My face hurt from laughing after watching this. It hurt most after watching a dinner scene during which Cary Grant left the table frequently to follow a dog. After leaving a couple times, he returns, looks at the table and complains to the flabbergasted people at the table, "My soup's gone!"
There's something so effortlessly charming about this movie, due in large part to the chemistry between Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. She's on fire in this role, shooting out fast paced dialogue with a devilish grin and an infectious lust for life. Her character is impulsive (to the point of madness, I thought) and forgetful. In lesser hands, the character would be completely annoying in how she disregards the other people around her, but Hepburn adds an element of caring and class to the role that, ultimately, avoids this pitfall (though it's a close call at first). Cary Grant is a great match for her too as an ineffectual nerd, bursting with latent aggression. His bumbling and stuttering would also be annoying in lesser hands, but the way Grant bursts out of it from time to time is a joy to behold.
These characters have a volatile relationship from the start. But after a psychiatrist informs Katherine Hepburn that the male love impulse often expresses itself in terms of conflict, she decides that Grant loves her and that she'll love him too. Then, the plot places a leopard named Baby between the two, and their efforts to control the volatility of the wild animal teaches them how to control the volatility between themselves. As you can see, this is an entry in the "couple hates each other until they fall in love" genre, featuring the staple mismatched characters and many plot contrivances to bring them closer together. But where other movies fail, this one succeeds because most of the contrivances are character-driven. After our introduction to the characters, we could honestly believe that Hepburn would be sent a leopard by her brother or that Grant's character is good-hearted enough to see a task through to the end, no matter how horribly he's treated. And the leopard is, I must say, a nice touch. It gives the couple an external force to reckon with, causing them to unite (and it does it without all the super-serious fuss of something like a war to hone in on the fun).
Article comments
1 - Kay Bell
Nice review! This is definitely going on my Christmas list. I love classic movies, and have always been saddened that many Hepburn fans focus on her movies with Spencer Tracy and miss such jewels as this. And maybe it's just because I find him so good looking, but I think Grant's comic touch is magical. I remember when I saw What's Up Doc? with Streisand and thought it was so-so. Then I saw Bringing Up Baby and realized "So THIS is was what Bogdanovich was trying to (re)make." Sorry, Peter et al, nothing beats the original.
2 - alpha
A fine review of one of my favorite classic comedies; if not the favorite. I have never really taken it apart or thought about characterizations, plot and dialogue as one usually does.
It just is what it is. Funny, endearing, "zany" which is perfect as the epitome of 1930s "zany comedies" and (whatever imperfections) the perfect Cary Grant and ideal Katherine Hepburn. Only The Philadelphia Story equals the fun -- and then we would have to discuss Jimmy Stewart.
You forgot the great scene at dinner that is the classic one where Grant hides Hepburn's (gasp) dress being split up the backside in a vaudeville walk through the restaurant.
And there is the picture of Connecticut where Hepburn did grow up and which probably hasn't changed much now: stuffy enough to make a great backdrop for comedy and leopards and dumb constables (back to vaudeville).
So that is how I don't think about this film; just watch it over and over and over and laugh each time.
3 - David Wester
No kidding. I cut a line from this review which reads: "Eh, I'm thinking about it too much."