117: Bringing Up Baby

US  102m  Dir: Howard Hawks  Key Cast: Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant

Bringing Up Baby was my first true foray into the genre of "screwball comedy" which is characterized by a female that dominates the relationship with the male central character and usually contains farcical situations and witty humour.

The story sees palaeontologist David Huxley (Cary Grant) attempting to impress someone on the golf course in the hope of securing a million dollar donation for his museum. On the golf course he bumps into Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) who causes a series of farcical incidents from using his golf ball and car to ripping his suit and then seeking his help to transport a tame leopard called Baby. 

Susan Vance is the sort of woman who would be incredible annoying in real life. She irritates everyone around her and is a walking disastor area but she's so happy and carefree all the time with it. The part was written especially for Katherine Hepburn (which seems quite insulting really) and she is utterly superb. She manages to bring this incredibly eccentric character to life in a way that is both funny yet convincing.

I associate Cary Grant with more of an action hero role but he's far from that here. Huxley is a repressed, bumbling professor and Grant does nearly as good a job with his character as Hepburn. Much of the comedy comes from his exasperation over Susan's actions and the absurd situations he finds himself in.

The plot is essentially one farce after another as Susan does everything she can to keep David around whilst David just wants to take his Brontosaurus bone and get out of there. Whilst farces tend to rely on co-incidences the film does take it too far with the same few character bumping into each other more times than is likely and the arrival of a second leopard in Connecticut is a stretch too far. Fortunately the humour extends beyond the plot though and there are some superbly witty lines including "It isn't that I don't like you, Susan, because after all, in moments of quiet, I'm strangely drawn toward you; but, well, there haven't been any quiet moments!"

Though it may well feel old-fashioned in style, there are few areas which might upset a modern audience. There's no racism and thanks to Susan and several minor strong female characters this film is not overtly sexist either. The one area that feels uncomfortable for a modern audience is that real leopards were used and aren't treated too well on the screen- indeed, off the screen a man was present with a whip to control it. When watching this I couldn't help feel sorry for the poor leopard. 

I have a lot of praise to pile on this film yet I can't really say I loved it. It's certainly a good film of the time period and though there's little offensive about it from a modern perspective it just feels old-fashioned. Tastes have changed and it doesn't stand up well compared to most modern comedies.