Movie 2 - "Holiday"

This 1938 George Cukor movie is hands down my favorite Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant film...well ok, maybe tied with The Philadelphia Story.  But it is fantastic!  This is hilarious, honest, excellent writing, and the way the two leads work together is phenomenal.  This movie also has some great supporting cast with Edward Everett Horton and Jean Dixon playing Grant's old friends the Potters and Lew Ayres playing Hepburn's alcoholic, but loveable brother Ned.  In addition, you see a wave of difference between the believers in upper crust society making as much money as possible and those few who believe in enjoying life and working for an immediate goal, not just for more money. 

This movie is a love story, although you feel like they got the players wrong very quickly.  Grant plays Johnny, a self-made man working toward retirement at thirty.  Hepburn plays a "black sheep" in a well-to-do family.  Strangely, Grant's love interest is not Hepburn, but Hepburn's younger sister Julia, played by Doris Nolan.  Johnny and Julia meet while on vacation and fall in love quickly.  Once back in New York, real life starts to weigh in on their fast romance and they find they may not agree on the big issues after all.  Julia begins the movie seeming sweet and loveable, but her true nature starts to show after Johnny and Julia's father do not see eye to eye on their future.  Her interests do not lie with Johnny's happiness, but his success in the business world.  Through all this, Hepburn's Linda and Johnny get along beautifully and the script flows effortlessly between them from the beginning.  Their fast-paced conversation is witty and fun!  They are so similar that it is rather easy to see with whom Johnny's heart should belong.  When Johnny finally gives up on Julia and Julia admits to being relieved to be rid of him, Linda realizes he is her hope for freedom and happiness and she is Johnny's companion wherever he may end up. 

This movie is great for a day like today...Monday, 19 seven/eight year olds who think summer has come early, grades are due, and Day 5 of no soda for me.  Yippeee!  Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn do nothing but brighten my day.  Nighty night!