Retrospective 2015

Bringing Up Baby

Howard Hawks
USA 1938
102 min
V'15

“The love impulse in man”, says a psychiatrist in BRINGING UP BABY, “frequently reveals itself in terms of conflict.” That's for sure. For a primer on the rules and regulations of the classic screwball comedy, which throws love and conflict into close proximity, look no further. A straight-laced paleontologist (Cary Grant) loses a dinosaur bone to a dog belonging to free-spirited heiress Katharine Hepburn. In trying to retrieve said bone, Grant is drawn into the vortex surrounding the delicious Hepburn, which becomes a flirtatious pas de deux that will transform both of them. Howard Hawks plays the complications as a breathless escalation of their “love impulse”, yet the movie is nonetheless romantic for all its speed. Grant and Hepburn are a match made in movie heaven, in sync with each other throughout. (Robert Horton)

Supporting film: GARE! LES LIONS!

Credits
  • Katharine Hepburn - Susan Vance
  • Cary Grant - David Huxley
  • Charlie Ruggles - Major Applegate
  • Walter Catlett - Slocum
  • Barry Fitzgerald - Mr. Gogarty
  • Dudley Nichols
  • Hagar Wilde
  • Russell Metty
  • John L. Cass
  • George Hively
  • Jimmy McHugh
  • Dorothy Fields
  • Van Nest Polglase
  • Howard Geer
RKO Radio Pictures
35 mm
bw
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