Bringing Up Baby
Bringing Up Baby | |
---|---|
RKO Radio Pictures | |
Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 102 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1.1 million |
Box office | $1.1 million |
Bringing Up Baby is a 1938 American
The script was written specifically for Hepburn, and tailored to her personality. Filming began in September 1937 and wrapped in January 1938, over schedule and over budget. Production was frequently delayed by Hepburn and Grant's uncontrollable laughing fits. Hepburn struggled with her comedic performance and was coached by another cast member, vaudeville veteran Walter Catlett. A tame leopard was used during the shooting; its trainer stood off-screen with a whip for all of its scenes.
Bringing Up Baby was a
Since then, the film has gained acclaim from both critics and audiences for its zany antics and pratfalls, absurd situations and misunderstandings, perfect sense of comic timing, completely screwball cast, series of lunatic and hare-brained misadventures, disasters, light-hearted surprises and romantic comedy.[2]
In 1990, Bringing Up Baby was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant,"[3][4] and it has appeared on a number of greatest-films lists, ranking 88th on the American Film Institute's 100 greatest American films of all time list.
Plot
David Huxley is a mild-mannered paleontologist. For the past four years, he has been trying to assemble the skeleton of a Brontosaurus but is missing one bone: the "intercostal clavicle." Adding to his stress is his impending marriage to Alice Swallow and the need to impress Elizabeth Random, who is considering a million-dollar donation to his museum.
The day before his wedding, David meets Susan Vance by chance on a golf course. She plays his ball, but refuses to accept that she has made a mistake. She is a free-spirited, somewhat scatterbrained, young lady, unfettered by logic. These qualities soon embroil David in several frustrating incidents.
Susan's brother Mark has sent her a tame
David's prized intercostal clavicle is delivered, but Susan's aunt's dog George takes it and buries it somewhere. When Susan's aunt arrives, she discovers David in a negligee. To David's dismay, she turns out to be Elizabeth Random. A second message from Mark makes clear the leopard is for Elizabeth, as she always wanted one. Baby and George run off. The zoo is called to help capture Baby. Susan and David race to find Baby before the zoo and, mistaking a dangerous leopard (also portrayed by Nissa) from a nearby circus for Baby, they let it out of its cage.
David and Susan are jailed by a befuddled town policeman, Constable Slocum, for acting strangely at the house of Dr. Fritz Lehman, where they have cornered the circus leopard, thinking it is Baby. When Slocum does not believe their story, Susan tells him they are members of the "Leopard Gang"; she calls herself "Swingin' Door Susie," and David "Jerry the Nipper."[a] Eventually, Alexander Peabody shows up to verify everyone's identity. Susan, who escapes out of a window during a police interview, unwittingly drags the highly irritated circus leopard into the jail. David saves her, using a chair to shoo the big cat into a cell.
Some time later, Susan finds David, who has been jilted by Alice because of her, on a high platform working on his Brontosaurus reconstruction at the museum. After showing him the missing bone which she found by trailing George for three days, Susan, against his warnings, climbs a tall ladder next to the dinosaur to be closer to him. She tells David that her aunt has given her the million dollars, and she wants to donate it to the museum, but David is more interested in telling her that the day spent with her was the best day of his life. They declare their love for each other, and Susan, distracted by the moment, unconsciously swings the ladder from side to side. As they talk, and the ladder sways more and more with each swing, Susan and David finally notice that Susan is in danger. Frightened, she climbs onto the skeleton, eventually causing it to collapse. David grabs her hand before she falls, lifts her onto the platform, and halfheartedly complains about the loss of his years of work on his Brontosaurus as she talks him into forgiving her. Resigning himself to a future of chaos, David embraces and kisses Susan.
