Before they made The Philadelphia Story, director George Cukor and stars Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn teamed up for this decidedly less flattering look at the life of the upper class. Grant is Johnny Case, a rising, if free-spirited, businessman who is about to marry the daughter of a financing tycoon. Then he meets his fiance’s sister, Linda (Hepburn), the black sheep of the family, and realizes her irreverent attitude towards business and money is actually a closer match to his. While Philadelphia Story goes out of its way to insist that the rich have feelings too, Holiday is clear about the perniciousness of wealth: Johnny’s fiance (Doris Nolan) is a pampered socialite; her father (Henry Kolker) a heartless meddler; her brother (Lew Ayres) a bullied drunk. That leaves Linda and Johnny, who are less concerned with mergers – social and otherwise – than somersaults and song. The two stars are a delight together, of course. Hepburn does a lot of braying, yes, but it’s against all the right things. And it doesn’t hurt that Grant is there cheering her on. Also with Edward Everett Horton and Jean Dixon as Johnny’s witty middle-class friends.
