Leaping Leopards!

All the earnest paleontologist (Cary Grant) wants is an intercostal clavicle to complete his brontosaurus skeleton. What he gets is an out-of-control toboggan ride with a scatterbrained heiress (Katharine Hepburn) nuts about him (or maybe just nuts). Riding along are a dog named George, a leopard named Baby, a snooty society matron with a spare million, a caretaker on the sauce and more. In this giddy romp directed by Howard Hawks, Grant ends up in a negligee, Hepburn ends up in a bottomless evening gown, everyone ends up in jail and Bringing Up Baby ends up as the most glorious laughter-inducing movie ever!

Title: Bringing Up Baby
Release: February 18, 1938
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Writer: Hagar Wilde & Dudley Nichols
Director: Howard Hawks
Produced By: Cliff Reid & Howard Hawks
Distributed By: RKO Radio Pictures
Run Time: 102 minutes

Cary Grant and the fabulous Katharine Hepburn star in the madcap, romantic comedy Bringing Up Baby based on a story by Hagar Wilde. Deemed a failure when it first came out; it even got the director fired from the movie studio, this wonderful little gem has since been recognized as one of the greatest films of all time and an “exemplar of screwball comedy”.

Since it’s been so long since I had seen this, I didn’t think I would remember anything from it but quite a few of the scenes are just too good to ever forget. What did shock me was that I didn’t remember Grant being in the film. Ms. Hepburn admittedly does outshine him, but he’s recently become one of my favorites after I watched His Girl Friday for the first time last year. He’s a bit more frazzled in Bringing Up Baby (wouldn’t you be?) but I still loved him!

This film was the first time Katharine Hepburn had ever done a comedy although you’d never know it because she’s just hilarious! Cary Grant was really funny too and they have such great chemistry that it’s little wonder that Hepburn chose to work with him again in Philadelphia Story. They both are considered such timeless actors now but I guess they were ahead of the times with this film.

Wikipedia, TCM, and Imdb.com have articles on the film and I found an interesting review at Filmsite.org that also features a walkthrough of the plot (or you can just go to YouTube and watch the whole movie there).

Trailer:
Bringing Up Baby


Meeting Baby:


Funny Scene: