Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Director:

Howard Hawks

Writers:

Dudley Nichols (screen play) &
Hagar Wilde (screen play) ...
(more)

Release Date:

18 February 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Plot:

While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard "Baby."

Plot Keywords:

Leopard | Bone | Museum | Circus | Mistaken Identity

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Katharine Hepburn	...	Susan
Cary Grant	...	David
Charles Ruggles	...	Major Applegate (as Charlie Ruggles)
Walter Catlett	...	Slocum
Barry Fitzgerald	...	Mr. Gogarty
May Robson	...	Aunt Elizabeth
Fritz Feld	...	Dr. Lehman
Leona Roberts	...	Mrs. Gogarty
George Irving	...	Mr. Peabody
Tala Birell	...	Mrs. Lehman
Virginia Walker	...	Alice Swallow
John Kelly	...	Elmer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ruth Adler	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Adeline Ashbury	...	Mrs. Peabody (uncredited)
Asta	...	George the dog (uncredited)
William 'Billy' Benedict	...	David's Caddy (uncredited)
Billy Bevan	...	Joe - Bartender (uncredited)
Stanley Blystone	...	Doorman (uncredited)
Ward Bond	...	Motorcycle Cop at Jail (uncredited)
Ralph Brooks	...	Nightclub Table Patron (uncredited)
Harry Campbell	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Jack Carson	...	Circus Roustabout (uncredited)
D'Arcy Corrigan	...	Professor LaTouche (uncredited)
William Corson	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Evelyne Eager	...	Circus Performer (uncredited)
Judith Ford	...	Hatcheck Girl (uncredited)
Billy Franey	...	Butcher (uncredited)
Jack Gardner	...	Deliveryman (uncredited)
Edward Gargan	...	Zoo Official (uncredited)
Frances Gifford	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Tex C.C. Gilmore	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Duke Green	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Paul Guilfoyle	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Geraldine Hall	...	Maid (uncredited)
George Humbert	...	Louis - Headwaiter (uncredited)
Karl 'Karchy' Kosiczky	...	Midget (uncredited)
Lorraine Krueger	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Richard Lane	...	Circus Manager (uncredited)
Nissa the Leopard	...	Baby (uncredited)
Dorothy Lloyd	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Buck Mack	...	Zoo Official (uncredited)
Teddy Mangean	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Frank Marlowe	...	Joe (uncredited)
Jeanne Martel	...	Cigarette Girl (uncredited)
Pat O'Malley	...	Deputy (uncredited)
Eleanor Peterson	...	Circus Performer (uncredited)
Buster Slaven	...	Peabody's Caddy (uncredited)
Larry Steers	...	Nightclub Patron (uncredited)
Jean Stevens	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Bobby Stone	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Jack Stoney	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Edward Thomas	...	Bartender (uncredited)
Ida Vollmar	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Crawford Weaver	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Robert Weldon	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Pat West	...	Mac (uncredited)
Cynthia Westlake	...	Minor Role (uncredited)

Directed by
Howard Hawks

Writing credits
Dudley Nichols		(screen play) &
Hagar Wilde		(screen play)
Hagar Wilde		(from the story by)

Produced by
Cliff Reid	....	associate producer
Howard Hawks	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Roy Webb		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Russell Metty		(photographed by)

Film Editing by
George Hively

Art Direction by
Van Nest Polglase

Costume Design by
Howard Greer		(gowns)

Makeup Department
Mel Berns	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Production Management
J.R. Crone	....	production manager (uncredited)
George Rogell	....	unit manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Edward Donahue	....	assistant director

Art Department
Perry Ferguson	....	associate art director
Darrell Silvera	....	set dresser

Sound Department
John L. Cass	....	recordist

Special Effects by
Vernon L. Walker	....	special effects (as Vernon L.Walker)

Stunts
Jimmie Dundee	....	stunt double: Cary Grant (uncredited)
Helen Thurston	....	stunt double: Katharine Hepburn (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Cliff Shirpser	....	assistant camera (uncredited)

Music Department
Roy Webb	....	musical director
Max Steiner	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)

Other crew
Olga Celeste	....	leopard trainer (uncredited)
Mimi Doyle	....	stand-in: Katharine Hepburn (uncredited)
Patricia Doyle	....	stand-in: Katharine Hepburn (uncredited)
Bill Knudsen	....	stand-in: Fritz Feld (uncredited)
Mal Merrihugh	....	stand-in: Cary Grant (uncredited)
Jack Morton	....	stand-in (uncredited)
Ed Rochelle	....	stand-in: Barry Fitzgerald (uncredited)
May Warren	....	stand-in: May Robson (uncredited)

Production Companies

• RKO Radio Pictures (presents) (as RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.)

