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 Cary Grant plays a guy who is "iconoclastic" and is engaged to a "snooty
heiress" but is really in love with her "down-to-earth sister," played by
Katharine Hepburn in this "stylish" comedy. This is
the second screen version and the studio president wanted Irene Dunne in
Hepburn's role, but director George Cukor demanded Hepburn. There's also a quote from Hepburn that she and Cary had a good time working
together on Holiday 1938, 87 minutes, VHS
Cary Grant plays yet another character who is all grown up, yet insists on
being called Johnny. His Johnny Chase is a hard working chap who is on the way
up in the business world, yet he still clings to the dreams that he has that
money can't possibly be everything. Obviously, some type of communist, or at
least one of the legions of dopes that put W in the White House by flushing
their vote on Nader, he runs into a girl while he's on his first "holiday" up
at Lake Placid where he was more likely than not rooting for the Rooskies to
beat our blue collar hockey team that won a nation's heart with their stirring
victory in the semi-final game against the evil empire (pause while I salute).
So, Johnny comes back to New York, and barges in on his old friends, the
Potters. She's a poet, and he's a college professor and like most poets and
college professors, they are very down to earth. Johnny tells them that he is
going to be married to this girl he just met, and they quickly wonder what type
of situation their good friend has gotten himself into. He wonders that as
well, when he rolls up on the address that his new girlfriend has given him.
It is a mansion just like the kind Richie Rich and his dog Dollar would have
lived in. Immediately Johnny suspects that his girlfriend most work there as a
secretary or something (it's so nice to know who you're marrying) and he
boogies over to the servant's entrance. He tells them he's come to call on
Julia and the help kind of give him that look like "all you rich folks is
crazy!" The butler informs Johnny that Miss Julia usually receives her callers
at the main entrance and not the servant's entrance. He leads Johnny out to
the main hall and he and the viewer are overwhelmed by the gigantic, palatial
nature of his bride-to-be's digs. Grant puts his comic skills on display as he
alternately looks befuddled by the gaudy display of opulence, gets lost, and
does a somersault off a chair and onto the floor.  We meet his fiancee, Julia and immediately have her pegged as the snooty
heiress she is described as on the back of the video box. She's very concerned
about how her father is going to take the news of her marriage and maps out an
elaborate plan for telling him. First she's going to tell him at church during
the service so that he can't raise a stink about it, then she's going to have
Johnny come back later that afternoon to meet her father and she's going to
bust out her secret weapon to cinch the deal: she's going to make Johnny
change his crappy bow tie (of course we later would learn that the tie he puts
on is one of the father's ties, in an embarrassing effort to kiss rich arse).
We can
see that she isn't right for Johnny: she's not very attractive, she's not very
sharp, and she's completely caught up in social appearances and what others
will think of her. I don't know exactly why Johnny feel for her in the first
place, maybe she was different when she wasn't surrounded by her rich
environment. Well, if she isn't right for Johnny, who is? Enter Linda, played
with a sharp tongue and big dreams herself, by Katharine Hepburn. She spies
Johnny in the hall with Julia and playfully jokes around with him about this
and that and you can tell that she's someone who has the wit and passion that
Johnny also possesses and you immediately begin rooting for Julia to be killed
in an accident involving the elevator in her mansion. We also meet Ned. Ned
is the alcoholic little brother who demands that the butler have a drink
waiting for him when he returns to church (now that's what I call planning your
Sunday out!). Ned is played by Lew Ayres. He may be familiar to you oldsters
out there because he starred in a ton of movies about some doctor named
Kildare. According to Lew's biography he was once married to Ginger Rogers,
dropped by his studio for being a conscientious objector in World War II, and
had a role in Battlestar Gallactica (snicker - is there really anyone out there that thinks that show was any
good?). He is basically playing a version of Linda's character, the only
difference is that his spirit has been broken and hers hasn't.  Johnny comes back that afternoon and ends up waiting for Julia. He meets with
Linda in the playroom, which is basically the only unpretentious room in the
entire house (Although I'm still trying to decide if having a trapeze in your
playroom is cool in a casual kind of way or the height of pretentiousness).
Now, it is here that Linda and Johnny start talking with one
another and you can see that they are kindred spirits. Johnny tells Linda his
plans for his life. He wants to make one good business deal (it's in the
hopper right now), get enough money to retire on so that he can try and figure
out what it is he's destined to do, and discover what life is all about. He
says
that he's been working since he was 10 years old (I hear you buddy, I worked on
the
railroad for a half day, signed up for detasseling , but never went and had a
paper route for eight weeks, so I know what the old salt mines are all about)
and he refuses to believe that life is simply about piling up money. Linda
lets him know that even though she is incredibly wealthy and probably can get
all the NFL games on her satellite dish, she is very unhappy. Her father is one
of those domineering rich guys whose parenting skills consist of mainly
grinding his children's hopes and dreams into powder beneath the heel of his
capitalist jack boot. She wanted to paint, but doesn't do that anymore. She
was going to do some other stuff, but daddy wouldn't let her do that either.
Ned
wanted to be a musician, but his father thought he was more suited to be a
drunk. Ned arrives and Linda gets him to play the piano, meanwhile Johnny and
Linda are about to do some whacky gymnastics. See, rich people are uptight
ogres that don't like music and would never be caught doing cartwheels in all
their cash. Johnny, Linda, and Ned are getting on famously, whining about how
awful it is to be filthy rich and then Julia comes and it's time to meet dear
old dad. Now, you may wonder what type of person Johnny is. Is he going to
play it smart and just agree with the old tycoon or is he going to do things
the hard way and tell the oldster that the robber-barron ideal that made this
country great is a no ideal at all? Since Johnny is pure at heart and
unpolluted by these rich people's ways, he immediately tells the old man that
he's got this dream. A dream, where he can make a bunch of money on one
business
deal and then retire from the racket to find himself. If it's one thing rich
people abhor, it's a non-rich person trying to find himself. That is just
code for "lazy welfare queen" (keep in mind I'm not saying anything about
Cary's offscreen personal life with that comment). The old man will have none
of this, but like all rich scumbags, believes that Johnny will "come around."
