A complete disaster when it was released, BRINGING UP BABY is screwball comedy to the extreme: absolutely absurd, crackling with dialogue moving faster than a bullet, and unapologetically zany. Starring Katharine Hepburn in her only real foray into playing a "scatterbrained heiress" and Cary Grant as a befuddled paleontologist who's life she disrupts from the moment they meet on a golf course, the story looks almost seems like deliberately crazy plotting: An uptight paleontologist loses the last bone he needs to complete his reconstruction of a dinosaur to an heiresses' dog. This heiress is Katharine Hepburn, and she doesn't make it easier for him, since she's totally self-involved with her own eccentricities, and in one hilarious montage after another we see Grant trying to fetch his bone while getting entangled in the wildest of circumstances, one in particular which includes a tame tiger that is meant for Susan's aunt (May Robson).
Featuring one classic comic scene after another, BRINGING UP BABY is a prime example of a film that was reviled when it came out, most notably because of the arrogant personality of the lead actress and her stature as box-office poison, but one that with repeated views over the years has gained a strong critical praise. While it may be a little too fast in dialogue (and in self-referential in-jokes that only hardcore movie fans will point out) for some people's tastes, just the absurdity of the situation makes it worth watching, and of course, the remarkable chemistry of an athletic Hepburn paired with a dashing Grant.
Remade horribly in 1987 as WHO'S THAT GIRL? with Madonna and Griffith Dunne, it's always good to seek this one out on TCM (which plays it often). Lunatic, but fascinating.
Featuring one classic comic scene after another, BRINGING UP BABY is a prime example of a film that was reviled when it came out, most notably because of the arrogant personality of the lead actress and her stature as box-office poison, but one that with repeated views over the years has gained a strong critical praise. While it may be a little too fast in dialogue (and in self-referential in-jokes that only hardcore movie fans will point out) for some people's tastes, just the absurdity of the situation makes it worth watching, and of course, the remarkable chemistry of an athletic Hepburn paired with a dashing Grant.
Remade horribly in 1987 as WHO'S THAT GIRL? with Madonna and Griffith Dunne, it's always good to seek this one out on TCM (which plays it often). Lunatic, but fascinating.