Bringing Up Baby (1938)

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.

Director:

Howard Hawks

Writers:

Dudley Nichols (screen play), Hagar Wilde (screen play)

Stars:

Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles

2 wins.

Cast

Complete credited 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

Storyline

Mild mannered zoology professor Dr. David Huxley is excited by the news that an intercostal clavicle bone has been found to complete his brontosaurus skeleton, a project four years in the construction. He is equally excited about his imminent marriage to his assistant, the officious Alice Swallow, who is interested in him more for his work than for him as a person. David needs the $1 million endowment of wealthy dowager Mrs. Carleton Random to complete the project. Her lawyer, Alexander Peabody, will make the decision on her behalf, so David needs to get in his favor. However, whenever David tries to make a good impression on Peabody, the same young woman always seems to do something to make him look bad. She is the flighty heiress Susan Vance. The more David wants Susan to go away, the more Susan seems not to want or be able to. But David eventually learns that Alexander Peabody is her good friend, who she calls Boopy, and Susan's Aunt Elizabeth, with whom David has also made a bad ...

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Plot Keywords:

sheriff | illegal parking | top hat | county jail | sheriff's badge | 

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Taglines:

And so begins the hilarious adventure of Professor David Huxley and Miss Susan Vance, a flutter-brained vixen with love in her heart! [Theatrical trailer.]

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Genres:

Comedy | Family | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 February 1938 (USA)

Also Known As:

Leoparden küßt man nicht

Filming Locations:

RKO Studios - 780 N. Gower Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,073,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

RKO Radio Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The dinosaur skeleton that serves as a major plot device throughout the film is said to be a Brontosaurus. Even in 1938, most paleontologists believed the Brontosaurus to be insufficiently different from the Apatosaurus to warrant being specified as a different genus. That viewpoint would achieve scientific consensus during the latter part of the twentieth century. David's classification of the dinosaur as a Brontosaurus would not have been a "goof," per se, but it would have been a minority opinion in the scientific community.

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Goofs

There is no glass in the windshield of David's car. When David and Susan are arguing over the ownership of the car and she drives off, to catch his balance David grabs the frame of the windshield putting his fingers through where the glass should be.

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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.

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Alternate Versions

There are different prints used for videotapes, some better than others with less splices and less deletion of small scenes due to shrinkage.

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Connections

Referenced in Sesión continua (1984)

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Soundtracks

I Can't Give You Anything but Love
(1928) (uncredited)
Words by Dorothy Fields
Music by Jimmy McHugh
Played as background music very often throughout the film
Sung a cappella by Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant

User Reviews

An absurdly overrated movie that flopped on it's 1938 release

A poor script quickly establishes the main characters as unsympathetic, and "Baby" just never works with any normal audience. People who have been brainwashed to believe it is a great film are simply afraid not to like it. Cary Grant and Kate Hepburn both do their best under the adverse circumstances, and the slapstick with the leopard towards the end of the film is genuinely funny. This is one of a series of films that contributed to Kate Hepburn's reputation as "box office poison". After boy friend Howard Hughes bought her the rights to Phillip Barry's play, she then rescued her career with her big hit "The Philadelphia Story" (1940).

During the 1950s Cahiers du Cinema hailed director Howard Hawks as an "auteur", and resurrected all of his lesser films as would be masterpieces. This film was the main beneficiary, changing from a 1938 box office flop to a supposedly classic comedy. It is perhaps the most striking example in film history of critics parroting received opinion to turn a flop into a masterpiece. In my opinion the 1938 audience got it right. There were many great screwball comedies made during the 1930s, such as "It Happened One Night", "My Man Godfrey", and "The Awful Truth". Unfortunately, "Bringing Up Baby" was not one of them.