a second-class citizen; instead, they recognized his amazing talents.

However, despite making some excellent action films, such as Winged Victory and Bhowani Junction, Cukor was doomed to be pigeonholed as a director of "women’s films." He hated the trap, but made the best of it by transforming a bevy of actresses from decent screen presences into stars. A list of his 50+ films demonstrates his talents. Little Women, Dinner at Eight, Gaslight, The Philadelphia Story, A Double Life, Born Yesterday, A Star Is Born, Pat and Mike, and My Fair Lady are just a few of his best.

Holiday is one of those best, despite the fact that it is a complicated piece of work and did not do well at the box office. Perhaps that’s why Sony Pictures has waited so long to release it on DVD. Holiday was released earlier this year as part of The Cary Grant Box Set, and will finally be released solo early this month.

The story revolves around Johnny Case (Cary Grant), whose whirlwind relationship with Julia Seton (Doris Nolan) has produced a proposal of marriage. Johnny comes to meet Julia’s family on Christmas day, and is stunned to find out that her father is as rich as Croesus. Johnny himself has had some financial success, and he wants to go on permanent holiday until he uses up the money, with the goal of discovering himself and finding out why he really works. Julia and her father (brilliantly played by Henry Kolker) want Johnny to join the company business and be a good little capitalist. Complicating matters is Julia’s sister, Linda (Katherine Hepburn), herself a black sheep and somewhat inclined to go along with the holiday concept, even to the point of feeling a little romance for Johnny. Add a hilarious couple of intellectuals (Edward Everett Horton and Jean Dixon) who constantly egg Johnny on and you have the potential for a wonderful farce.

But Cukor provides so much more than a bedroom romp. The conversations between Johnny and the Seton family, blithe and droll as they may be, are at heart discourses on existentialism and capitalism. Imagine a debate between Søren Kierkegaard and Andrew Carnegie as scripted by Woody Allen. Thankfully, the film never descends to the pedantic. Instead, Cukor’s light touch and unfailing direction make the philosophizing go down as easily as a cool drink of Champagne.

Cukor elicited splendid performances from his cast. Watch Cary Grant, all physicality, loose-limbed and passionate, practicing his circus moves and playing against his usual casting as a debonair sophisticate. Katherine Hepburn also gets to play against type -- instead of the usual tough girl whose heart is melted by a stronger man, here she’s smart, independent, opinionated, and romantic right from the start. The guilty pleasure of the film is watching Horton and Dixon subtly chew the scenery and steal every scene.

But ultimately, Holiday is all about Grant and Hepburn, who ended up being paired in four different films. What sets Holiday apart from their other films (Sylvia Scarlett, Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story) is the bright, breezy, optimistic feeling you leave with. Peter Bogdanovich, a variable director but one of the great writers about film, said this about Holiday in his book Who the Devil Made It: "One of the ineffably happy moments of my life was the afternoon of the wintry day I saw [Holiday]. . . . After the film, as I walked home on the dark Manhattan streets, I was feeling buoyant, happier than I could ever remember, positive about the vast possibilities of life."

Buoyant, happy, positive -- all great feelings, but in lesser hands, Holiday could have been so much less. It could have instead embodied a Sartre-esque existentialism, filled with doctrinaire dialogue and focused on two sisters’ fight over one man. Instead, the film leaves you with existentialism’s more positive aspect, the Rollo May feel-good side, where the world is open and free, and your only responsibilities are those of your own choosing.

Sony Pictures has beautifully restored Holiday but has dropped the ball in the extras department. I would have loved to have heard a commentary track from Bogdanovich and Gavin Lambert, the author of On Cukor. Or how about a copy of Richard Schickel’s 1973 TV interview with Cukor, from the series The Men Who Made the Movies? Or the PBS production The American Masters: On Cukor? Or the documentary Katherine Hepburn: All About Me? Or the two-part interview with Hepburn from The Dick Cavett Show? Instead, what we get are a short featurette, "Cary at Columbia," and a few stills from deleted scenes.

But Holiday is the important treasure; the only question is how to buy it. The single disc lists for $25 but is easily found for about $18. Instead, I recommend buying The Cary Grant Box Set ($50 list; I got it for $28). It includes Holiday and four other Cary Grant classics: Only Angels Have Wings, The Talk of the Town, His Girl Friday, and The Awful Truth -- four of the finest comedies Hollywood ever produced, and a barnstormer of an action film.

Either way, you’ll enjoy Holiday for its philosophy, its sweet nature, and for the opportunity to inhabit a world in which love and independence triumph over duty and restraint.

...Wes Marshall
wesm@hometheatersound.com

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