Rent Holiday (1938)
3.9 of 5 from 118 ratings
1h 32min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Stars Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant and director George Cukor bring their timeless talents to this delectable slice of 1930s romantic-comedy perfection. Grant is at his charismatic best as the acrobatically inclined free spirit who, following a whirlwind engagement, literally tumbles into the lives of his fiancee's aristocratic family, setting up a clash of values with her staid father while firing the rebellious imagination of her brash, black-sheep sister (Hepburn). With a sparkling surface and an undercurrent of melancholy, 'Holiday' is an enchanting ode to nonconformists and pie-in-the-sky dreamers everywhere, as well as a thoughtful reflection on what it truly means to live well.
- Actors:
- Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Doris Nolan, Lew Ayres, Edward Everett Horton, Henry Kolker, Binnie Barnes, Jean Dixon, Henry Daniell, Harry Allen, Frank Benson, Aileen Carlyle, Edward Cooper, Margaret McWade, Frank Shannon, Charles Trowbridge, Marion Ballou, Beatrice Blinn, Thomas Braidon, Maurice Brierre
- Directors:
- George Cukor
- Producers:
- Everett Riskin
- Writers:
- Donald Ogden Stewart, Sidney Buchman, Philip Barry
- Others:
- Stephen Goosson, Lionel Banks
- Studio:
- Columbia Tristar
- Genres:
- Classics, Comedy, Romance
- Collections:
- All the Best: A Celebration of New Year Movies, Getting to Know..., Getting to Know: Laura Linney, Holidays Film Collection, Romantic Film Pairings for Valentine's Day
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 13/01/2020
- Run Time:
- 95 minutes
- Languages:
- English LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- None
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.37:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Holiday (1930), a previous adaptation of Philip Barry's play, directed by Edward H. Griffith
- Conversation between filmmaker and distributor Michael Schlesinger and film critic Michael Sragow
- Audio excerpts from an AFI oral history with director George Cukor
- Costume gallery
More like Holiday
Reviews (1) of Holiday
Champagne Wit, Sharp Edges: When “Success” Starts to Suffocate
- Holiday review by griggs
Some romances sprint towards the altar; this one keeps stepping back. Pretty early on, the tension isn’t if things will crack, it’s when — and that inevitability gives the film its edge.
On the surface, Holiday is all rich-people problems: drawing rooms, cocktails, and a family so wealthy they’ve basically mistaken money for a personality. But it’s doing something sharper than it first lets on. Johnny’s whole “maybe I don’t want to spend my life climbing” attitude skewers the American success story, and the film keeps poking at how “ambition” can turn into a polite self-betrayal. That’s why I ended up rooting hard for Ned — he’s the one who seems to feel the cost.
It does drag a bit, and as a Grant/Hepburn pairing it’s not their peak. Still, it’s smart, sly, and sneakily subversive.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.