Movie Project Review: Bringing Up Baby

[olivia_sutton]

• Title:  Bringing Up Baby
• Director:  Howard Hawks
• Studio:  RKO Radio Pictures
• Date:  1938
• Genre:  Classic, Romance, Comedy
• Cast:  Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant
• Format:  Black & White, Standard
• DVD Format:  R1, NTSC, 2-disc Special Edition

Bringing Up Baby is a classic and very funny "screwball comedy".  It's a simple joy to watch.  Cary Grant plays a "zoologist" (Considering he's building a brontosaur skeleton for a museum, he's more likely an archeologist, anthropologist, or paleontologist -- Zoologists study living animals) who keeps running into Susan Vance (Hepburn) -- an heiress who seems to never stop talking or take five seconds to consider the consequences of  her actions.  Grant is also due to get married -- something Hepburn foils by keeping him busy on her Aunt's estate in Connecticut.  Though there is very little plot, the film is brilliantly funny -- from Hepburn and Grant walking out of a very fancy restaurant pressed close together to hide the fact that Hepburn has lost the train and backside of  her skirt -- to various shenanigans chasing her pet leopard, Baby, the film is laugh out loud funny.

Cary Grant plays an out-of-his-depth professor perfectly -- confused and confounded throughout - until he finally realizes how he feels about Susan.  Whereas, Katharine Hepburn is at her screwball comedy best, talking a mile a minute without ever making sense.

The dialogue in the film is fast and furious, and frequently overlaps -- working to add to the pace and the hilarious nature of  the film.  Truly, not a film to be missed.

Recommendation:  See it! -- What are you waiting for?
Rating: 4 out of 5
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