Comfort Classics: Bringing Up Baby {Movie Review}

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I’m continuing my series on classic movies, where I review a classic film from my list of favorites. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m a big fan of Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn who are the stars of today’s featured film – Bringing Up Baby!

This is a chaotic screwball comedy that I consider to be a classic treasure and one of my all time favorites.

Rundown:

• Year: 1938
• Starring: Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn

Synopsis from IMDB: While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard, Baby.

Why I Love It:

• It’s so funny! Cary Grant’s vaudeville training is evident in his perfectly executed physical comedy, and the witty banter between the two stars is so good.
• Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn have such great on-screen chemistry. They fight throughout the whole movie but you know their characters (David and Susan) are meant for each other!
• It has so many funny lines like this one:
  • Susan: “But David, I told you to run!”
  • David: “When a man is wrestling a leopard in the middle of a pond, he’s in no position to run.”

It’s Worth Mentioning That:

• This is a must-see for Cary Grant fans. “Cary Grant became Cary Grant in a series of screwball comedies opposite Katharine Hepburn, beginning with Howard Hawks’ Bringing Up Baby.” (via Reel Classics)
• This movie isn’t for everyone. It’s not perfectly edited, it’s chaotic and lacks a “straight man,” or a normal character to even things out.
• Unlike today’s movies that are filled with CGI, the leopard in this film is real and was on set with the actors!
• This movie fared so badly at the box office that Howard Hawks was fired from his next production at RKO and Katharine Hepburn bought out her contract to avoid being cast in the film Mother Carey’s Chickens (1938). Coincidentally, Hepburn was labeled “box office poison” on the same day that her contract was dissolved. But in 2007, the American Film Institute ranked the film at number 88 on “The Greatest Movies of All Time.”

Here are two of my favorite scenes:

“The love impulse in man frequently reveals itself in terms of conflict.” 🙂

Where To Watch It:

Currently it is available to rent on YouTube and Amazon, and is also available to stream on HBO Max. I first watched it on a DVD I rented from the library, so don’t forget to check there!

You might even be able to find it for free on YouTube. Just saying. 🙂

If You Like This, You Also Might Enjoy:

• His Girl Friday: A slapstick, quick dialogue movie with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell – full of improv and witty banter
• The Philadelphia Story: Read my review on this one here!

Have you seen Bringing Up Baby? If not, have I convinced you to give it a watch?

Read More:

• Comfort Classics: There’s No Business Like Show Business
• Comfort Classics: McLintock!