There are a lot of films from the 1930s and 1940s that are incorrectly referred to a screwball comedies. This film ought to almost be considered the textbook example of a screwball comedy. Unfortunately, Howard Hawks, the director, didn't even quite get his own film! He though it didn't work because there were no normal characters in the film...which exactly makes it a screwball comedy.

Think of our two main characters. Cary Grant who is a brilliant scientist with very few social skills. Katherine Hepburn who has no intellectual prowess whatsoever, but who has oodles of social skills, though they are a bit unusual. A perfect pairing. Then you have Hepburn's aunt, who now owns a leopard as a pet...who is running after Charles Ruggles, a big game hunter (of sorts). And then you have dinosaur bones versus a dog. What more do you need for a screwball comedy? One of the funniest scenes in film is in this movie -- where Katerine Hepburn's dress falls apart, and he covers it up first with his top hat, and then with his own body...as they walk through a ritzy restaurant! This comedic role is one of Grant's best. His acrobatic/athletic skills fit some of the slapstick perfectly, and his general demeanor is what you never see in any other Cary Grant role. Hepburn reportedly had a lot of difficulty with the comedy, but she comes across well as an almost total airhead. The primary supporting cast is terrific -- May Robson as the eccentric aunt, Charles Ruggles good as the big-game hunter, and a couple of great scenes with veteran comic actor Walter Catlett as a constable. You'll briefly see some other faces -- Ward Bond, and Barry Fitzgerald has a small part.

Most every scene in this film made me at least smile, and a few times I laughed out loud, and that's something I rarely do. I wasn't thrilled with the swinging ladder scene at the close of the movie. That was just stupid, and they could have gotten to the same conclusion with something that would have seemed more realistically possible. But, overall, the movie's a gem...a true screwball comedy.

I remember watching "Bringing Up Baby" for the first time many years ago, and thinking it was a very funny film. So, I watched it again recently for some laughs but I found only a couple. Well, maybe moods and times make a difference, so I just watched it one more time. Now, I wonder if it's the same movie I watched originally. Or maybe I was just impressed by what others were saying about the film then.

Anyway, I enjoy comedy and especially appreciate farce, as is found often in screwball comedy. But for that to work, it has to have great material and the right combinations of a cast and other things. This film just misses the mark in key areas. The screenplay suffers a great deal. First, it's far too wordy and talkative. Katherine Hepburn's frenetic Susan is constantly rattling on and on and running here or there. Sometimes it's funny, but more often it's just inane, and that makes it tiring. Cary Grant's lines are almost void of any humor. It seems as though half of his lines are "Susan! Susan!" or "Oh, Susan!" or just plain "Susan." After the third or fourth "Susan! Susan!" his dialog becomes tedious, and Cary Grant's David begins to grate on one's nerves.

The constant mayhem in this film soon loses its luster. Only an occasional scene or exchange of lines is funny. Some others of the cast do well in their roles, but again, the humor is limited. Charles Ruggles is good as Major Applegate. May Robson is ideal as Aunt Elizabeth. This is the first movie for Virginia Walker who plays Alice Swallow. She is the type of person one might expect a no-nonsense professor to have as a fiancé. But she didn't make another movie until 1945. She got bit parts in four films that year and then died at age 30 in 1946. Little information is available about her or the cause of her death. A newspaper notice said she died after a long illness.

Two scenes stand out as genuinely funny. The first is early in the film when Susan and David are in the restaurant. She accidentally rips the back of his suit jacket. Then he accidentally tears the back off her dress – exposing her girdle from behind. They hurry out of the restaurant, walking in step against one another, David in the back. The extras in the restaurant got a charge out of it as well. The second very funny scene is late in the movie in the jail. The humor here is mostly around dialog with Constable Slocum played very well by Walter Catlett. Just about everybody gets in on the craziness in the jail.

I agree that the animal scene is very good with Baby (the leopard) and George (the Scottie dog) wrestling and playing together.

Howard Hawks directed this RKO production, but it's far from his usual quality films. Another thing that detracted from the film some was the obvious stage sets for the outdoor scenes when David and Susan go hunting for Baby. I heard Cary Grant's voice echo a couple of time, which deflates the scene.

Cary Grant has made many wonderful comedies, and Katherine Hepburn has a few very good ones to her credit. Hepburn and Grant together are capable of chemistry as they showed in "Holiday." It came out just four months after "Bringing Up Baby." And, in that one, Hepburn is a free-wheeling spirit as well – but not a perpetual motion machine spewing incoherently or gabbing with gibberish. A couple other top comedies of Hepburn's were "The Philadelphia Story" of 1940 and "Woman of the Year" in 1942.

I wondered about the difference in the two close Hepburn comedies of 1938. So, I did some online research. Sure enough – it was in 1938 – after this film came out, that Hepburn was labeled box office poison by the independent theater owners in America. An article to that effect appeared in the May 3, 1938, issue of the Independent Film Journal. Hepburn responded by ending her contract with RKO. "Bringing Up Baby" was her last RKO film. Her next, much better film came out just four months later. "Holiday" again co-starred Cary Grant but it was produced by Columbia Pictures and directed by George Cukor.

This isn't a bad film, and most people might enjoy it once. Animal lovers would be its biggest fans. But it's not of the caliber of films to keep in a library for future viewings and for passing on in families.

I was really torn, as I wanted to give this movie a 10 but it's tough when his later film, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, is even better. These two films as well as HIS GIRL Friday are all definitive proof that when it comes to classic screwball comedy, Cary Grant was a god!

The best part of this film is the weird role played by Katherine Hepburn. She plays against type as one of the ditziest dames in film history--sort of like a livelier and dumber version of Gracie Allen! She just steals the show from Cary Grant, though he, too, does a great job in the film. So, if you are looking for Grant's greatest performance, the other two films are more showcases for his zaniness--though later in the film, Hepburn's nuttiness seems to wear off on Cary, just a bit.

Cary plays a "stuffed shirt" paleontologist whose two loves in his life are the dinosaur he's trying to complete and his cold as ice fiancée. When an important bone from the dinosaur is discovered, it represents the final bone and an end to years of work to assemble it. However, shortly after getting the bone, Ms. Hepburn accidentally kidnaps Grant and the missing bone. And, a short time later, her annoying terrier steals the bone and buries it on Hepburn's huge estate! Cary discovers the bone is missing about the same time "Baby" arrives--Kate's new pet Leopard! Well, much of the movie is spent going on some of the screwiest adventures with some of the funniest scenes of the 1930s. I especially like it when Cary is forced to wear a woman's robe. When someone comes to the door, he has a hard time accounting for the clothes and finally says he has the robe on "because I was feeling quite GAY today!". If only he knew what this would mean if said after the late 1960s! Anyway, by the end of the film, Cary is ready to kill Kate. However, despite this he also realizes he loves the excitement being married to such a nut and can't marry his cold, icky fiancée. And in the end, God help him, he chooses Kate.

The film abounds with great humor, timing and snappy dialog--it's one of the best films of its era and stars two wonderful actors at the top of their game.