Part of the rich mentality that this movie presents is that money makes all
things possible and that everyone will eventually bow down to the great God of
Money. Johnny is the everyman who the audience identifies with, who won't and
can't be bought, but like any of us can be sorely tempted (don't do it for less
than $500 Johnny!).  Once Big Daddy gives the okay, it's time for an engagement party. Linda wants
to give her own kind of party which wouldn't be as ostentatious as the one her
father inevitably wants to give. The father gives one that involves lots of
fancy music, people in tuxes, and guests who don't really like Julia and/or
Johnny. In short it's just like most everyone's parties except for the formal
dress and the fancy music is usually provided by some hick band that plays the
local church social circuit out of a trailer they've hitched up to their beat up
F-150. Also, they all have mullets. So she doesn't make a scene, Linda has
been either exiled to the playroom or is just up there pouting that no one
wanted to have her party her way. Johnny's friends, the Potters show up and
are instantly put off by all the snobby rich people and wander upstairs and
meet up with Linda at the playroom. Since they're all regular people (you
know: an heiress, poet, and a professor) they have a gay old time, playing
records, putting on Punch and Judy puppet shows, and contributing to Linda's "I
Hate My Rich Daddy Slam Book." Eventually Johnny, who is coming dangerously
close to being sucked in by these wealthy weasels (they've slicked his hair
back!) makes his way up there and his pals and Linda convince him that rich
people do in fact suck. There's more tomfoolery and gymnastics and finally
Julia shows up to have a fight with him about their future and whether he's
coming downstairs to ring in the new year. Julia remains convinced that Johnny
will eventually see the light and realize that smothering his dreams and
individuality so that he can make lots of money and provide her with the
wherewithal to sit around all day eating Moonpies and gossiping with her rich
friends about how so and so had a face lift and just looks simply awful, is
exactly what he needs to be fulfilled in life. Later Johnny finds time to try
and make out with Linda, who isn't constantly getting in his crap about how
he's going to have work really hard for the next seventy-five years. Linda is
attracted to Johnny, but is loyal to her sister so she resists. Johnny
reluctantly agrees to go along with Julia's and Daddy's plans for him to work
at the bank, but assures everyone it's just for a few years. Just when all
seems lost, Daddy presses his luck and announces all the plans he's made for
the newlyweds on their honeymoon. Johnny's like "are you going to pull her
dress up for me, too, Gramps?" and calls the whole thing off. Julia is
relieved and eventually announces she doesn't love Johnny, thus freeing up
Linda to go sailing off to France with him. They position this as a screwball comedy, but much of the film is anything, but
lighthearted. There's a heated battle going on here between young and old and
rich and poor. As written by Phillip Barry, who also penned The Philadelphia Story (much funnier), this class warfare is completely black and white. The rich
are idle, money grubbing, control freaks, while the longhairs, I mean the
dreamers are free and happy. What they fail to note is that the father is
actually quite happy with his lot in life and that being rich does not
necessarily lead one to unhappiness. Quite the contrary as Cary Grant's
character wants to make a bunch a money in a hurry so he can do what he wants,
but he doesn't see the need to make it just for the purpose of stockpiling it.
I generally dislike stories about rich people who are unhappy. Who cares about
their problems? Take away their money and then they'll find out what problems
really are. In this case however, I think the message is that in spite of
their money, these rich pieces of trash are still people like the rest of us
(just with servants and elevators) and are subject to the same malaise of the
soul everyone else feels when they wake up and go to that dead end job they
fantasize about shooting everyone at. Linda and Ned are both grossly
dissatisfied with the way their lives have turned out, but Ned has given up.
Linda hasn't and it's like someone threw her a life preserver when Johnny Chase
somersaulted into her life. Here's a moderately successful guy who wants more
out of life than economic gain and still has his idealistic goals. It probably
helps that he looks like Cary Grant, but he's also possessed of a quick wit and
he's not afraid to stand up to her father (she pretends that she can stand up
to him, but the fact she's still living at home under his thumb is proof
otherwise). This also avoids some of the pitfalls this type of tale usually
falls into, one of those being that Johnny's current girlfriend isn't really a
jerk. Usually these movies have the woman that eventually gets dumped be such
an ass that you just root for it to happen so she can get her payback. Julia
isn't a saint, but she's not really a witch either. She's a product of her
environment and she is just like her father - she knows what is best and Johnny
will eventually straighten out and fly right. It was also nice to see that
Linda and Julia cared for each other and that Linda was willing to forgo her
happiness as long as she thought Julia was in love with Johnny (Julia's quick
admission that she no longer loved Johnny seemed forced, but how long a movie
do you want?). Grant and Hepburn are winning together as they were in Bringing Up Baby, their good looks and smart mouths complementing each other nicely. One final
thought about this film is that it came out somewhere near the Great
Depression. One wonders if it was designed to show the mostly poor movie going
public that being rich wasn't all that it was cracked up to be and that the
wealthy were either miserable or fools. The message at the end of the movie
showed them that having dreams and pursuing them, even at great cost, is worth
more
than all the money this rich family had. In the end, Grant and Hepburn make
this an enjoyable and periodically funny movie, even if they sometimes lay on
the classism stuff with a butter knife (isn't there one nice rich person in the
world?)
Reviews © 2004
MonsterHunter
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