Holiday (1938) ****

Two years before making his more famous and successful of the two screwball comedies, The Philadelphia Story (1940) (my review here), George Cukor directed Holiday (1938), also starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant (the third of four pairings of the two cinema greats). Of those two films, Holiday is a more somber affair—trading over-the-top laughs for dry humor. While it's hard to relate to rich people being rich, that's kind of par for the course in 1930s and 40s comedies, and there is still a compelling story here about the patriarchy and the very distinct ways it affects each of one affluent man's three children. Hepburn is on fire and Grant, while not quite as memorable as in, say, Bringing Up Baby (1938) or His Girl Friday (1940) (my review here), is also very good (and uses his physical comedy skills to great effect). Holiday provides a satisfying blend of humor and drama in a story about two people from very different backgrounds, both searching for love and independence.