HOLIDAY (1930): There's Something About Mary (Astor, that is)

This is my entry in the Mary Astor Blogathon hosted by Tales of the Easily Distracted and Silver Screenings . Click here for all who agree that there is just something about Mary!

Cary Grant is Johnny Case and Katharine Hepburn is Linda Seton in the film version of the Philip Barry play "Holiday," right? Right you are, but before Kate and Cary tore up the screen together there was an earlier 1930 version starring Ann Harding and, second billed, Mary Astor. Robert Ames had the Cary Grant role and the fact that he got 4th billing (behind Edward Everett Horton in the same part he played in the later film), tells you that there is a shift in focus here. While Grant's Johnny Case really did let a breath of fresh air into that stuffy Seton mansion, Ames is an interesting guy who happens to get in between 2 sisters. In the later version, is there really any choice between Kate and Doris Nolan? The fact that I can  never remember her name and always call her Doris-what's-her-name tells you where I stand. She is shallow and uninteresting and as soon as Hepburn's Linda bolts upon the scene, there is no doubt that she is the more desirable sister. But, in 1930, that sister is played by our Mary and she is chic, kittenish, lovable and very, very sexy. Quel dilemma! 

Devoted Sisters: Ann Harding as Linda and Mary Astor as Julia

Ann Harding as Linda gives a strong performance. Not as impulsive as Kate, she is a more thoughtful rebel, but she is as crisp and clean as the dialogue. Robert Ames as Johnny is no Cary Grant, but then who is? Where Cary and Kate had enormous chemistry, Ames seems to have more chemistry with Mary.   It's hard not to think of Cary when watching Ames, but if you take the time to read up on this actor, you'll see that he was quite the scoundrel who lived fast and died young (click here for a Wikipedia bio). Monroe Owsley (another actor who died young) as brother Ned was preferable (to me) over Lew Ayres in the later version. His depression and despair seemed more tragic.

Julia & Johnny

So, it is our Mary and her lusty chemical reaction with her co-star that sets this version on "Holiday" on its ears. She is too gorgeous, too wonderful, too everything to suddenly turn all materialistic on a big fat Seton dime. I really wanted her to run off to Paris with Johnny at the end and leave Linda and Ned and the Potters (Susan Potter played by pre-poisonous Hedda Hopper) to play in the nursery. They would have had a real adult romance. Or, better yet, I'd like to see Kate battle Cary for his heart. That would be some choice!

After a successful career in silents as a Madonna like damsel, Mary initially flunked her sound test. Rather than take a pay cut, she left Fox studios, did some stage work and, lo and behold, emerged as the purring, sophisticated, laser-point-perfect actress we celebrate today. She is never less than memorable.

Can't we have this version????

A note on the DVD version: it was just plain awful. I am not sure if there is a better copy out there, but the one I was able to find was almost unwatchable. This very well done early talkie deserves to be polished, cleaned up and made available, as it is an interesting companion to the more famous 1938 version.