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Bringing up Baby Overview:

Bringing up Baby (1938) was a Comedy - Romance Film directed by Howard Hawks and produced by Howard Hawks and Cliff Reid.

The film was based on the short story of the same name written by Hagar Wilde published in Collier's Weekly in Apr 10, 1937.

SYNOPSIS

The very definition of screwball comedy, and one of the sharpest, fastest, most out-and-out hilarious movies ever made. A nonstop profusion of comic disasters, coincidences, and misunderstandings ensue when Grant, as an absent-minded, straitlaced zoologist, meets Hepburn, as a flighty, accident-prone heiress. Grant wants a donation to his museum from a wealthy widow but he seems unable to avoid the woman's niece. Soon the two are rampaging through her estate trying to find a lost dinosaur bone, searching for a missing, music-loving pet leopard named Baby, and, inevitably, falling in love. Hawks, the master of many genres, lets the whole thing run riot without ever sacrificing sense.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

Bringing up Baby was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1990.

Bringing up Baby BlogHub Articles:

Bringing Up Baby (1938) (3)

By Laura Grande on Mar 31, 2014 From Pretty Clever Films

Director Howard Hawks had the uncanny ability to take a premise that appeared implausible on paper and weave it into a coherent narrative. Such was the case with his 1938 masterpiece, Bringing Up Baby — a wacky comedy with an outlandish plot, even by screwball standards. Stuffy, socially-awkwa... Read full article

bringing up baby review

By Joey on Mar 12, 2014 From Wolffianclassicmoviesdigest

... Read full article

“Bringing Up Baby” 4th film in Screwball Comedy classic screened February 11, 2014

By Stephen Reginald on Feb 4, 2014 From Classic Movie Man

“Bringing Up Baby” 4th film in Screwball Comedy classic screened February 11, 2014 When: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 6:30 p.m. Where: The Venue 1550 at the Daystar Center, 1550 S. State Street Today Bringing Up Baby starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant is considered a classic.... Read full article

Bringing Up Baby (1938) (2)

By Beatrice on Nov 16, 2013 From Flickers in Time

Bringing Up Baby Directed by Howard Hawks Written by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde 1938/USA RKO Radio Pictures Repeat viewing #124 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die I enjoyed this quintessential screw-ball comedy even more than before. David (Cary Grant), a very square paleontologist, is en... Read full article

On the set of “Bringing Up Baby” (1938)

By Art on Mar 11, 2013 From Classic Cinema Gold

“Bringing Up Baby” is a 1938 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The movie tells the story of a paleontologist (Cary Grant) winding up in various predicaments involving a woman (Katharine ... Read full article

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Bringing up Baby Quotes:

Mrs. Carlton Random: Well, you look perfectly idiotic in those clothes.
David Huxley: These aren't my clothes.
Mrs. Carlton Random: Well, where ARE your clothes?
David Huxley: I've lost my clothes.
Mrs. Carlton Random: Well, why are you wearing THESE clothes?
David Huxley: Because I just went GAY all of a sudden!
Susan Vance: Oh look, David -- a boot!
David Huxley: A boot!
Susan Vance: Don't hit George, David.
David Huxley: I wasn't going to hit GEORGE! (George is a dog)
David Huxley: I'm going back to New York if only to repair the damage that's been done since I've known you.
Susan Vance: There *is* a leopard on your roof and it's my leopard and I have to get it and to get it I have to sing.
Susan Vance: When they find out who we are, why, they'll let us out.
David Huxley: When they find out who you are, they'll pad the cell.
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Bringing up Baby Facts
Screenwriters Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde fell in love as they were writing the screenplay.
Katharine Hepburn was having a difficult time finding her comedic timing - Hawks said that she was "trying too hard to be funny" and kept laughing out loud. Luckily, Walter Catlett, who played Constable Slocum, was a veteran comic. Hawks wanted him to give Hepburn some tips, but he refused unless Hepburn asked him. So Hawks got Hepburn to ask Catlett for advice. Hepburn was so grateful that she asked Hawks to make Catlett's part larger so that he could be around if she needed more help.
The theatrical trailer is made up mostly of unused alternate takes of the scenes in the film. For instance, in the take used in the trailer, Cary Grant doesn't jerk downward when Katharine Hepburn rips his coat like he does in the take used in the movie.
Katharine Hepburn was generally fearless around the young leopard 'Nissa (II)' who played "Baby" and even enjoyed petting it. Cary Grant was less fond of the big cat and a double was used in the scenes where his character and the leopard had to make contact.
This film employed a great deal of split screen and optical tricks, such as rear screen projection, so that having the big cat in close proximity to the actors (especially Cary Grant who was more worried about acting with the cat than Katharine Hepburn) could be kept to a minimum. (Hepburn is sometimes shown petting and handling Baby. The leopard's trainer praised Hepburn, stating that Kate was fearless and could become an animal trainer if she so desired.) Most of the split screens had a lot of movement in them, which meant the dividing line had to be moved around as well. Even the scenes of Susan dragging the mean Leopard on a leash are split screened. You can see that the rope does not line up. A puppet Leopard was also used in some shots. It's most clearly seen in the shot after Susan gets the Leopard dragged into the jail. The reaction shot immediately afterwards, shows David and Mrs. Random with "Baby" the Leopard on the table. The Leopard is a puppet.
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