Do you believe that there is a movie movie that the concept and the story is too advanced for the size of his time? So what will happen ?, what about the movie itself, the cast and crew involved in it? In 1938, when Bringing up baby was first released, the film was labeled a "career suicide" like Grant, Hepburn and Hawks. Howard Hawks was fired from studio RKO Radio Pictures (when the Hawks still had another 2 movie contract with RKO), his own movie failed in the cinema alias free fall in ticket sales, it is very angry cinema entrepreneurs at that time dub Katherine Hepburn with "box office poison" aka box office poison. > __ <ehmm ... Gosh, sounds bad, huh?
Okay, it looks very interesting, the film is labeled as "career suicide" for Hepburn and Hawks this, until 2012, has a rating of 8.1 on IMDb and 95% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes, and ranks in various categories in AFI ( American Film Institute). Maybe if I could transport to 1938, I was one of the few people who would watch this movie in theaters and direct fansgirling mode on against Cary Grant and Hepburn for their flawless performance.
Dr. David Huxley (Grant), a geeky paleontologist (geeky here pictured with haired clippings, dressed up, bespectacled, awkward but still trying to be gentleman) gets married to Alice Swallow (Virginia Walker), a sour-faced woman (term haha ..) with an unpleasant personality. One day before her wedding, Huxley met Susan Vance (Katherine Hepburn), a free-spirited young lady, who (either accidental or intentional) always meets Huxley everywhere. Susan's interest in David was not shown with honesty or menye menye, but with a variety of good tricks to menjahili David or just to attract his attention. Then there was Baby, a tame leopard who was a gift from Vance's sister to their aunt. Susan, who believed that David was a Zoologist (not a Paleontologist), insisted on forcing David to take care of Baby before being handed to her aunt, including singing "I Can not Give You Anything But Love" (which Baby likes .. haha ..). Geez..can imagine how annoying this Susan is?
Lots of scene scenes in this movie that can provoke laughter to the maximum stage (depending on your sense of humor). Chemistry between Grant and Hepburn in this movie is very fitting. If at The Philadelphia Story, I see Grant as Dexter's haughty, chatty and clever tongue (with Tracy haha ..), then at Bringing up baby, she's completely awkward, especially when confronted with Susan who is capable of making her speechless and helpless . (OOT notes: the initial scene at The Philadelphia Story when Dexter pushed Tracy down, I think of revenge of David Huxley's character in Bringing up this baby .. haha ..).
The film once again accentuated Katherine Hepburn who acted almost perfectly. Hepburn brings Susan's female, practical, clever, cunning character with an approach similar to some of her original characters. He is able to make the audience not know to laugh with his cunning tricks, to feel sorry for David or to be angry with Susan who (for the mindset of people in that era) toying with men and often acting inconsistent with the standards of people's behavior in that era.
As we understand today, once feminism was running very slowly, if it refused to be called sluggish, then the double standard of men and women began to be installed as a shield. Is it so hard to accept the concept that a woman has the right to determine and achieve what she wants? This is what makes Bringing up Baby not welcome in the community in its era. It's hard not to believe, that this one Howard Hawks film, played brilliantly by Grant and Hepburn, was underrated by critics and society at that time. Oh well, history proves otherwise.
Bringing up Baby is one of the films that has high points points in the Screwball comedy genre, with a clever and sharp script and is brilliantly balanced by the execution of acting from Grant and Hepburn. Bringing Up Baby is another of the 1930's and 1940's scootball comedies of the 1930's and 1940's. One of Hollywood's greatest comedies.
Bringing up Baby (1938) Howard Hawks