SNMR 8.10: "Bringing Up Baby"

GREEN'S "I'VE GOT MY HEAD, I'VE LOST MY LEOPARD" REVIEW:

The two things straight laced paleontologist Dr. David Huxley (Cary Grant) wants most is a philanthropic grant of a million dollars for his museum and an intercostal clavicle bone to complete his prized brontosaurus skeleton. What he doesn't want is to be around the eccentric Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) yet he keeps running into her and getting mixed up in her scatterbrained schemes. Much to his chagrin he learns that she is the key to getting the money that his museum needs. Throw in a superior supporting cast, a dog named George with a penchant for burying anything and everything, a tame 300 pound leopard named Baby, and a not-so tame leopard from the local zoo. Then mix those in with a boatload of improbable situations and voila!

This is a terrific, old fashioned, madcap, screwball comedy written by Hagar Wilde and Dudley Nichols and deftly directed by the great film maker Howard Hawks. The pace is frenetic from the get-go and never lets up - a pace only topped by Hawks own His Girl Friday which would be released two years after this. Who knew Katharine Hepburn could do comedy as good as she does? This film is simply about as good as comedy gets.

I watched the two disc DVD edition and was quite pleased with the excellent full length documentaries on Cary Grant and Howard Hawks included on disc two. If you are a fan of classic American cinema, and of the great actors of the early to mid 20th century, this is a movie you must see.

***** out of *****

Bringing Up Baby (1938, NR, 102 minutes, B&W) starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charlie Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald, May Robson, Walter Catlett and Fritz Feld. Story by Hagar Wilde. Screenplay by Hagar Wilde and Dudley Nichols. Directed by Howard Hawks.