150 Word Review: 'Bringing Up Baby' (1938)
I've lost my leopard!
The Great Depression was a bleak economic apocalypse, but at least there were effervescent and charming screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby, directed by the great Howard Hawks.
First, there’s Cary Grant, an uptight paleontologist on the eve of his wedding who is easily flustered. And who better to rattle him than Katharine Hepburn, agent of pure disorder, in one of her absolute best roles as a fast-talking heiress with a twinkle in her eye.
Bringing Up Baby is a cinematic pinball machine about a man who doesn’t know a good thing when it bulldozes into his life, and a woman who knows exactly what she wants. Grant’s character needs a million-dollar donation for his museum, and little does he know Hepburn’s living tornado is set to inherit a fortune from her aunt. Meanwhile, cars are stolen, dinosaur bones are lost, and there’s a surprisingly docile pet leopard named Baby.
Another Screwball Classic: ‘The Lady Eve’ (1941)
