IMDb > Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Bringing Up Baby
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Bringing Up Baby (1938) More at IMDbPro »

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Bringing Up Baby (1938) -- Open-ended Trailer from RKO Radio
Bringing Up Baby (1938) -- AllTrailers.net - Trailer (Flash)

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Overview

User Rating:
8.1/10   21,763 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?

Down 15% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.

Director:

Howard Hawks

Writers:

Dudley Nichols (screenplay) &
Hagar Wilde (screenplay) ...
more

Contact:

View company contact information for Bringing Up Baby on IMDbPro.

Release Date:

18 February 1938 (USA) more

Genre:

Comedy | Romance more

Plot:

David Huxley is waiting to get a bone he needs for his museum collection. Through a series of strange circumstances... more | add synopsis

Awards:

1 win more

NewsDesk:
(11 articles)

The Big Bang Theory Season Two DVD Review
 (From Collider.com. 11 October 2009, 10:04 AM, PDT)

Targeted Quality: The Advent Of On-Demand DVDs
 (From Huffington Post. 1 September 2009, 11:33 AM, PDT)

User Comments:

Classic Screwball Comedy more (184 total)


Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Katharine Hepburn ... Susan Vance

Cary Grant ... Dr. David Huxley
Charles Ruggles ... Maj. Horace Applegate (as Charlie Ruggles)
Walter Catlett ... Constable Slocum
Barry Fitzgerald ... Aloysius Gogarty
May Robson ... Aunt Elizabeth Random
Fritz Feld ... Dr. Fritz Lehman
Leona Roberts ... Hannah Gogarty

George Irving ... Alexander Peabody
Tala Birell ... Mrs. Lehman
Virginia Walker ... Alice Swallow
John Kelly ... Elmer
more
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Additional Details

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1 more

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

UK:U | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Canada:G (video rating) | Finland:S | Germany:12 | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved (PCA #3752) | Argentina:Atp | Portugal:M/6 (DVD rating)


Fun Stuff

Trivia:

David's response to Aunt Elizabeth asking him why he is wearing a woman's dressing gown ("Because I just went gay all of a sudden!") is considered by many film historians to be the first use of the word "gay" in its roughly modern sense (as opposed to its archaic meaning of "happy, carefree") in an American studio film. Among homosexuals, the word first came into its current use during the 1920s or possibly even earlier, though it was not widely known by heterosexuals as a slang term for homosexuals until the late 1960s. The line was not in the original shooting script for the film; it was an ad lib from Cary Grant himself. more

Goofs:

Continuity: When David and Susan first meet on the golf course, Grant is holding his club in one shot and then not in the next. The caddy behind also goes from holding a club and not in the same shots. more

Quotes:

[first lines]
Prof. LaTouche: Morning, Miss Alice. My watch is...
Alice Swallow: Shh. Dr. Huxley is thinking.
more

Movie Connections:

References Steamboat Willie (1928) more

Soundtrack:

I Can't Give You Anything but Love more


FAQ

Is this movie based on a book?
A Note Regarding Spoilers
Any recommendations for other screwball comedies like "Bringing Up Baby"?
more
20 out of 24 people found the following comment useful.
Classic Screwball Comedy, 8 June 2004
Author: (dj_bassett) from Philadelphia

Maybe the prototypical example of the breed, in fact. Zoologist Grant (we'd call him a paleontologist nowadays) goes to a golf course to try to wrangle money out of a potential donor: along the way he meets up with Katherine Hepburn, and they have all sorts of wacky misadventures.

Grant's great, though it's not a typical role for him -- he's uptight, buttoned down, smothered. He's clearly the superego character, straitlaced and repressed and anti-life (it's no accident he works with bones). Hepburn was never lovelier than she was here -- she's the id character, all action and movement. There's a dedicated minority of people who hate this movie, mostly I think because they see the things Hepburn's character does as cruel. That's the point. Hepburn's not supposed to be nice -- she's id. We laugh partly because Grant needs to be loosened up, but partly because some of Hepburn's actions are shocking. Ideally, we should be in the same position as Grant in the movie: half-attracted, half-afraid.

Great "rat-a-tat" dialog in the classic Hollywood tradition. I can't think of many screenwriters today who could deliver such dialog. Highly recommended, one of the great Hollywood comedies.

Was the above comment useful to you?
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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
This is one of the worst movies ever made. Dr_Keating
Anywhere I could get the script? cyberdgl2000
Once Again, the Usage of the Word 'Gay' acrylica
Car keys plot hole srb2001
Why was the film not well-received? kahjraj
The special effects in this film... marknyc
more

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