Holiday [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Holiday [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: George Cukor Cast: Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
, Cary Grant
Cary Grant
, Doris Nolan
Doris Nolan
, Lew Ayres
Lew Ayres
George Cukor
Holiday [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Holiday [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: George Cukor Cast: Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
, Cary Grant
Cary Grant
, Doris Nolan
Doris Nolan
, Lew Ayres
Lew Ayres
George Cukor

Blu-ray (Black & White)

$39.99 
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Overview

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.

Product Details

Release Date: 01/07/2020
UPC: 0715515239813
Original Release: 1938
Rating: NR
Source: Criterion Collection
Region Code: A
Presentation: [B&W]
Language: English
Time: 1:35:00
Sales rank: 9,621

Special Features

New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack; Holiday (1930), a previous adaptation of Philip Barry's play, Directed by Edward H. Griffith; New conversation between filmmaker and distributor Michael Schlesinger and film critic Michael Sragow; Audio excerpts from an American Film Institute oral history with Director George Cukor, recorded in 1970 and '71; Costume gallery; Plus: An essay by critic Dana Stevens

Cast & Crew

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

Technical Credits
George Cukor Director
Donald Ogden Stewart Screenwriter
Sidney Buchman Screenwriter
Philip Barry Playwright
Everett Riskin Producer
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