Classic Movie Mondays: Bringing Up Baby

Title: Bringing Up Baby
Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant
Director: Howard Hawks
Genre: Screwball Comedy
Year: 1938
Black & White

Summary: In this screwball comedy Cary Grant stars as Dr. David Huxley, a paleontologist who is one bone away from finishing a dinosaur for his museum and soon to be married to assistant Alice Swallow. He is also hoping to get a one million dollar donation for his museum from a client of Alexander Peabody's. He is enjoying a golf game with Mr. Peabody, trying to put his best foot forward, when things start to go wrong. A woman, Susan Vance played by Katharine Hepburn, hits his ball. He runs after her and tries to explain her mistake, but she will not understand it and talks in circles bringing much frustration to Huxley. He gets his ball back and heads back to the game only to see Susan take his car. From that point on, Susan and David seem to keep running into each other and mishap after mishap occurs. Eventually, David is forced to work with Susan because of a leopard named Baby. On his wedding day, David assists Susan in transporting Baby to her Aunt's country house, quite frantically to his dismay, but not hers--she has her own agenda in keeping him busy on the day he is to be married. The situation continues to decline for David when he makes a bad impression on Susan's Aunt Elizabeth, who just so happens to Mr. Peabody's client interested in making the donation to the museum--but David has a plan to not let this ruin the museums chances, as long as Aunt Elizabeth does not know his real name. So, thanks to Susan, David becomes Mr. Bone. Susan continues to lead David on a wild leopard chase that ultimately leads to a very odd situation.

The Stars: Katharine Hepburn made her comedic debut in this film. Before this, her experience was basically dramatic acting. Many of her films, including the now classic and loved Bringing Up Baby, did not do well in the box office, earning her the label 'box office poison.' She continued with comedy though and redeemed her career with the second film she did with Cary Grant, called The Philadelphia Story. Cary Grant, best known for his work with Alfred Hitchcock also did extensive dramatic acting , but he is best in his comedic roles as well. The two together made three delightful movies that are super enjoyable.

Why Should You Watch This? This is a hilarious romantic comedy. It is full of mishaps that some find frustrating, but each one is brilliant. There are a lot of good, memorable lines and Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grand work well together. The beginning starts out slow, but things pick up once you understand the character of Susan and see what she is trying. It really shows a woman in control because she really is the driving force for the plot. The supporting cast is also wonderful. I think this is a good classic comedy to watch because it is representational of a lot of what was going on in Hollywood at the time with it's style. As I was typing the summary, I realized what I never had before--there is a lot of sexual imagery in the story that is subtle. That was just the movies way of working around the strict Production Code which controlled the amount of sexuality in films to keep them clean and pure. Many movies tried to work around this code and they got quite creative, as this plot shows.

Once again, I hope you enjoy this film and let me know what you think! This is one of my personal favorites and I love Katherine Hepburn with Cary Grant and recomment The Philadelphia Story, and Holiday, too.