Review of Bringing Up Baby (1938) by Tom A — 19 Oct 2008

I believe it was Robin Wood who described this film as a story about "a man who has lost his bone, and a woman whose pussy has run wild." A more apt description cannot be found. Cary Grant is a paleontologist whose life is more or less destroyed by crazy heiress Katherine Hepburn -- she is in love with him, so she drives him nuts in order to prevent him from marrying his fiance. Plot is something about him trying to get a grant to keep his museum going, losing the rare intercostal clavicle for his dinosaur, getting thrown in jail...oh, and Hepburn has a pet leopard named Baby. While Grant's staid, sure life is pulled apart, he falls in love with Hepburn because her insanity is just what his boring life needs. She shows him how to live. Pure comic masterpiece from director Howard Hawks -- this is fast, zany, pure anarchy. In his films, Hawks often criticized (in his typically taciturn way) the male condition and how a strong woman is needed to bring his hidden strengths to the surface, and this film is a perfect reflection of that. It's refreshing to see two of the most classy and refined movie stars of all time totally let their hair down and behave like nutters. Not a hit when released, but many now consider this the greatest screwball comedy ever made (my vote, however, goes to His Girl Friday, another Hawks/Grant pairing). Amazing supporting cast (Barry Fitzgerald, Charlie Ruggles, Walter Catlett, May Robson, Fritz Feld) add to the head-spinning.

Warner's 2-disc DVD is fantastic. There is an excellent documentary about Grant, detailing his humble beginnings, his affected persona, and putting to doubts gay rumours about him and Randolph Scott (exacerbated, I am sure, by his "Because I've just turned GAY!" line in the film) -- one of his ex-wives says she didn't pay attention to the rumours as she was too busy fucking him! There is an equally fine doc about Hawks, with some great interview footage of him from the 1970s -- he is as much a man's man as you could imagine, and all the more brilliant for it. And of course -- commentary track from Peter Bogdanovich, who more or less remade the film as What's Up, Doc? Hearing him speak is like having your movie-buddy over, sitting on the couch next to you. And of course, he always does perfect impressions of the directors he is talking about (he interviewed most of the great filmmakers when he was a film critic) so it's as if Hawks is weighing in with his comments. What a treat!