"Bringing Up Baby"

[rockyj]

Yes a very good movie

The ending when Grant has to hold on to her so she doesn't fall is great!

 

[Decobelle]

Bringing up Baby, is one of my all time favorite movies, I always watch it when it's on, even though I have it on DVD too. Whats not to love, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, a leopard and a dog. Gotta love "George"

I agree! Asta from the Thin Man series played George... I adore him in The Awful Truth as well, where he sings a duet with Mr. Grant. He even has his own fan club: http://www.iloveasta.com/

 

[Doctor Strange]

I also have to chime in with the minority opinion: I find this particular film far too shrill and hectic to really enjoy it. Understand that I love most screwball comedies, have nothing but tremendous respect for everybody involved, etc. But this film has always left me cold - I just can't buy into it.

Now, Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn in "Holiday" - that's my idea of perfection. (Why isn't this film better known?!?) And I love "The Philadelphia Story" too. But not this one: I can see its charm objectively, but personally, I just find it exhausting.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I also have to chime in with the minority opinion: I find this particular film far too shrill and hectic to really enjoy it. ... this film has always left me cold - I just can't buy into it.

Glad to know I'm not completely alone on this one.


Bringing Up Baby bombed at the box office, director Howard Hawks was fired from his next production, and Kate Hepburn was forced to buy out her contract. Frankly, I can see why.


.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I'm in agreement with one of the film's original reviewers:


A Review by Frank S. Nugent of the New York Times
March 4, 1938

To the Music Hall yesterday came a farce which you can barely hear above the precisely enunciated patter of Miss Katherine Hepburn and the ominous tread of deliberative gags. In "Bringing Up Baby" Miss Hepburn has a role which calls for her to be breathless, senseless and terribly, terribly fatiguing. She succeeds, and we can be callous enough to hint it is not entirely a matter of his performance.

And the gags! Have you heard the one about the trained leopard and the wild leopard who get loose at the same time? Or the one about the shallow brook with the deep hole? Or the one about the man wearing a woman's negligee? Or the one about the Irishman who drains his flask and sees a wild animal which really is a wild animal? You have? Surprising, indeed. But perhaps you haven't heard the one about the annoying little wirehaired terrier who makes off with a valuable object and buries it somewhere and has the whole cast on his heels. That one, too? Well, then, how about the one where the man slips and sits on his top hat? Or the one where the heroine is trying to arouse a sleeper by tossing pebbles at his window and, just as he pokes his head out, hits him neatly with a bit of cobblestone? Or, getting back to the leopard who is the "baby" of the title, would you laugh madly if a Charles Ruggles did a leopard-cry imitation as an after-dinner stunt and commented two minutes later upon the unusual echo?

Well, neither did we. In fact, after the first five minutes of the Music Hall's new show- we needed those five to orient ourselves- we were content to play the game called "the cliché expert goes to the movies" and we are not at all proud to report that we scored 100 per cent against Dudley Nichols, Hagar Wilde and Howard Hawks, who wrote and produced the quiz ...

.

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

I'm in agreement with one of the film's original reviewers:


A Review by Frank S. Nugent of the New York Times
March 4, 1938

To the Music Hall yesterday came a farce which you can barely hear above the precisely enunciated patter of Miss Katherine Hepburn and the ominous tread of deliberative gags. In "Bringing Up Baby" Miss Hepburn has a role which calls for her to be breathless, senseless and terribly, terribly fatiguing. She succeeds, and we can be callous enough to hint it is not entirely a matter of his performance.

And the gags! Have you heard the one about the trained leopard and the wild leopard who get loose at the same time? Or the one about the shallow brook with the deep hole? Or the one about the man wearing a woman's negligee? Or the one about the Irishman who drains his flask and sees a wild animal which really is a wild animal? You have? Surprising, indeed. But perhaps you haven't heard the one about the annoying little wirehaired terrier who makes off with a valuable object and buries it somewhere and has the whole cast on his heels. That one, too? Well, then, how about the one where the man slips and sits on his top hat? Or the one where the heroine is trying to arouse a sleeper by tossing pebbles at his window and, just as he pokes his head out, hits him neatly with a bit of cobblestone? Or, getting back to the leopard who is the "baby" of the title, would you laugh madly if a Charles Ruggles did a leopard-cry imitation as an after-dinner stunt and commented two minutes later upon the unusual echo?

Well, neither did we. In fact, after the first five minutes of the Music Hall's new show- we needed those five to orient ourselves- we were content to play the game called "the clich?© expert goes to the movies" and we are not at all proud to report that we scored 100 per cent against Dudley Nichols, Hagar Wilde and Howard Hawks, who wrote and produced the quiz ...

