STUFF YOU GOTTA WATCH - Bringing Up Baby

BRINGING UP BABY

(1938)
With Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Charlie Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald, May Robson
Directed by Howard Hawks
Black and White
Reviewed by JL

Regarded by many as the greatest of all the screwball comedies of the 1930s, BRINGING UP BABY was a surprising flop in its time and the film responsible for earning Kate Hepburn a reputation as "box-office poison." That's difficult to believe today, as she delivers the most unbridled and endearing comic performance of her career. Grant is her comedy equal in every respect, parodying his own suave image with his portrayal of a bespectacled paleontologist who finds all the excitement he needs in his dinosaur bones. The storyline is less than a trifle, merely an excuse for eccentric characters to interact and exchange some of the most eloquent non-sequiturs you've ever heard. Even Asta the dog gets more laughs than he does in the Thin Man films. - JL

ADD ANOTHER QUOTE AND MAKE IT A GALLON

"When a man is wrestling a leopard in the middle of a pond, he's in no position to run."