The mere title makes me smile. Bringing up Baby. Too many favorite scenes and moments to count. (I love Richard Schickel's analysis of what it was, specifically, about David Huxley - and Cary Grant's portrayal - that was so funny. I do agree with the thought that: on its own a nerdy goofball can be funny. Sure. But the comedy can only go so far. It is when you add that layer of crankiness and trying to be polite even though he is SO ANNOYED that is so so so funny. Even though Professor Huxley is the biggest nerd to ever walk the earth, he is not a passive idiot. He has WORK to do, and this silly heiress is distracting him, and that makes him CRANKY. It's just a very very funny mix, that's all.)
Anyway, as any Cary Grant fan will know, Pauline Kael was one of the biggest Cary Grant fans ever.
Bringing Up Baby 1938
Lunatic comedies of the 30s generally started with an heiress. This one starts with an heiress (Katherine Hepburn) who has a dog, George, and a leopard, Baby. Cary Grant is a paleontologist who has just acquired the bone he needs to complete his dinosaur skeleton. George steals the bone, Grant and Baby chase each other around, the dinosaur collapses -- but Grant winds up with Hepburn, and no paleontologist ever got hold of a more beautiful set of bones. The director, Howard Hawks, keeps all this trifling nonsense in such artful balance that it never impinges on the real world; it may be the American movies' closest equivalent to Restoration comedy.
It's a small moment, but I think my favorite in the movie is during the insane dinner scene when Cary Grant keeps exclaiming, "Excuse me" (see, he remembers his manners) and gets up to leave the table and chase George around. Cary Grant returns from one of these jaunts, stares blankly at his spot at the table, and says, with a hint of dismay and crankiness, "My soup's gone."
Hard to describe. Makes me howl every time I see it.
Like: Professor Huxley, you have been behaving like an insane person getting up and sitting down and getting up and sitting down. Of COURSE your soup is gone, don't get uppity with me!
Posted by sheila