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:

This movie fared so badly at the box office that Howard Hawks was fired from his next production at RKO and Katharine Hepburn bought out her contract to avoid being cast in the film Mother Carey's Chickens (1938). Coincidentally, Hepburn was labeled "box office poison" on the same day her contract was dissolved.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Grant and Hepburn first meet on the golf course, they are walking onto the putting green and 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.

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:

References The Awful Truth (1937)

Soundtrack:

I Can't Give You Anything but Love

Magnificent, joyous japery.

"Bringing Up Baby" is a film I unconditionally love; it is so utterly sublime a comedy that I was truly sighing, awed, 'it can't get better than this...' at many points. Yet it regularly does; Hawks keeps the momentum going majestically; it is one incredibly surreal, bizarre tangent going off unexpectedly into another, at every juncture. He photographs and presents his actors in the most charming and amusing possible ways, and the film is certainly a more leisurely, perfectly pitched film than "His Girl Friday", which I nonetheless admire. There is a beauty in the photography and simple choice of perspectives and angles that matches the

There is not one actress in the annals of film who I adore more than Katharine Hepburn; she is a compelling performer, of great charm, intelligence and wit; of very real, idiosyncratic looks that to this eye are beautiful, vivacious, impish. In "Bringing Up Baby" her Susan Vance is a very interesting diversion from her more usual type of character - the slightly superior, in-control ice maiden, as shown in say "The Philadelphia Story". She is phenomenal in that film, yet here beguiling in a completely different fashion, playing a slightly scatterbrained, sprightly, charmingly delinquent woman, who seems to have no control over anything; least of all her feelings for Grant. Her giddy, breathless exuberance and anarchic helplessness are really endearing; it's a wonderful film that stretches out the credulity of Grant's wonderfully straight-laced character's resistance to Miss Vance. The ending is a gorgeous, satisfying pay-off, as he finally gives way, as would we all! It's a charming, suitable ending that rectifies the slight fall-off of the preceding jail section of the film. That is very amusing, but in a more predictable, slightly laboured way. In stark contrast to the first 70-80 minutes of the film, which amounts to about the finest sustained American comedy I have seen of that length - "Way Out West" and "Duck Soup" being shorter in total.

Cary Grant, truly an institution of a comedic player, is very different to his more remembered persona of later years. It's remarkable to see this absurd little man, bespectacled, unworldly and cutting an orthodox figure played so perfectly by the suave Grant. This is gleefully played on with the sublime scene where Hepburn and Grant are trying to catch the leopard - Kate butterfly net in hand! She accidentally happens to break his glasses and is even more taken with him without them... The tension between how we usually remember Grant and the character he is playing here does add an extra layer of amusement to the film. Need I really add that the rest of the film's company are note perfect? Charles Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald and many more really give the perfectly matched stars a fine backdrop.

I shan't spoil too much of this heady, sublimely silly film... just go and watch it and see Howard Hawks, a master craftsman, at his best - there are no pretensions but making a quite wonderful character comedy - and Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant on insurmountable form. With these delightful stars and anarchic, scintillating comic material, what we have on our hands is an unutterably fine film, one of my very favourites of all time. Where else are you going to get such plot threads running simultaneously as: a hunt for a rare archeological find buried by a dog, an absurd upper-middle-class family dinner and an escaped leopard?

Rating:- *****/*****