Based on a Broadway hit by Philip Barry, adapted by Donald Ogden Stewart (Holiday, Love Affair, Tales from Manhattan), this doesn't really work for me, despite cast of James Stewart, Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Maybe that's one of the problems: I can't accept Stewart and Grant together, for some reason. Also can't really buy Stewart's transformation from ultra cynical and grumpy journalist into lovesick admirer.
Still enjoyable, with added delights of Virginia Weidler as the sister, and Roland Young as Uncle Willie, who have some of the best lines, and Henry Daniell fun as the newspaper editor (Sherlock Holmes films, Jane Eyre, The Body Snatcher). With Ruth Hussey, Mary Nash, John Howard, John Halliday.
Photographed by Joseph Ruttenberg, music by Franz Waxman, produced by Joe Mankiewicz.
'This brilliant comedy was a turning point in the long Hepburn career, which began with instant stardom in 1932, reached the height of an Oscar in 1933 and the depth of a 'box office poison' rating by exhibitors in 1938. She went back to the stage and triumphed in this Philip Barry play about a household of rich offbeats invaded by a pair of magazine journalists. Its success drew bids from Hollywood, which was nonplussed to find that the shrewd Miss Hepburn's contract involved her in the film rights: if they wanted the play they had to take the 'box office poison'. ('The MGM Story' John Douglas Eames.)
Won Oscars for both Stewarts.
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