Throwback Thursday: "Bringing Up Baby"

Hepburn, Grant establish screwball comedy style in 1938 classic

Screwball comedies would never have been famous in cinema without Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.

In the golden age of screwball comedies, films featured a female character running circles around the central male character, who is generally more challenged in the masculinity department. The film goes to engage the two in a battle-of-the-sexes-type plot, and often includes lots of physical humor, far-fetched situations and rapid-fire banter.

Hepburn and Grant started it all with what's considered to be one of the defining screwball comedies, "Bringing Up Baby," in 1938. The film revolves around Dr. David Huxley (Grant), a zoology professor trying to marry his career-focused secretary. Huxley is in the process of creating a brontosaurus skeleton and just acquired the final piece to his project. Now, all Huxley needs is a $1 million endowment from the mysterious and wealthy Mrs. Carleton Random, so he goes to her lawyer, Mr. Peabody (George Irving).

The catch: every time Huxley tries to meet with Peabody, a mysterious woman interrupts, causes problems and makes him look bad. The saboteur is Susan Vance (Hepburn), who has recently been told by a psychiatrist that the "love impulse" in men tends to reveal itself in conflict. Vance makes it her mission — after having several conflicting interactions with Huxley — to stop his marriage to his secretary. Vance convinces David to get in her car and drive with her to her aunt's estate, with tame leopard named "Baby" in tow.

The aunt turns out to be Mrs. Carleton Random herself, and the game is afoot.

Huxley tries to impress his donor while Vance elaborately schemes to get him to fall in love with her. Along the way, the two manage to land themselves in jail, find a rogue leopard from a traveling circus and meet a peanut gallery of crazy characters.

An archetypical screwball comedy, "Bringing Up Baby" doesn't stop for air throughout its roller coaster plot. The script is one rapid-fire quip after another, and Hepburn and Grant do a terrific job of bouncing off one another. The reactions the two have to the other is spot-on and not once does their heated relationship grow tiring. In fact, by the end of the film, viewers are most likely wishing that there was another hour they could spend with Grant and Hepburn.  

There's something about Hepburn's flighty, flirty and fun Vance  interactions with Grant's oh-so-serious nerdy Huxley that's a joy from start to finish. It's a perfect introduction to screwball comedy for those that have never watched a film in the genre before, and the ridiculous scenarios that Vance and Huxley get themselves into are likely to make even the most serious audience members laugh. The scene where Grant  dons a ladies' robe lined with faux fur fabric in an attempt lure a wild leopard into an empty jail cell is cinematic gold.

For those that fall in love with screwball comedy after seeing "Bringing Up Baby,"  be sure to plan a movie night to see "It Happened One Night" (1934), "His Girl Friday" (1940), "The Philadelphia Story" (1940), "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" (1941), "Arsenic and Old Lace" (1944) and "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" (1948).  

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