#88 - Bringing Up Baby

Now, I would never hit a real-life woman. But no fictitious female character would I rather slap across the face than Katharine Hepburn's spoiled, self-centered brat Susan Vance.

She is insufferable.

From the moment Cary Grant's character, the bumbling and neurotic paleontologist David Huxley, meets her on the golf course, she causes him nothing but trouble. She steals his golf ball, takes his car after ramming it into several others, ruins his wedding day by enlisting him to help her tote a leopard to Connecticut, and ends up making him fall in love with her.

I wouldn't go near her with a ten-foot pole. But Cary Grant does, and thus, one of America's definitive screwball comedies is born.

In Katharine Hepburn's only screwball performance, she sets a standard that lasts for years for the rich, presumptuous socialite. "Baby" is a leopard that is sent to New York by her brother. The animal complicates matters, as it has to be taken to Connecticut, as mentioned above.

I found the first half of the1938 movie to be interesting and funny (although at this point I found Susan Vance infuriating), and it slowed down once they actually settled in at her family's country home. This is of course, where the meat of the movie takes place, but I just found it to lack the spark of the movie's earlier moments. The dialogue is at a break-neck pace, and the jokes speed by you at a mile-a-minute. Many would see this as not being able to enjoy or savor the wit, but I see it as more fun just to see how many things can make me laugh out loud.

The movie is also noted for being the first to (maybe?) use the word "gay" in a sense to mean "homosexual." Cary Grant says it, as he is dressed in a feathery negligee of Susan's (through a series of misunderstandings and idiocy on Susan's part). He answers the door and, well, ... he says this.

So, despite one of the most maddening characters I've come across in 60-ish movies, I enjoyed this one. It seems to be a trend in the ones I'm watching now that pure entertainment reigns supreme. And isn't that what movies are supposed to be all about? If so, "Bringing Up Baby" is good in a lot of ways.