Bringing Up Baby
Composite Score: 85.03
Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, Walter Catlett, Barry Fitzgerald, May Robson, Fritz Feld, Leona Roberts, George Irving, Tala Birell, and Virginia Walker
Director: Howard Hawks
Writers: Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde
Genres: Comedy, Romance
MPAA Rating: Passed
Box Office: $11,180 worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Bringing Up Baby is Howard Hawks’s screwball comedy, based on the short story of the same name by Hagar Wilde, about a paleontologist who gets caught up with a flighty heiress and her pet leopard named Baby. The film stars Katharine Hepburn as the heiress, Susan Vance, and Cary Grant as the bumbling paleontologist, David Huxley. It follows Huxley as he attempts to obtain a donation of $1 million from an aging socialite and her lawyer for his museum all while being followed around and having his life increasingly complicated by the seemingly airheaded heiress Susan. The nonstop humor and hijinks that the film offers make for an easy and thoroughly entertaining watch that also has a bit of something to say on the topics of love and money.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Having now seen a decent number of screwball comedies, I’m willing to admit that they are not going to fall into everyone’s brand of humor. In particular, Bringing Up Baby exists so aggressively within that genre that I don’t know that I could recommend it to someone who doesn't like its style of fast-talking, visual gag humor. The jokes and levity come a mile a minute in this film, and very rarely does the audience get a chance to breathe and savor one bit before being whisked off to the next. This is by no means your elevated dramedies from Russell or Allen or recent iterations of McKay. It is comedy for the sake of the laughs – highbrow for the most part but heavily focused on punchlines and irony to get the audience going – that happens to have some social commentary attached due to the very nature of its genre, which was designed to play around with gender norms and inspire conversations around romance and marriage. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a shining example of its genre, and for those who enjoy its brand of humor, it’s an excellent film. It just won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
As I just said, Bringing Up Baby is a near perfect example of a screwball romantic comedy. It’s got some great visual gags – the ripped jacket/ripped dress, the whole jailhouse scene, David in the various borrowed outfits he gets from Susan’s house, etc. – fun verbal repartee between its leads and their supporting cast, and a believable premise that soon spirals into the wacky and unbelievable. The chemistry between Grant and Hepburn helps the whole thing along and ties it together with just enough romantic tension to keep you constantly wondering will they or won’t they and actively rooting for both. The film’s use of its situational irony to also comment on gender roles and relationships only serves to bolster its reputation that much more. Susan’s proximity to the money that David needs for his museum turns her ditsy heiress character into what ends up being the breadwinner for their relationship, and by the end of the film, it’s mostly her actions that almost save the day and get them out of their predicament. Meanwhile, Grant’s David ends up being the less capable one of the pair for most of the film, stuck in a series of situations that put him increasingly out of his element. It adds a nice bit of ponderable content to the film that keeps it worth revisiting again.
The insanity of Bringing Up Baby perfectly exemplifies screwball comedy, and both Hepburn and Grant perform wonderfully in their roles, allowing the film to offer some comment on the state of gender roles in relationships – all of which earns it a place among the Greatest Films of All Time. Its particular brand of humor is certainly not for everyone, but its hard to find a better film that presents itself in this style. This film is currently available to rent on most streaming services for anyone looking to watch it in the coming days.