Cast
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Uncredited
Animals
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Production
Development and writing
In March 1937, Howard Hawks signed a contract at RKO for an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's Gunga Din, which had been in pre-production since the previous fall. When RKO was unable to borrow Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy and Franchot Tone from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for the film and the adaptation of Gunga Din was delayed, Hawks began looking for a new project. In April 1937, he read a short story by Hagar Wilde in Collier's magazine called "Bringing Up Baby" and immediately wanted to make a film from it,[5] remembering that it made him laugh out loud.[6] RKO bought the screen rights in June[7] for $1,004, and Hawks worked briefly with Wilde on the film's treatment.[8] Wilde's short story differed significantly from the film: David and Susan are engaged, he is not a scientist and there is no dinosaur, intercostal clavicle or museum. However, Susan gets a pet panther from her brother Mark to give to their Aunt Elizabeth; David and Susan must capture the panther in the Connecticut wilderness with the help of Baby's favorite song, "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby".[7]
Hawks then hired screenwriter Dudley Nichols, best known for his work with director John Ford, for the script. Wilde would develop the characters and comedic elements of the script, while Nichols would take care of the story and structure. Hawks worked with the two writers during summer 1937, and they came up with a 202-page script.[9] Wilde and Nichols wrote several drafts together, beginning a romantic relationship and co-authoring the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film Carefree a few months later.[7] The Bringing Up Baby script underwent several changes, and at one point there was an elaborate pie fight, inspired by Mack Sennett films. Major Applegate had an assistant and food taster named Ali (which was intended to be played by Mischa Auer), but this character was replaced with Aloysius Gogarty. The script's final draft had several scenes in the middle of the film in which David and Susan declare their love for each other which Hawks cut during production.[10]
Nichols was instructed to write the film for Hepburn, with whom he had worked on John Ford's Mary of Scotland (1936).[11] Barbara Leaming alleged that Ford had an affair with Hepburn, and claims that many of the characteristics of Susan and David were based on Hepburn and Ford.[12] Nichols was in touch with Ford during the screenwriting, and the film included such members of the John Ford Stock Company as Ward Bond, Barry Fitzgerald, D'Arcy Corrigan and associate producer Cliff Reid.[13] John Ford was a friend of Hawks, and visited the set. The round glasses Grant wears in the film are reminiscent of Harold Lloyd and of Ford.[14]
Filming was scheduled to begin on September 1, 1937 and wrap on October 31, but was delayed for several reasons. Production had to wait until mid-September to clear the rights for "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby" for $1,000. In August, Hawks hired gag writers
Unscripted ad-lib by Grant
It has been debated whether Bringing Up Baby is the first fictional work (apart from
The line in the film was an
The 1933 film
Casting
After briefly considering Hawks's cousin Carole Lombard for the role of Susan Vance, producers chose Katharine Hepburn to play the wealthy New Englander because of her background and similarities to the character. RKO agreed to the casting, but had reservations because of Hepburn's salary and lack of box-office success for several years.[9] Producer Lou Lusty said, "You couldn't even break even, if a Hepburn show cost eight hundred grand."[16] At first, Hawks and producer Pandro S. Berman could not agree on whom to cast in the role of David Huxley. Hawks initially wanted silent-film comedian Harold Lloyd; Berman rejected Lloyd and Ronald Colman, offering the role to Robert Montgomery, Fredric March and Ray Milland (all of whom turned it down).[24]
Hawks' friend Howard Hughes finally suggested Cary Grant for the role.[25] Grant had just finished shooting his breakthrough romantic comedy The Awful Truth (1937),[9] and Hawks may have seen a rough cut of the unreleased film.[16] Grant then had a non-exclusive, four-picture deal with RKO for $50,000 per film, and Grant's manager used his casting in the film to renegotiate his contract, earning him $75,000 plus the bonuses Hepburn was receiving.[24] Grant was concerned about being able to play an intellectual character and took two weeks to accept the role, despite the new contract. Hawks built Grant's confidence by promising to coach him throughout the film, instructing him to watch Harold Lloyd films for inspiration.[26] Grant met with Howard Hughes throughout the film to discuss his character, which he said helped his performance.[26]
Hawks obtained character actors
Filming
Shooting began September 23, 1937, and was scheduled to end November 20, 1937,
Most shooting was done at the Arthur Ranch in the San Fernando Valley, which was used as Aunt Elizabeth's estate for interior and exterior scenes.
The terrier George was played by Skippy, known as Asta in
Hawks and Hepburn had a confrontation one day during shooting. While Hepburn was chatting with a crew member, Hawks yelled "Quiet!" until the only person still talking was Hepburn. When Hepburn paused and realized that everyone was looking at her, she asked what was the matter. Hawks asked her if she was finished imitating a parrot. Hepburn took Hawks aside, telling him never to talk to her like that again since she was old friends with most of the crew. When Hawks (an even older friend of the crew) asked a lighting tech whom he would rather drop a light on, Hepburn agreed to behave on set. A variation of this scene, with Grant yelling "Quiet!", was incorporated into the film.[31][35]
The Westlake Street set was shot at 20th Century Fox Studios.[15] Filming was eventually completed on January 6, 1938 with the scenes outside Mr. Peabody's house. RKO producers expressed concern about the film's delays and expense, coming in 40 days over schedule and $330,000 over budget, and also disliked Grant's glasses and Hepburn's hair.[35] The film's final cost was $1,096,796.23, primarily due to overtime clauses in Hawks's, Grant's and Hepburn's contracts.[28] The film's cost for sets and props was only $5,000 over budget, but all actors (including Nissa and Skippy) were paid approximately double their initial salaries. Hepburn's salary rose from $72,500 to $122,000, Grant's from $75,000 to $123,000 and Hawks's from $88,000 to $203,000; Hawks received an additional $40,000 to terminate his RKO contract on March 21, 1938.[36]
Post-production and previews
Hawks's editor, George Hively, cut the film during production and the final prints were made a few days after shooting ended.
