“I
CAN’T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE, BABYâ€
By
Raymond Benson
It
boggles this reviewer’s mind that Bringing Up Baby, released in early
1938, was considered a “flop†at the time. Was it really, or is that Hollywood
PR nonsense? The truth is that it did fine, but perhaps not as well as the
studio, RKO, had hoped. Shortly before its release, the Independent Theater
Owners of America had deemed star Katharine Hepburn (and other popular leading
ladies) “box office poison.†This bit of nastiness may have had an impact on Baby’s
earnings in 1938.
The
movie was re-released in the early 40s after the success of The Philadelphia
Story (1940) and did much better. When television began broadcasting Bringing
Up Baby, the picture’s reputation shot through the roof. Today, it’s
considered one of Hollywood’s greatest screwball comedies, and fans agree that
it contains performances that are among Hepburn’s and co-star Cary Grant’s most
beloved.
This
reviewer counts it as one of the funniest movies ever made and could very well
be the quintessential screwball comedy, which is what this type of wacky romantic
comedy was called in those days, especially if the lovebirds involved were of
differing social classes and temperaments.
And
while both Hepburn and Grant are absolutely a delight to watch in Bringing
Up Baby, the film is also filled with other funny character actors
delivering eccentric performances—Charles Ruggles, May Robson, Walter Catlett,
Barry Fitzgerald, and others. Howard Hawks was known to have said that his one
error with the film was that every character was “crazy,†and that there should
have been a few grounded in sanity. This reviewer disagrees! It’s the zaniness
of Baby that makes the movie special.
The
plot? Mild-mannered and shy paleontologist Dr. David Huxley (Grant) is building
the skeleton of a brontosaurus for his museum, and he’s missing the one bone
that will complete the project: the elusive “intercostal clavicle.†He’s also
engaged to be married to ho-hum Alice (Virginia Walker). On the golf course, Huxley
meets flighty but beautiful Susan Vance (Hepburn). She immediately sets out to
snare Huxley, and Vance does everything in her power—unwittingly or not—to
wreak havoc on the man’s life and stability. Complicating the matter is the
presence of “Baby,†a tame leopard that Vance’s brother had sent to her. The
one thing that calms down the animal is if someone sings to it the song, “I
Can’t Give You Anything but Love, Baby,†which both Huxley and Vance are forced
to do—a lot! Vance convinces Huxley to help her take Baby to a farm in
Connecticut, and then the picture really does become a mad, mad world. Vance’s shocked
aunt turns out to be a wealthy patron who may be donating money to Huxley’s
museum—she also owns a wire fox terrier named George (played by “Skippy,†who was
also Nick and Nora’s “Asta†in The Thin Man). When Huxley finally
receives the intercostal clavicle, George steals it and buries it somewhere.
One would think the dog and the leopard are conspiring against the couple! To
reveal more would spoil the rollicking good rollercoaster ride that is Bringing
Up Baby!
The
Criterion Collection has done a bang-up job on the new Blu-ray release. The
restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack, is a
marked improvement over the 2005 Warner special edition DVD (which was pretty
good to begin with!). Besides optional English subtitles for the hearing
impaired, the audio commentary included is by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, ported
over from that DVD release. All the other supplements on the Criterion edition
are different.
There’s
a wonderful video essay by author Scott Eyman on the early career of Cary
Grant; a new interview with cinematography John Bailey about DP Russell Metty;
a fascinating interview with film scholar Craig Barron about visual effects
wizard Linwood Dunn, who handled the tricky rear-screen projection and
traveling matte shots involving the leopard with the actors (and Dunn didn’t
receive credit!); a selected-scene commentary by costume historian Shelly Foote
on the work of designer Howard Greer for the film; an enlightening 1-hour
European documentary on Howard Hawks (with subtitles) by Hans-Christoph
Blumenberg, made not long before Hawks’ death; a fun audio interview from 1969
with Cary Grant answering audience questions after a screening of the film; audio
excerpts of a 1972 conversation between Hawks and Peter Bogdanovich (whose What’s
Up, Doc? is a direct homage to Baby); and the theatrical trailer.
The
enclosed booklet contains an essay by critic Sheila O’Malley, and, of special
interest, the original 1937 short story by Hagar Wilde upon which the film is
based.
Bringing
Up Baby is
guaranteed to make you laugh. Highly recommended for fans of screwball comedy,
Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Howard Hawks, and pure zaniness.
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