Distributors

• RKO Radio Pictures (1938) (USA) (theatrical) (as An R K O Radio Picture)
• RKO Radio Films (1938) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Radio Filmes (1938) (Portugal) (theatrical)
• RKO Radio Pictures (1941) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release) (as An R K O Radio Picture)
• RKO Radio Pictures (1955) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release) (as An R K O Radio Picture)
• C&C Television Corporation (1955) (USA) (TV)
• RKO Radio Pictures (1957) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release) (as An R K O Radio Picture)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1957) (USA) (TV)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2000) (Germany) (video)
• Chapel Distribution (2009) (Australia) (theatrical) (35mm print)
• New Star (2011) (Greece) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Image Entertainment (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2000) (Germany) (DVD)
• Taurus Video (1994) (Germany) (VHS)
• Turner Classic Movies (TCM) (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Turner Home Entertainment (1990s) (USA) (video)
• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (1965) (worldwide) (all media)
• Versátil Home Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2009) (Canada) (DVD) (4 film set)
• Warner Home Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2009) (USA) (DVD) (4 film set)

Other Companies

• CS-Film  German dubbing 1966

Also Known As:

Runtime:

102 min | West Germany:94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved (PCA #3752) | Argentina:Atp | Portugal:M/6 (DVD rating) | UK:U (passed with cuts) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Canada:G (video rating) | Australia:G | West Germany:6 (nf) | Netherlands:AL (original rating) (1938) | USA:TV-G | USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Arthur Ranch, Malibu, California, USA

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

The second of four movies pairing Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Susan hits the back of the truck, the sounds of geese squawking can be heard while it's chickens flying out of the containers.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Prof. LaTouche:Good morning, Miss Swallow.
Alice Swallow:Shh.
Prof. LaTouche:Why what's the matter ?
Alice Swallow:Doctor Huxley is thinking.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Happy Days: Bringing Up Spike (#3.22)" (1976)

Soundtrack:

I Can't Give You Anything but Love

Utter perfection. Howard Hawks, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant make the most exquisite comedy of the sound era

In his glorious Bringing Up Baby, Howard Hawks ratchets screwball comedy up to its tautest and springiest level. In clumsier hands, screwball all too often gallops into the frenetic, fraying the nerves; Hawks maintains a presto pace, but never lets the mixups and misunderstandings grow implausible – he just glides serenely to something else. (And he makes it look easy, which it isn't: Peter Bogdanovich fumbled in his loose remake What's Up, Doc, making it labored and literal-minded.)

Hawks could barely go wrong with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant as his leads, but the rest of the cast he assembles, human as well as animal, can't be faulted either (with the redoubtable May Robson earning extra credit). And while he draws on stock characters and stereotypes that probably date back to commedia dell'arte – the stuffy professor, the blithe rich girl, her crusty dowager aunt, the bumbling sheriff – he freshens each one up, making them distinctive, memorable and endearing.

Behind a pair of repressive spectacles, Grant plays the single-minded paleontologist whose path crosses with that of madcap Hepburn, never again to uncross. The plot revolves around a leopard named Baby, a million dollars, an intercostal clavicle bone, a dog named George who buries it....well, it all makes perfect sense while you're watching.

Underneath all the antics, Hawks never loses sight of the pastoral romance that Bringing Up Baby at its core really is (at its most magical in the woods under a full moon, and captured by Russell Metty's lovely photography). Grant's been rooting around in the dirt for so long looking for dinosaur bones that it takes him forever to 'get' Hepburn – an airborne sprite who never comes down to earth. (Their alchemy here is rarefied, not the commoner sort of reaction they kindled in the stage-bound The Philadelphia Story.)

Last but not least, the movie features the canine talents of Asta (né Skippy), who appeared as himself in the Thin Man series – Nick and Nora Charles' lovable cur. Here he plays George, who, barking his stubby tail off, has no qualms about tangling with Baby the leopard. Is there any question that this high-strung wire-haired terrier is and will forever be (pace Rin-Tin-Tin and Lassie) Hollywood's top dog? How fitting that he should lend his considerable talents to Bringing Up Baby, the most exquisite comedy of the sound era.