Bringing Up Baby (1938)
I've got my head; I've lost my leopard!
In the late 1930s, Connecticut was a comfortable place to live- if you were rich. I mean, it had all the mod cons. Without the distraction of television, computers, and social media. I rather fancy it myself- a bit English Country House meets Metropolis: luxurious stone farm-houses, a sea of chintz, antiques, four poster beds and hunting prints, fitted carpets, silver cocktail shakers, huge refrigerators (just like Tom & Jerry), Art Deco his n’ hers cars; central heating and clam chowder. This is the civilised setting for the zany world of Bringing Up Baby, Howard Hawks’ screwball comedy from 1938.
Cary Grant plays Dr. David Huxley (lovely name choice!), a nerdy palaeontologist, as only a palaeontologist can be, with two interests in life: the intercostal clavicle which has just arrived in the post and his forthcoming marriage to an earnest blue-stocking in horn-rimmed glasses whose idea of fun is overtime; in that order. Katherine Hepburn stars as Susan Vance, an annoying New York Society girl sent by the scriptwriters to thwart him. The two meet when Katherine nicks Cary's car at the golf club. Katherine Hepburn's maddeningly glamorous (whippet thin), independent, manipulative and bloody annoying- in other words, bonkers and highly fanciable.
The action moves away from Manhattan to Katherine's rich aunt's country pad where there’s an irritating, yappy, wire-haired fox terrier (that most 1930s of dogs) and a tweedy stage Major with an interest in big game hunting. 'Baby', incidentally, is a leopard. And there are two of 'em, loose in the New England countryside.
Cary Grant, is thought to have been the first person to use the word ‘gay’ on film- in that (improvised, ad-libbed) bit when he’s running around Aunt Elizabeth’s house in a négligée: ‘I just went gay all of a sudden!’ Of course, back in the 1930s, ‘gay’ usually meant ‘happy’ or ‘flamboyant’ and Grant denied that he had used the word in any other context. It wasn’t in the original script. Still- a moment of film history.
Barry Norman, the British film critic, included Bringing Up Baby in his 100 Best Films of the Century (1992)- a book, cinephiles, I would recommend adding to your reading list. And I’m so glad that he did, as Bringing Up Baby is one of those beautifully written, life-affirming flicks (when you know that all will be right in the world) that needs to be seen immediately, if it's a first time, or on a repeat viewing. It’s one of my all-time favourite films. Katherine’s marvellous. And if you're looking for a feel-good film to watch this coming weekend, or over the Christmas break- this is it.
Bringing Up Baby (1938) is available to watch via numerous DVD and Blu-Ray editions, although, somewhat strangely, I couldn’t find a digital download.
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You're so right - brilliant film. Interesting to hear about Cary Grant's ad lib, although, sadly - despite juxtaposition of negligée - probably slang, don't you think? "Going gay" was a catchphrase (seems to have started in the twenties); e. g. used in first talkie made in London - hero tra-la-la-ing as he shaves about "wanting to go gay".