99. Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Stars:  Katharine Hepburn (Susan Vance), Cary Grant (Dr. David Huxley), May Robson (Aunt Elizabeth Random), Charles Ruggles (Maj. Horace Applegate)

Director:  Howard Hawks

Awards / Honors

• #97 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list (1998)
• #14 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs list (2000)
• #51 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions list (2002)
• #88 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list (2007)
• In 1990, Bringing Up Baby was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Genre:  Romantic Comedy

Running Time:  1 Hour, 42 Minutes

Format:  DVD (not yet available on Blu-ray)

Odyssey Rating:  2 1/4 Stars (John - 3 Stars, Beth - 2 Stars, Jon - 2 Stars, Becky - 2 Stars)

John's Take

I found myself in an unusual position concerning this movie.  You see, we watched Bringing Up Baby on the same evening that we watched In the Heat of the Night, and thus we joined in the screening by Official Friends of Beth and John’s Movie Odyssey, Jon and his wife Becky.  If I had been betting on what everyone’s individual rankings would have been after watching the film, and seeing as it is a romantic screwball comedy, I would have guessed that Beth and Becky would have given the movie 4 Stars while Jon and I probably would have given it 3 Stars at best (being guys and all).

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I found the movie to be mildly amusing.  No else however, including Beth which I found to be particularly surprising, liked the movie at all.  In fact, and I list these just for historical reference, there were only two sections of the movie where anyone but me actually laughed:

Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn):  "He's three years old, gentle as a kitten, and likes dogs."  [pause]   I wonder whether Mark means that he eats dogs or is fond of them?

And this exchange:

Mrs. Random (May Robson):  Well who are you?

David Huxley (Cary Grant):  I don't know.  I'm not quite myself today.

Mrs. Random:  Well, you look perfectly idiotic in those clothes.

David Huxley:  These aren't my clothes.

Mrs. Random:  Well, where are your clothes?

David Huxley:  I've lost my clothes!

Mrs. Random:  But why are you wearing these clothes?

David Huxley:  Because I just went gay all of a sudden!

And the primary reason why everyone laughed at the second bit of dialog is because Cary Grant jumps up into the air, making silly faces and gestures (he does look very funny when he does that).

Otherwise everyone sat through the movie quietly, occasionally muttering things like, “This was on a list of 100 greatest movies?” and “I am not getting this hour and half of my life back am I?”  Whereas I laughed quite a bit and thought the movie was cute and reasonably enjoyable.  It wasn’t the best movie I had seen so far, but it certainly wasn’t the worst.

Surprised by the fact that I, the person I thought least likely to appreciate the movie was the only one to actually like it, I tried to get people to articulate why they didn’t like it.  Maybe if I can get Beth to actually post on what is supposed to be a joint-effort blog, she might be able to shed some light on her feelings, but as far as Jon and Becky were concerned the best answer I could get out of them was “It was kind of pointless and predictable.”

At the risk of putting words in Jon and Becky’s mouth, some of their problem with the movie may have been that nothing in it felt very original to them.  The primary reason for that, is that elements of Bringing Up Baby has been copied or influenced (either directly or indirectly) so many other romantic comedies – such as films like What’s Up, Doc? and Who’s That Girl? – not to mention any number of television sitcoms I can think of – a certain feeling of “I have seen this before” is understandable.

This movie was a huge flop when it was first released – to the point that it almost cost director Howard Hawks his career.  As time has past however, many people now view the film as a classic (which is why it is on AFI’s list, I guess).  I am not sure it is a classic or not, but unlike some of the other films I have posted about – [cough] A Place in the Sun [cough], [cough] All the President’s Men [cough] – I am going to defer to the American Film Institute on this one and say yes, it should be on the list of greatest American movies.  I know the others will disagree, but I liked the movie and I would watch it again.  From me at least, Bringing Up Baby gets a rating of 3 Stars.

John

BETH'S TAKE:

Unfortunately there isn't anything good I can say about this movie. It was awful I thought. I can't believe this movie was ranked in the AFI's favorite list. There was maybe one or two scenes that were ammusing..but honestly...that's it. It was boring...and even though it was only 1.75 hours long...it was still too long :)

Katharine Hepburn...I love her...just very disappointed that she was a part of this film. Seems as if they tried to hard to make her funny.

If I could have given this a negative star...I would have...but I gave it 2 for effort only :)