Holiday (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Holiday is a 1930 American Pre-Code romantic comedy film which tells the story of a young man who is torn between his free-thinking lifestyle and the tradition of his wealthy fiancée's family.

Directed by Edward H. Griffith. Starring Ann Harding, Mary Astor, and Robert Ames.

Holiday follows the story of a rich young woman who gets engaged to someone below her station. She brings him home to meet her family, including her father, who is very skeptical of the young man's worth, and her sister, who is somewhat the black sheep of the family and is fully on board with anything that gives her sister any happiness. Things get tense when it comes out that the man's goal is to make enough money to live off of for a while and then quit his job and go out enjoying life while he's young enough to do so, and the fiance's work-centric family is not okay with this. If this sounds familiar, there was a 1938 adaptation starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. And while that's a good movie, I think the star power of both of those characters made it difficult for me to connect to the characters themselves. These actors are all primarily unknown to me, although I'm sure they weren't unknown in the 30s. I found myself really drawn toward the sister character. She just has such good will and love for her sister even when she deeply disagrees with what she's doing with her life. The ending of the story is tremendously satisfying. It does make me want to go back and re-watch the more famous version, but I'm happy to have seen this one.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Holiday > Dark and Stormy Night

Holiday > Till Death

Holiday < Hearts Beat Loud

Holiday < Brigsby Bear

Holiday > Is It College Yet?

Holiday < Good Kill

Holiday > The Great Gatsby (2013)

Holiday < Ninotchka

Holiday < Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Holiday > Il Postino: The Postman

Holiday < Roxanne

Final spot: #743 out of 3543, or 79%.