Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot (Mr. Hulot's holiday) 1953 - The film that launched Tati's onscreen alter ego

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IMDB Rating: 7,6

Director: Jacques Tati
Main Cast: Jacques Tati, Louis Perrault, André Dubois, Nathalie Pascaud

"Already familiar to many, especially following his acclaimed directorial debut Jour De Fete, Jacques Tati came into his own and reached new levels of popularity with 1953's Les Vacances De Monsieur Hulot. The first film to introduce his much-loved alter ego Monsieur Hulot, it sets the pattern for future appearances of the character, throwing the bumbling hero unwittingly into the middle of the action and letting the ensuing mishaps provoke humor ranging from gentle observations to fairly biting satire. The setting this time is a stuffy resort community fond of the peace and quiet that Hulot interrupts without fail. Nearly dialogue-free and driven more by episode than plot (like all of the Hulot films), standout set pieces include a disrupted funeral, an interrupted game of cards, and - one of Tati's signature bits - a game of tennis played with rules that can politely be called unconventional.
Tati directs, and in a way what that really means is that he composes this movie with a perfect eye and ear for the comic possibilities in everything: composition, lighting, minimal marble-mouth dialogue, certain sounds (a duck call, a door repeatedly opening and shutting). This is a superior work that ranks among all-time classic comedies." - www.allmovie.com

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Holiday 1930 - The first film version of the classic Philip Barry comedy

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IMDB rating: 7,0

Director: Edward H. Griffith
Main Cast: Ann Harding, Mary Astor, Edward Everett Horton, Robert Ames, Hedda Hopper

"Ann Harding and Robert Ames starred in the first screen adaptation of Philip Barry's play -- remade eight years later in a much more famous version with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, directed by George Cukor. This version is a little closer to the source, in terms of the nature of some of the characters, and has a charm all of its own, especially in the Oscar-nominated performance by Harding, an actress who deserves to be better remembered than she is. The supporting characters, especially Edward Everett Horton (who was also in the remake) as Nick Potter, are a little less 'housebroken' than they were in the 1938 version, and the result is some edges and sparks that didn't show up in the Cukor version, for all of its virtues. On the down side, the movie was done in 1930, early in the sound era, and at times displays the somewhat static visual nature of most talkies from that period." - www.allmovie.com

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Holiday 1938 - Grant and Hepburn make the magic

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030241/
IMDB rating: 7,9

Director: George Cukor
Main Cast: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Doris Nolan, Lew Ayres, Edward Everett Horton, Binnie Barnes

"Both film versions of Phillip Barry's stage comedy Holiday have their merits, but the 1938 version has the added advantage of supercharged star power.
George Cukor was arguably the best and most consistent director of sophisticated romantic comedies in the golden age of the 1930s and 1940s. Literate, thoughtful, and refined, his efforts in the genre were blueprints for all who followed, and Holiday was no exception. Next to The Philadelphia story, the film is perhaps his most-loved comedy. An enjoyable screen version of the same Phillip Barry play had been produced just eight years earlier, starring Mary Astor and Robert Ames, but Cukor improved on it in just about every way. The only element in which the remake does not improve on the original is in the casting of Hepburn's alcoholic younger brother; charming though Lew Ayres is in the 1938 film, he is still outclassed by Monroe Owsley in Holiday 1930. Katharine Hepburn managed to temporarily defray her 'box office poison' onus when Holiday proved to be a success; alas, her next film, Bringing up baby (which reteamed her with Grant), was a financial bust, compelling her to return to Broadway - where she made a spectacular comeback in another Philip Barry play, The Philadelphia Story.
This is the second of three times that Cukor worked with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Hepburn was Cukor's favorite star, and he was instrumental in her success as an actress ever since her first leading role, in the director's 1932 film Bill of divorcement." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/holiday-v22716

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