“Bringing Up Baby”

The first close-up in the entire movie comes in the 4th scene. The 4th scene. This is HIGHLY unusual. Think about the over-use of close-ups in movies today – and you will realize how unusual it is. Hawks holds back. A close-up means: psychology, introspection, point of view … It’s supposed to be a signal to the audience of how to feel, where to look, who to sympathize with. (But it’s not really used like that anymore in modern movies. If you use closeups all the time, they lose their significance. Think about soap operas, which are mostly done in close-up). But in old-fashioned movies, close-ups are used sparingly – and they are very very important. You can tell: the lighting changes in a close-up, there are music cues … The director is saying: Okay, now HERE is the emotional truth of the scene. HERE IT IS.

In Bringing up Baby, most of the scenes are filmed in one continuous shot – almost like Hawks was filming a play. It’s gloriously fun to watch – there is very little cutting back and forth – so that you know you are ACTUALLY seeing Cary Grant fall on his ass in the nightclub, you are ACTUALLY watching Huxley and Susan usher the leopard out of the car and into the barn stall … I love that. Please, directors: let the actors do what they do best and ACT. Get out of the damn way. Use the close-ups more sparingly and you’ll have a better movie. Also: It’s hard to imagine a modern star of any stature putting up with no less than 10 closeups in every scene. The vanity of the movie star is much more pampered now than it was then, when everyone, even the ginormous stars, were pretty much work-horses, slaves to the studios. But also (one more also?): Grant and Hepburn were trained in the theatre. They actually knew how to craft a scene on their own, without the camera’s aid – Bringing up Baby would be just as funny on the stage, because Grant and Hepburn know how to make big bold moves, and show the comedy in their bodies, in their behavior – they know how to modulate a scene without the camera telling the audience: “look here, look there”

Think about the one moment in the woods when Grant suddenly gets tender, and you think he might kiss her. That whole scene is done in pretty much one shot – maybe one or two cuts – but Grant lets you know exactly the moment when his character thinks: “Hm. I feel like kissing her …” with a small tilt of his head, and he moves in just a bit … All in a medium-shot, so we see his behavior, we see her response … It’s great fun. Many movie stars today only know how to act in closeup. ANYONE can act in a closeup. ANYONE is interesting in a closeup. But to be interesting and powerful in a medium shot? That takes some skill.

I never noticed, though, that Hawks barely uses closeups at all in Bringing Up Baby.

The first one comes in the 4th scene, and it is Hepburn’s close-up. We don’t get a close-up of Grant until much later. Interesting. So Hawks is signaling to us: Sympathize with Hepburn. We are on her side. We know her thoughts, we can see her plans. And we know that what she wants will be good for Grant’s character. She wants to loosen him up. He will become more human, and more manly, as the film goes on … under her influence. As the film goes on, the camera starts to move in on HIS face. It is only when he starts to come out of his shell, and really live, that we get the close-ups of him. Fascinating.

Nothing is an accident in a Howard Hawks film.

1st scene: — At the museum. Huxley gets word that the intercostal clavicle is on its way. His stuck-up fiancee reminds him he has to play golf with Mr. Peabody (“Peabody? WHAT Peabody?”) and suck up to him to get the grant. No closeups. This scene is sheer exposition. We’re all on the surface here.

2nd scene: — The golf course. First time Huxley and Susan meet. It ends in disaster, with Huxley clinging to the side of his own car, as Susan screeches out of the parking lot … leaving Mr. Peabody watching the whole thing, bewildered. No closeups. Again: we’re still getting introduced to the characters. We don’t know them yet. We don’t know who to side with yet.

3rd scene: — The nightclub. Huxley and Susan run into each other again. Huxley falls on his ass, slipping on an olive dropped by Susan. She eventually runs after him to apologize and rips his tailcoat. He is enraged. She starts to storm away from him, and the entire back panel of her dress rips off. He then tries to shield her, leading to the hilarious lock-step exit from the nightclub. No closeups in this scene.

4th scene: — Up at Susan’s apartment – as she mends his tailcoat. He is disgruntled. She is breezily certain it all can work out. She knows Mr. Peabody well … why don’t they just drive up to Riverdale where he lives, and explain it all to him? Huxley says, “Oh, no, no …” Susan helps him into his jacket (awkwardly): “We can drive right up there in my car …” Huxley says, finally in the jacket, “No, we can’t – because I have to meet Miss Swallow! We’re engaged!” And then – finally – huge glimmering closeup of Katharine Hepburn’s face. The first closeup in the film. You can see the anxiety in her eyes, the sudden vulnerability – and she says, “Engaged … to be married?” The scene then moves on – the closeup ends – but Hawks has done his job. Masterfully. We need no more exposition. we don’t have to have a scene of dialogue where Susan describes her feelings, we don’t have to hear her explain herself … that one closeup tells us ALL we need to know. Okay: she loves him. And we are on her side.

(Although: LOOK at his expression in that photo above. I mean … how can you not be on that poor man’s side? He’s just trying to hide her cute little undies from being on display … He is panicked. “Something terrible has happened …” hahahaha)