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

Baby, Oh Where Can You Be?

Casting Katharine Hepburn in the role she plays her would have been unthinkable years later when her image as a feminist icon was cast in bronze. But she's doing some serious poaching on a young version of the kind of roles Mary Boland or Billie Burke would play. Think of the parts these two women played and you can definitely see Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby if you imagine Boland and Burke years younger.

Bringing Up Baby is one of those beautiful films that really doesn't have a plot. Try to tell someone verbally the plot of this, it cannot be done. From the moment airheaded Kate gets into uptight Cary's car in that parking lot with him chasing her, it's just one madcap situation after another. Howard Hawks directs this film with the appropriate light touch the material requires.

Cary Grant is not the usual suave sophisticate you normally find him cast as either. He's an uptight paleontologist who's biggest thrill up to that point is the arrival of a brontosaurus vertebrae so that he can complete a skeleton. He's also getting married, but the woman he's engaged gives him hints that married life will not be any bed of roses for him. Whether he knows it or not he's ready for the romp Kate has in store for him.

Thirties audiences definitely loved seeing the rich at play. Bringing Up Baby is the definition of escapist entertainment. But one who hasn't the means shouldn't indulge it what Hepburn is doing. They've got a padded cell waiting for anyone who's not rich who indulges in this kind of behavior. Only the rich can afford to be eccentric.

Baby by the way is a tame leopard who Kate's brother sends up from South America. That would be a jaguar by the way, but that's just mere details. Anyway Baby escapes at the same time another leopard from the circus escapes and he's dangerous. I won't go into the confusion there, I couldn't describe it in any event.

May Robson and Charlie Ruggles lend good support. Ruggles who was normally cast against Mary Boland teams up well with May Robson. And my favorite in the supporting cast is Walter Catlett as the small town constable who doesn't know quite what he has on his hands, but is determined to bluff the situation through.