Bringing Up Baby (1938)

"The love impulse in man," says a psychiatrist in Bringing Up Baby, "frequently reveals itself in terms of conflict." That's for sure. For a primer on the rules and regulations of the classic screwball comedy, which throws love and conflict into close proximity, look no further. A straight-laced paleontologist (Cary Grant) loses a dinosaur bone to a dog belonging to free-spirited heiress Katharine Hepburn. In trying to retrieve said bone, Grant is drawn into the vortex surrounding the delicious Hepburn, which becomes a flirtatious pas de deux that will transform both of them. Director Howard Hawks plays the complications as a breathless escalation of their "love impulse," yet the movie is nonetheless romantic for all its speed. (Hawks's His Girl Friday, also with Grant, goes even faster.) Grant and Hepburn are a match made in movie heaven, in sync with each other throughout. Not a great box-office success when first released, Bringing Up Baby has since taken its place as a high-water mark of the screwball form, and it was used as a model for Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up, Doc?--Robert Horton Amazon.com essential video

Fun and frolic!

No one can be as simply comedic (and clean, too) in slapstick situations as Cary Grant & Katharine Hepburn! This is a good movie to watch when you just want to see ordinary people in absurd, goofy situations. It is great for 'family night' and it is great for an evening alone!

Have fun with it! August 25, 2008

WHY don't they make movies like this anymore??

I've seen this movie about 50 times and it NEVER stops being funny! It's clean, it's silly, it's just a GREAT laugh without any ugliness or violence like everything THINKS it has to have today to be good. Cary Grant is totally out of his "leading man" character in this movie and he's fantastic! This shows no matter what he's asked to play, he's up for the challenge. Katherine Hepburn is one of my all time favorites and as always, she's at the top of her game as a fast talking, often confusing (to poor Cary's character), EVER hysterical, rich girl who seems to have lost her tiger. One of my favorite movie scenes is when she loses the back of her dress and he has to walk her through a restaurant close to her back so no one can see her " accident!" This movie is defintely worth watching over and over especially if you've had a bad day in the "real world" and want to escape to a rip roaring good time that's BOUND to make you giggle and make that bad day melt away! June 7, 2008

Adorable & Quick Witted

This is one of those movies I can watch over and over again. The chemistry between Grant and Hepburn creates a perfect foil for the snappy dialogue interspersed amongst somewhat silly but completely engaging situations.

Movies from this era understand that every character matters, that they add the spice to the movie. Hence, the constable, the gardener and even the dog add to the overall screwball energy. Movies today don't seem to pay that much attention to such small details.

Hepburn is delightful. In fact, the first time I gave it to my younger brother to watch he absolutely fell in love with her. Her distinctive voice works to her advantage here as the flighty but well meaning Susan Vance. Her incredible energy and innocent machinations add depth to a character which could've descended into stereotype and annoyance if not infused with Hepburn's considerable charm.

Grant is, of course, letter perfect in a role that turns his leading man suave reputation on its head. Instead of the smooth Cary Grant, we are pleasantly surprised by his David, a nerd and rather bumbling, which offers great opportunity to bump up against the insanity of Susan, though by the end of the movie one realizes that she's not only drawn him from his shell, but allowed him to recognize that the very ordered existance he had set up with the very controlled Miss Swallow was not the answer to his dreams as he once thought.

If you wish to watch a textbook, delightful, adorable and engaging screwball comedy, I highly recommend this one as the epitome of the genre. Not to be missed. June 7, 2008

Classic Grant/Hepburn humor at it's best!

The hilarity and hijinx are non-stop! Just when you think it can't get any funnier - it does! This has been a favorite of mine since I first saw it in the seventies! My sister and I were home from school with a bad case of the flu when this movie came on and we couldn't stop laughing all the way through! It was every bit as good as I remembered and the group of teens watching with me who swore they would hate it for sure since it was so "old" couldn't stop laughing either and had to cofess that it was a great movie ! April 6, 2008

5 star package of overrated comedy

"Bringing up Baby" is a very famous screwball comedy which was a box office failure on its release but has become a cult classic. Starring Katharine Hepburn in her first outright comedy, she is at the heart of why the film failed in 1938. In simple terms, there was just too much of her. Whilst spirited and entertaining, she is also irritating and ruthless and it is these qualities which detract from the film. Cary Grant is not simply pursued by this wilful heroine but positively harassed. Many audiences of the time did not take to Hepburn. The film is typical fast moving, fast talking Howard Hawks (the director) and the supporting cast are excellent but there is no sane character to ground the film and Hawks himself felt this was why it failed.

This 2 disk package contains some great extras. The print is excellent and Peter Bogdanovich provides an unusual commentary, quoting from Hawks himself and observing how the filming occurred, very much from a director's viewpoint. Bogdanovich remade the film of sorts as "What's up Doc" with Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neill in the 70s and that suffered from the same relentless heroine as this film does.

There are 2 really good documentaries included. The first is a TCM film on the life of Cary Grant. It would have to be the definitive work on the star with appearances by 3 of his wives providing great insight into his personality. The other documentary is one of a series about filmmakers, "The Men who Made Movies", cutting together a couple of interviews with Howard Hawks. It is particularly amusing to hear him comment on the French critics who have overanalysed his legacy when all he says is 'I did it because I liked it and if I did not like it, I did it until I did." It is great to hear the director skewer their pretentions.

Lastly, there is a technicolour short film from the Warner's vault and a very young Susan Hayward can be glimpsed poolside. The cartoon is a takeoff of Hollywood stardom with the heroine goose imitating Katharine Hepburn. The Howard Hawks trailer gallery is really a marketing exercise.

The DVD is excellent value but even better if purchased as part of the Classic Comedy set from MGM/Warners. March 24, 2008

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