Bringing Up Baby [G]

Dr. David Huxley is a keen palaeontologist; he’s clever and he’s handsome, his only flaw is that he’s easily sidetracked. During an extremely important meeting with a prospective investor, David manages to lose his ball and this brings him into the firing line of fate as he bumps into Susan; a vivacious and slightly scatterbrained women who instantly takes a shine to him. Their acquaintance soon turns David’s organised world upside down as he suddenly finds himself stranded with Susan at her rich aunt’s place, trying to find Baby, Susan’s tamed pet leopard: a misadventure that ends up, through various other misadventures, putting them behind bars. 

THIS is what the modern genre of comedy in cinema is missing: the fantastic and crazy-but classic screwball comedy featuring a perfect couple of man and woman. We see great modern comedic duos, but there aren’t many man-woman matches and, when we see a film like this you have to stop and wonder, why hasn’t the screwball made a comeback yet? The closest thing we’ve had to one in the last decade has been The Hangover: hilarious, but not quite the same, it misses that innocence which makes the bizarre happenings all the more hysterical. I absolutely adored this film, it really stands the test of time and I think will continue to for years to come. 

Dr. David Huxley is a keen palaeontologist; he’s clever and he’s handsome, his only flaw is that he’s easily sidetracked. During an extremely important meeting with a prospective investor, David manages to lose his ball and this brings him into the firing line of fate as he bumps into Susan; a vivacious and slightly scatterbrained women who instantly takes a shine to him. Their acquaintance soon turns David’s organised world upside down as he suddenly finds himself stranded with Susan at her rich aunt’s place, trying to find Baby, Susan’s tamed pet leopard: a misadventure that ends up, through various other misadventures, putting them behind bars. 

Funnily enough, Bringing Up Baby was considered a huge flop when it was first released: so much so that Katherine Hepburn had to buy her way out of her contract. Critics panned it and audiences avoided it, and yet we look at it as a modern audience and it’s just brilliant! The dialogue is fast-paced and witty, the performances and the chemistry are just phenomenal, and the innocence of the whole thing just makes it all the more hilarious. All these bizarre events that happen are the result of Susan wanting to spend more time with David, stalling him by any means that pops into her head. 

Bringing Up Baby was miles ahead of its time indeed the censors heads were spinning with the possible sexual innuendos that were being fired at the audience left right and centre. This was also the first film in which the term “gay” was used as a term of sexual identity rather than to mean “extremely happy”. The scenario in which Grant finds himself saying it just brings more humour to the already-in-motion avalanche, making it a hugely memorable if not iconic scene. 

Katherine Hepburn stars as Susan and she’s wonderful. She so elegantly and gracefully treads the tightrope between spontaneous and scatterbrained. With a role that’d be so easy to overdo (and would be in modern cinema), Katherine interjected her hilarity and quick timing with mesmerising moments of clarity, where you could really see that she loved him and all the method behind her madness. Beautiful. 

Cary Grant is Dr. David Huxley and he’s adorable. I love Cary Grant! He does comedy very well, as we saw in Arsenic and Old Lace, but I think he’s at his finest here; beginning the film as cute and bumbling and then transforming into this hilariously unfazed person resigned to the strange situations in which he finds himself. He’s wonderful! 

Starring Charles Ruggles, Walter Catlett, Barry Fitzgerald, Mary Robson, George Irving, Fritz Feld, and Virginia Walker, Bringing Up Baby is a hilarious, classic screwball comedy filled with action, misadventure, and romance. It’s a real classic that will stand the test of time, I think, for years and years to come!