Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Bringing Up Baby
Directed by Howard Hawks
Written by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde
1938/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
Repeat viewing
#124 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die

[box] David Huxley: Now it isn’t that I don’t like you, Susan, because, after all, in moments of quiet, I’m strangely drawn toward you, but – well, there haven’t been any quiet moments.[/box]

I enjoyed this quintessential screw-ball comedy even more than before.

David (Cary Grant), a very square paleontologist, is engaged to his assistant who is also all-dinosaur all the time.  While he is trying to get a donation for his museum, he runs into Susan (Katharine Hepburn), who is some kind of nut.  Susan falls head over heels in love with David and uses all her considerable powers to detour him from his wedding.  Her best ploy involves a prolonged chase after her missing pet leopard, Baby.  With May Robson as Susan’s aunt, Charlie Ruggles as a big-game hunter, Barry Fitzgerald as a dipsomaniac gardener, and Asta as George.

On previous viewings, I found Katharine Hepburn’s character manipulative and irritating. This time, however, I was able to relax and see Susan as David’s rescuer and accept all the scrapes she gets him into as part of the inspired silliness of the thing. Grant is just great. He is a master of prat-falls and so good at looking ridiculous in all his strange get-ups.  All the character actors are at their goofy best.  Truly a must-see.

The DVD I rented included a good commentary by Peter Bogdanovich.  One of the things I learned is that Hawks based his characterizations on Hepburn’s relationship with the bespectacled John Ford.  Hepburn was apparently the only person that could get away with ribbing Ford on the set.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-EkAb1h2OM

Trailer