The Very Rich Are Very Different From You And Me-Katharine Hepburn And Cary Grant’s Holiday, 1938
DVD Review
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman
Holiday, starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, 1938
F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said the rich, by this he meant the very rich, were (are) different, very different from you and me, the ones you would never even see except if you were an employee working the side pantry or something, or maybe a utility worker fixing something, but probably not even then as they ramble about their secured fortresses amid about sixteen layers of security. These, the economic royalists in the post-Jazz Age, deep Depression language of Franklin Roosevelt (who could mix with them when it suited his purposes) today the “one percent” (although, if you can believe this and not go crazy with revenge and spite running to the barricades really less than one percent). Now that the very noticeable gap between the very rich and the rest of us has been getting a very large “chattering class” journalistic work-out of late, if no ready solution as part of the talk except those few, too few, filled with crazed desires for revenge heading toward those theoretical “puff in the air” barricades), that proposition seems as true today as back in 1938. At least if you grasp the undertone in the film under review, Holiday, the remake of the 1930 film. Interesting this romantic comedy social commentary was a send-up of that very rich crowd during the Great Depression (not the one we just went through and are still fighting to get out from under through but the 1930s one just to be clear on that point) and while one would have to takes changes in times and technology into account the premise behind the film sounded very familiar to these ears.
Here’s why. Johnny (played by Cary Grant) an “up from hunger” college guy (Harvard, Class of ?, but just that imprimatur says a lot in the 1930s) who worked his way through so, yes, a very up from hunger guy looking to move up in those hard times days as a crackerjack stockbroker meets an heiress of a very rich New York WASP-ish banking family, Julia, while she was slumming up at Lake Placid. They fall in love and plan to be married after having had a short whirlwind courtship. Of course like in all very rich families (and not so rich come to think of it) the parents (or here parent, the father) must “inspect the goods” to see whether Johnny is just a gold-digger latching on to a good thing in Julia while the getting is good and she is still slumming, or has some promise. Naturally he must meet the family on their turf and so he runs up to their “museum-piece” mansion on the right side of New York’s upper side. There he gets a flavor of what real money is all about. And once he meets the rest of the family including Julia’s poor little rich sister, Linda (played by Katharine Hepburn) we are off to the races. And also have a glimmer that Johnny and Julia’s days will not be spent in eternal rich bliss.
See Johnny has this strange notion that he can make some dough for a while then take time off to see what the world is all about and how he fits into it. Julia and the father are not buying into that, not at all because the fact of being rich means you have to keep making money for whatever reason if only to keep up with the rich set Joneses. Ah, but Linda is made of different stuff, wants to spread her wings, and wants her Johnny from about minute one, although being a proper sister she will give up her thoughts of Johnny for Sis. Not to worry Sis might have been slumming up in ski country but in the city it is the coin of the realm, and plenty of it, or else, Johnny will be shown the door. Yeah, Linda is looking for the golden vault and Johnny finally sees that she is not for him, not interested in taking the big view of life, and takes off for parts unknown. And in the end now that she has been a proper sister being proper Linda gets “religion,” gets what Johnny’s dream is all about and takes off after him not worried about what will happen. See I told you the very rich are very different from you and me. Well, except for the boy-girl thing and that has been going on since Adam and Eve only had cheapjack apples in the garden, if not before.
DVD Review
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman
Holiday, starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, 1938
F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said the rich, by this he meant the very rich, were (are) different, very different from you and me, the ones you would never even see except if you were an employee working the side pantry or something, or maybe a utility worker fixing something, but probably not even then as they ramble about their secured fortresses amid about sixteen layers of security. These, the economic royalists in the post-Jazz Age, deep Depression language of Franklin Roosevelt (who could mix with them when it suited his purposes) today the “one percent” (although, if you can believe this and not go crazy with revenge and spite running to the barricades really less than one percent). Now that the very noticeable gap between the very rich and the rest of us has been getting a very large “chattering class” journalistic work-out of late, if no ready solution as part of the talk except those few, too few, filled with crazed desires for revenge heading toward those theoretical “puff in the air” barricades), that proposition seems as true today as back in 1938. At least if you grasp the undertone in the film under review, Holiday, the remake of the 1930 film. Interesting this romantic comedy social commentary was a send-up of that very rich crowd during the Great Depression (not the one we just went through and are still fighting to get out from under through but the 1930s one just to be clear on that point) and while one would have to takes changes in times and technology into account the premise behind the film sounded very familiar to these ears.
Here’s why. Johnny (played by Cary Grant) an “up from hunger” college guy (Harvard, Class of ?, but just that imprimatur says a lot in the 1930s) who worked his way through so, yes, a very up from hunger guy looking to move up in those hard times days as a crackerjack stockbroker meets an heiress of a very rich New York WASP-ish banking family, Julia, while she was slumming up at Lake Placid. They fall in love and plan to be married after having had a short whirlwind courtship. Of course like in all very rich families (and not so rich come to think of it) the parents (or here parent, the father) must “inspect the goods” to see whether Johnny is just a gold-digger latching on to a good thing in Julia while the getting is good and she is still slumming, or has some promise. Naturally he must meet the family on their turf and so he runs up to their “museum-piece” mansion on the right side of New York’s upper side. There he gets a flavor of what real money is all about. And once he meets the rest of the family including Julia’s poor little rich sister, Linda (played by Katharine Hepburn) we are off to the races. And also have a glimmer that Johnny and Julia’s days will not be spent in eternal rich bliss.
See Johnny has this strange notion that he can make some dough for a while then take time off to see what the world is all about and how he fits into it. Julia and the father are not buying into that, not at all because the fact of being rich means you have to keep making money for whatever reason if only to keep up with the rich set Joneses. Ah, but Linda is made of different stuff, wants to spread her wings, and wants her Johnny from about minute one, although being a proper sister she will give up her thoughts of Johnny for Sis. Not to worry Sis might have been slumming up in ski country but in the city it is the coin of the realm, and plenty of it, or else, Johnny will be shown the door. Yeah, Linda is looking for the golden vault and Johnny finally sees that she is not for him, not interested in taking the big view of life, and takes off for parts unknown. And in the end now that she has been a proper sister being proper Linda gets “religion,” gets what Johnny’s dream is all about and takes off after him not worried about what will happen. See I told you the very rich are very different from you and me. Well, except for the boy-girl thing and that has been going on since Adam and Eve only had cheapjack apples in the garden, if not before.
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