Overview
“Bringing Up Baby” is a 1938 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, and starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.
The film tells the story of a paleontologist who is involved in a disorder caused by a young trouble-making woman.
The screenplay is an adaptation of the short story of the same name (1937) by Hagar Wilde.
Produced by RKO Pictures.102 minutes.
Plot
A paleontologist David Huxley (Cary Grant) has been trying to assemble the skeleton of a Brontosaurus at a museum of natural history in Stuyvesant, Columbia County, New York for the past four years, but the only part missing is the intercostal clavicle.
One day David is going to get married to his fiancée Alice Swallow (Virginia Walker) the next day, he receives news that the expedition found the clavicle in Utah.
David goes to the golf course to play golf with Alexander Peabody (George Irving), a lawyer and substitute for Mrs. Random (May Robson), who is going to donate $1 million to David’s museum. He encounters a woman named Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) there. Susan is a niece of Mrs. Random. Susan falls in love with David at first sight and she starts chasing David.
David receives the clavicle from the expedition through mail. At the same time, a tame leopard named “baby” is sent to Susan by her brother Mark from Brazil.
Susan forces David to drive the leopard to her Connecticut home. At her home, Mrs. Random’s dog George runs away with David’s bone in its mouth, and “baby” breaks out of the cage.
While searching for George and “baby”, David and Susan mistake a ferocious leopard which escaped from a circus for “baby”.
Commentary
The film is an anarchic and destructive screwball comedy in which a fuss and a nonstop talk continue from beginning to end. Katharine Hepburn gave an impressive performance as Susan, a woman like a trickster, who means no harm, but causes a catastrophe and chaos as a result.
