Friday, July 30, 2010

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

I started this blog in the morning and I'm starting to have my misgivings about this. It's one of those movies where you either hate or love it. I'm not too sure why I love it. It's not the best classic, it's not the worst classic movie. I've heard people call this the most annoying film they've ever watched, others hail it as the holy grail of screwball comedy. It was just an interesting film to watch. I was mostly curious to know how crazy the antics would be. I laughed. I can say that, too.

I'm pretty sure it's because this was one of the first movies that introduced me to Katherine Hepburn.It pretty much set the standard for the rest of the Katherine Hepburn movies I would later watch. From across the board, Hepburn is one of those female actress that is a one trick pony: the ability to fire off a dialogue so quickly, that it can either be amazing or make you grab a bottle of aspirin.

I would also definitely add her features as part of the oddball category. I mean, check out that jaw! It's so strong and sharp I bet it can cut through aluminum cans (only 19.99 not including shipping and handling)!


"Bringing Up Baby" is a screwball comedy. It was made in the 30's so it pretty much threw in every comedy twists that film watchers now can predict in a heartbeat. It involves Susan Vance (as played by Hepburn) who is your standard spazzoid. I swear almost every movie I've seen Hepburn in, she plays a spoiled person and/or spaz. Cary Grant (sigh...) plays the hero of the movie,Dr. David Huxley. They're both opposites of each other (of course). Susan is full of random, nonsense and David is methodical. Classic pairing. There is a whole bunch of story elements here involving a dog that buries the missing fossil, a leopard that was mistakenly shipped to Hepburn, car switching, and a bit of romance. Like a smidge of romance.

There's really not much I can say other than I just couldn't believe the things that Hepburns'character did. It was over the top, eccentric, and just crazy yet I still enjoyed this movie. Maybe because I see my own little crazy in her. This is the only Katherine Hepburn movie I've completely enjoyed so far.

Except that I do hate the ending. I usually hate the endings away.


I wonder if the writers of "Hangover" got the idea of the tiger from the leopard in this movie?

(As of now, I've seen "Philadelphia story", "On Golden Pond", and "African Queen")

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