Holiday (1930)

Film: Holiday (1930)

Stars: Ann Harding, Mary Astor, Edward Everett Horton, Robert Ames, Hedda Hopper, William Holden

Director: Edward H. Griffith

Oscar History: 2 nominations (Best Actress-Ann Harding, Adapted Screenplay)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

All week long we've been doing reviews from the films of 2021, getting the final touches on the year before Monday's Oscar nominations.  In a more logical world, I would have made an effort to see one more 2021 film that's on Oscar's radar, as there are certainly movies that I could have done that with...but what is a week on this blog that doesn't have at least one truly random old Oscar nominee, and so we are going to bid you into the weekend with Holiday, a pre-Code romance that won two Academy Award nominations, though it's best remembered for the 1938 remake it inspired starring Katharine Hepburn & Cary Grant.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about two sisters, Linda (Harding) and Julia (Astor), posh & living the lives of wealthy heiresses in the 1920's.  Julia falls for a working man, handsome Johnny Case (Ames), who has different ideas about what he wants to do with his life.  While Julia initially seems supportive of the bohemian lifestyle that Johnny embraces, she more wants him to conform to the wishes of her father, not straying from the comfortable surroundings in which she's become accustomed.  Instead it is Linda who truly loves Johnny & his dreams, and wants to go off with him to see the world & live among the people, even if that gives up material pleasures, and in the end it is she who ends up with him, giving up the decadence & safety of her home life in favor of the free spirit, uninhibited world that Johnny aspires for himself.

I have seen the Cary Grant & Katharine Hepburn remake, though it'd been many years.  Overall this story is really quite remarkable, and sort of ahead-of-its-time in the sense that it shows two people who know they want to live a nonconformist lifestyle, and won't let their current situation change that.  Movies like Nomadland live in the shadow of this glittery pre-Code movie, and as a result it's a terrific story regardless of how you feel about how it compares to the landmark 1938 Holiday, a movie that has grown in my estimation through the years, and is considered a masterwork by cinephiles.

Harding's charming & lovely in this role, even if she's not Kate Hepburn (who is?).  Playing a character who is indecisive & dreams above themselves (in ways they can't explain) is super challenging, and I loved her rapid fire pace with the girlish dreams of someone who thought things she couldn't say out loud because of her station, and always lived in her sister's shadow (even if she's the impressive one).  Mary Astor & William Holden (not the one you're thinking of) is also good as her siblings, the former increasingly plain (even though she is the whole time), the latter increasingly interesting (you just know he'd be gay in a remake of this).  Overall Holiday is a really smart movie, one ahead of its time both in 1930 & 1938, and is worth your time regardless of which version you partake.