Review of Bringing Up Baby (1938) by Jonny 9 — 18 Feb 2011

Rapid-fire ridiculous rarity. For a brief period in the 40s, directors discovered the comedic value of rapid, cross-firing dialogue, a technique forgotten until television's "Gilmore Girls" resurrected it.

"Bringing Up Baby" ranks among the best of the films that used the technique with Hepburn and Grant spraying the supporting cast with witty retorts and sharp one-liners. Grant plays the nebbish paleontologist much against type and Hepburn to that point in her career had no comedic chops.

These elements kept both performers off-balance and this unevenness contributes to the comedic mayhem. Although to the modern audience most scenes involving Nilsa II, the leopard "Baby" of the title, clearly reveal themselves to be wipes of the cat added in during editing, there are enough actual scenes of Hepburn stroking the beast to produce some real frights.

The movie maintains a degree of freshness lacking in most other films of the era because of certain daring chances it took for its time; the most memorable of these involves Grant opening a door dressed in a silky woman's robe and proclaiming: "I just went gay all of a sudden!" This line elicits shocked titters even today and must have been a right scandal back in the day.

In short, comedies tend to age more rapidly than dramas but this one continues to deliver and is worth watching.