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Tuesday, February 7, 2023

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM (1932)

Though best known for chronicling Upper Crust/Main Line society in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY/’40, playwright Philip Barry’s best play was HOLIDAY/‘30; ‘38, still surprisingly fresh & modern.  Both plays famously filmed by George Cukor, both with Katharine Hepburn & Cary Grant, HOLIDAY’s the one where Grant’s wrong-side-of-the-tracks investment whiz plans a sabbatical with the rich society gal he's engaged to, a couple of years holiday while he's still young, before getting back to the world of big business.  Turns out the fiancée’s not on board with his iconoclastic ideas & non-work ethic.  On the other hand, her unconventional sister just might be.  KINGDOM, Barry’s charming, if lesser follow up, takes an alternate path.  Here, he marries that 'wrong' gal, in spite of his unconventional old flame returning to town with second thoughts.  There’s a different tone here, too, perhaps because The Depression showed up between the two plays opening.  And the most interesting change comes in how the bohemian set are now seen as being just as snobby, in their unconventional bohemian way, as the fancy dress set are in their stuffy way.  (Howard’s artisan publishing outfit putting out a popular novel for profit drives them to distress.)  Even more interesting, you can’t tell if Barry wrote this disagreeable aspect intentionally.  Leslie Howard, Ilka Chase & William Gargan repeat their B’way roles as husband, society snob & uncouth butler, but the real show is between Ann Harding as the ex-lover who returns at the wrong time and Myrna Loy as the conventional, yet appealingly open-minded new wife.  It brings an unexpected topsy-turvy tone to Barry’s ideas that makes you think twice.  Edward H. Griffith, who directed the Early Talkie version of HOLIDAY (the one with Ann Harding in the role later played by Hepburn) takes advantage of two years’ improvements in film technology, but you still feel the stage floor beneath everyone’s feet.  Not always in a bad way.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  Far more interesting if you see either version of HOLIDAY first.   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/06/holiday-1930.html    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/08/holiday-1938.html

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