.

In reading that review, it strikes me the modern moviegoer who hasn't seen lots of old movies has an advantage watching it now; I *hadn't* seen all those gags before; they were all new to me when I saw this. That's what made it so different (first b&w movie I think I actually sat down & watched "for real") - and was hooked.

- C H

 

[goldwyn girl]

I agree! Asta from the Thin Man series played George... I adore him in The Awful Truth as well, where he sings a duet with Mr. Grant. He even has his own fan club: http://www.iloveasta.com/

I did'nt know he had a fan club, thanks fo posting that. The pictures are great. I watched The Thin Man today and loved all Asta's scenes.

 

[beaucaillou]

And just within the last year, was elated to discover another movie they did together that I like just as much, "Holiday".

While I love 'Baby,' and 'Philidelphia Story,' I have to say "Holiday" is my favorite Hepburn/Grant romp. Wonderful characters, excellent wit and writing... tremendously classic.

 

[Doctor Strange]

"Holiday" is definitely my favorite of these films also. It's got so much going for it besides the golden Grant/Hepburn chemistry - Lew Ayres moving performance as the lost, alcoholic brother; the kind friends played by Edward Everett Horton and Jean Dixon; Grant's acrobatics; the amazing three-story Seton mansion set; the deft treatment of class/money stratification (from Philip Barry's original play, no doubt)...

And the story's central theme - Johnny Case's desire to enjoy life when he's young vs. working hard for so long that he won't be able to enjoy his retirement nearly as much - remains a strikingly *modern* unconventional idea. You could remake this story easily now with this central idea treated virtually identically (which, alas, will probably happen!)

Anyway, it's one of my favorite films of the late 30s... I urge anybody who hasn't seen it yet to be on the lookout for it. (Per the Internet Movie Database, it's next showing on TCM at 8:00am this coming Sunday, March 25.)

Johnny Case: "When I find myself in a position like this, I ask myself what would General Motors do? And then I do the opposite!"

 

[Hondo]

While I love 'Baby,' and 'Philidelphia Story,' I have to say "Holiday" is my favorite Hepburn/Grant romp. Wonderful characters, excellent wit and writing... tremendously classic.

Bring Up Baby takes getting used to, its past pace but its light hearted fun, I am no expert in Hepburn/Grant films, I've never seen "Holiday" and made it a 'must have' on my list of DVD's. I enjoy "The Philidelphia Story" that its in my collection, enjoy the review and for reals it could apply somewhat to days films, its ironic, "Baby" is a film to add for any Hepburn/Grant fan's, true a classic.

 

[StanleyVanBuren]

Definitely light-hearted but I will always love this film if for no other reason than that they had to use a real leopard. No CGI here!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I liked "Baby" too. His was the only character that wasn't frantically shouting throughout the film.


.

 

[Senator Jack]

I liked "Baby" too. His was the only character that wasn't frantically shouting throughout the film.

Howard Hawkes realized his error, thus the prison cell scene in 'His Girl Friday'.

 

[Rafter]

The only flaw this movie has, and even then it's not really a flaw, I'm just being silly; but the song "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" rolls around in my head for -days- afterwards, every viewing. A wonderful picture, very funny and quotable!

The real star of this gem is of course, "Baby"

I can't give you anything but love, baby,
That's the only thing I've plenty of, baby.
Dream awhile, scheme awhile, we're here to find
Happiness and I guess, all those things you've always pined for.
Gee, I'd like to see you looking swell, baby,
Diamond bracelets Woolworth doesn't sell, baby.
Till that lucky day you know darn well, baby,
I can't give you anything but love.

Sorry LadyStardust, the song will be rollin' around your head for a few more days!!


"Bringing Up Baby" is not my all-time favorite screwball comedy.....
My Favorite Wife directed by Garson Kanin takes the prize for me.
I prefer the Grant-Irene Dunne pairing.
Kudos to Grant-Dunne, who were also paired in what I consider the greatest tear-jerker of all time,
Penny Serenade.


If I may go off on a tangent, the most recent attempt at the screwball comedy was the 2003 Ewan McGregor/Renée Zellweger film, Down With Love.
I guess I am one of the few who actually enjoyed it.
It was an homage to the films made by Doris Day in the late 1950s and early 1960s, one of them being Move Over Darling....a remake of My Favorite Wife.

BTW, Down With Love has a great soundtrack....which includes Basie, Sinatra, Cugat and the ultimate classic "lounge" track, One Mint Julip. This was also lounger Michael Bublé's first widespread "gig"...with three tracks.