Bringing Up Baby

Inexplicably a bomb when it was first released in 1938, "Bringing Up Baby" today shines for the very reason I believe it first failed. Audiences had become accustomed to both stars of the film playing a certain type. Katharine Hepburn had garnered critical (her first of a record four Best Actress Oscars) and commercial acclaim, mostly portraying roles that suited her New England bred, Bryn Mawr educated background: that is, smart, independent, "modern" women. Cary Grant was a huge star by virtue of his matinee idol good looks and dashing and debonair on-screen persona. Give the "always up for something different" Howard Hawks credit for trying something audiences in 1938 clearly were not ready for. Katharine Hepburn plays Susan, a ditzy, accident prone, evening gown wearing heiress. And Cary Grant plays bespectacled and befuddled paleontology professor David. No wonder audiences were confused and stayed away. Proto-feminist Katharine Hepburn in a dress, playing a clueless goofball? And devilishly handsome and smooth Cary Grant playing a dork, even hiding his good looks behind tortoise shell glasses?! It would take several decades, but eventually audiences would realize what an ingenious pair of role reversals this was.

The plot, as it were, concerns one thing: Susan irritates, frustrates, flusters, needles, angers and annoys David through a series of ridiculous encounters and episodes. The little stuff in the beginning (sitting on his top hat, ripping the tails on his coat, inadvertently stealing and crashing his car) are nothing compared to the last third of the film, in which Susan lets her dog, Fred (played by famous movie dog Skippy, also appeared as Asta in "The Thin Man" series and Mr. Smith in "The Awful Truth"), play with the bone David has been waiting for to complete his dinosaur. Fred, being a dog, naturally buries the bone, sending David into a frenzy. Susan, who borders between barely aware of what is going on, and completely controlling everything that is going on, tries to help him, but of course, this only leads to more trouble. The two are arrested and in a bit of self reflexivity, Susan gives David's name as "Jerry the Nipper", a name Cary Grant used in his earlier film, "The Awful Truth". By this point the film is almost entirely non-sensical, with a cast of crazy and eccentric characters all running wildly around Susan's country estate, all of whom end up in the same jail cell as David and Susan. Oh yeah, and somewhere in all of that is Susan's pet leopard named Baby, but, this being a screwball comedy, even the leopard has a mistaken identity, and a real, vicious leopard roams around the second half of the film, with most of the characters blissfully unaware of the danger they are in.

As I mentioned earlier, I believe this film failed because audiences were not ready for such a strange shift in persona both Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant employed. Actually, at this point, audiences were tired of Katharine Hepburn altogether, and studios went so far as to label her "box office poison" and RKO bought out her contract. Katharine Hepburn had her revenge though, at this time buying the rights to the hit play "The Philadelphia Story" and refusing to sell unless she starred as the main character Tracy Lord. Two years later MGM acquiesced and Katharine Hepburn was back as "The Philadelphia Story" became a huge critical and commercial success. That left 1938 as the epicenter of her time as "poison" and sadly this film was lost on many people, leaving Howard Hawks to all but neglect it, referring to it as his "great failure" and "biggest disappointment". In some instances in Hollywood, time can be a cruel force, reducing a film praised upon its release to a lifetime of cinematic obscurity. Films such as "The Greatest Show on Earth" and "How Green Way My Valley?", which both won best picture, are now merely a blip on the radar of film history. Sometimes though, it takes time for a movie to really be recognized for the masterpiece it is. Films such as "Bringing Up Baby" are a prime example of this rare, but ultimately rewarding occurance.