I just watched the 1938 film “Bringing Up Baby” for the first time. The film has gotten very positive ratings, and starred Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, two huge stars of that period.
It is supposed to be a “screwball comedy,” but I found it a lot more stupid than funny. It was a total waste of two talented actors, not to mention the other roles. Katherine Hepburn was one of the most sophisticated dramatic actresses of all time. Who decided to cast her in this kind of comedy, playing what may be described as a “dumb-blonde” role? I literally forced myself to keep watching till the end.
The only memorable part was when Cary Grant seemed to be using the word “gay” to mean “homosexual.” This isn’t really clear, but if so, it could be the first such use of the word in film.
Other than that, I think the leopard and the dog had better parts then Hepburn and Grant.
It’s not “supposed” to be a screwball comedy, it’s an exceptional example of the genre. I personally find it hilarious and laugh out loud at several points in the film, but screwball comedy isn’t necessarily about getting laughs.
Though, if it makes you feel better, when it was made pretty much everybody agreed with you. It bombed at the box office and was panned by critics. It put a nail in the coffin of Hepburn’s career (already on a downward spiral) and she left Hollywood for two years pretty much because nobody wanted to see her in movies (she had another film that year with Grant called Holiday which also didn’t do well at the box office).
It was another screwball comedy with Grant, The Philadelphia Story, that resuscitated her career. Have you seen that? You might like it more.
This is my favorite screwball comedy. Actually, I don’t so much like many of the other “classics” with Carole Lombard. Hepburn’s character wasn’t so much ditzy as simply existing in her own world and seeing events through a different lens. She also was able to give just the hint that she knew exactly what she was doing and was completely screwing with Grant’s character the entire time for her own entertainment. I also don’t particularly like the Philadelphia Story, mainly because if I’m watching a screwball comedy I don’t like complications of love triangles where nice people get dumped, and because the ending seems kind of tacked on without enough prior justification. I also love Howard Hawks’ rapid-fire dialogue. His Girl Friday is another great one.
Huh? Screwball comedies are all about complications of love triangles where one person gets screwed over in the end. That’s one of the defining features of the genre. David was engaged in Bringing Up Baby. Ralph Bellamy was left alone at the train station in His Girl Friday. Ralph Bellamy was dumped again in The Awful Truth, and two love interests were fucked over in My Favorite Wife. Grant was obviously engaged in Holiday, and Lombard was engaged in It Happened One Night. Philadelphia Story is so brilliant because it plays with the tropes of screwball comedy in a very self-aware way, taking the time to flesh out Mike’s character in order to play with the audience and trick them into forgetting the conventions of the genre–namely that Cary Grant always gets the girl in the end.
And the prior justification for the end of the film was that Dex and Tracy always loved each other. It was his drinking and her disdain that drove them apart from each other, but screwball comedies are (by and large) about reconciliation (with exceptions like Bringing Up Baby).
My kid loved this movie and watched it a zillion times when he was 8 or thereabouts. I always found the Katharine Hepburn character just annoying as hell, but I generally do find Hepburn that way, for some reason. Although I loved The Philadelphia Story.
For a supposedly great dramatic actress, she sure didn’t have a lot of range.
But anyway, the remake of Bringing Up Baby, What’s Up Doc?, which unfortunately has no leopard but does have Madeline Kahn, is one of my favorites.
I love What’s Up Doc? too, but how is it a remake of Bringing Up Baby? Other than the lead being a geeky science guy, I don’t see the resemblance. Bringing Up Baby doesn’t have mixed up suitcases or hotel room destructions that I remember.
Yeah, I didn’t hate it. The thing I remember most about it is: before I saw it, I had had no idea just how beautiful Katherine Hepburn was in her youth.
The problem with the Philadelphia Story is that they did flesh out the dumped character and make him sympathetic. I prefer when they just dump Ralph Bellamy.
For whatever reason, I love “The Philadelphia Story,” and have seen it numerous times. I’d like to see the two films one after the other, and find out exactly why I love one and hate the other.
Peter Bogdonovich, the director, specifically said that he was trying to emulate Bringing Up Baby in What’s Up, Doc and referred to it as his Bringing Up Baby. But it’s more a spiritual remake than a remake of the plot.
Bringing Up Baby is one of the greatest of film comedy’s though. It’s one film that’s funnier each time you watch. Hepburn’s character is funny in the way that she just plows on and befuddles Grant. And dumb? Nonsense. She’s smart – she knows what she wants (Grant) and goes right for him.
And, yes, the use of “gay” was one of the first, if not the first in mainstream cinema (Grant ad libbed, it, BTW). Grant also refers to homosexuality when he says, “I’m just waiting for a bus on 42nd Street” – gays used to hang out on 42nd Street in New York when Grant was working there as an actor, and would claim they were waiting for a bus if the police challenged them.
