Surprised myself with how much I liked this, after more or less watching it on a whim. Cary Grant at his Grantiest, Katharine Hepburn hepburning brightest — and still both are almost upstaged by Lew Ayres as the depressed, alcoholic brother.

Grant is so goddamn charming that when he heads offscreen a half hour in and Hepburn says that he brought life into the house, you have to admit she's telling the truth.

Feels like a puzzle piece halfway between The Age of Innocence (the rich and their problems) and The Wolf of Wall Street (the would-be even richer and their problems).

I realized a day after watching that this also feels like a forerunner to one of my favorite movies, Something Wild — successful business guy meets a girl and decides to step away from the corner office. The details are all different, but the same heartbeat is in there, and Cukor like Demme is interested in what folks are doing in the margins of the story (Ayres and Horton and Dixon).

A few days ago I was convinced James Stewart was my all-time favorite actor but this put Cary Grant right back into contention.