Like all Hawks's comedies, the film is fast paced (despite being filmed primarily in long medium shots, with little cross-cutting). Hawks told Peter Bogdanovich, "You get more pace if you pace the actors quickly within the frame rather than cross cutting fast".[34]
By February 18, the film had been cut to 9,204 feet.[38] It had two advance previews in January 1938, where it received either As or A-pluses on audience-feedback cards. Producer Pandro S. Berman wanted to cut five more minutes, but relented when Hawks, Grant and Cliff Reid objected.[38] At the film's second preview, the film received rave reviews and RKO expected a hit.[28] The film's musical score is minimal, primarily Grant and Hepburn singing "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby". There is incidental music in the Ritz scene, and an arrangement of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby" during the opening and closing credits by musical director Roy Webb.[39]
Reception
Critical response
The film received good advance reviews, with
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 68 reviews, with an average rating of 9/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "With Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant at their effervescent best, Bringing Up Baby is a seamlessly assembled comedy with enduring appeal."[48] On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 91 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[49]
Box office
Despite Bringing Up Baby's reputation as a flop, it was successful in some parts of the U.S. The film premiered on February 16, 1938 at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco (where it was a hit), and was also successful in Los Angeles, Portland, Denver, Cincinnati and Washington, D.C. However, it was a financial disappointment in the Midwest, as well as most other cities in the country, including NYC; to RKO's chagrin, the film's premiere in New York on March 3, 1938 at Radio City Music Hall made only $70,000 and it was pulled after one week[50] in favor of Jezebel with Bette Davis.[51]
During its first run, Bringing Up Baby made $715,000 in the U.S. and $394,000 in foreign markets for a total of $1,109,000;
Legacy
Bringing Up Baby was the second of four films starring Grant and Hepburn; the others were Sylvia Scarlett (1935), Holiday (1938) and The Philadelphia Story (1940). The film's concept was described by philosopher Stanley Cavell as a "definitive achievement in the history of the art of film."[58] Cavell noted that Bringing Up Baby was made in a tradition of romantic comedy with inspiration from ancient Rome and Shakespeare.[59] Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It have been cited in particular as influences on the film and the screwball comedy in general, with their "haughty, self-sufficient men, strong women and fierce combat of words and wit."[60] Hepburn's character has been cited as an early example of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl film archetype.[61]
The popularity of Bringing Up Baby has increased since it was shown on television during the 1950s, and by the 1960s film analysts (including the writers at Cahiers du Cinéma in France) affirmed the film's quality. In a rebuttal of fellow New York Times critic Nugent's scathing review of the film at the time of release, A. O. Scott has said that you'll "find yourself amazed at its freshness, its vigor, and its brilliance-qualities undiminished after sixty-five years, and likely to withstand repeated viewings."[47] Leonard Maltin stated that it is now "considered the definitive screwball comedy, and one of the fastest, funniest films ever made; grand performances by all."[47]
Bringing Up Baby has been adapted several times. Hawks recycled the nightclub scene in which Hepburn's dress is torn and Grant walks behind her in the comedy
The French film
In 1990 (the registry's second year), Bringing Up Baby was selected for preservation in the
The National Society of Film Critics also included Bringing Up Baby in their "100 Essential Films", considering it to be arguably the director's best film.[60]
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
- 1998: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – #97[68]
- 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #14[69]
- 2002: AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – #51[70]
- 2007: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #88[71]
Notes
- ^ "Jerry the Nipper" was Irene Dunne's character's nickname for Grant's character in The Awful Truth, which also featured Asta
See also
References
- ^ Hanson 1993, p. 235.
- ^ "Bringing Up Baby (1938)". www.filmsite.org. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
- ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
- ^ Mast 1988, p. 4.
- ^ Eliot 2004, p. 175.
- ^ a b c Mast 1988, p. 5.
- ^ McCarthy 1997, p. 246.
- ^ a b c d McCarthy 1997, p. 247.
- ^ a b Mast 1988, p. 6.
- ^ Leaming 1995, p. 348.
- ^ Leaming 1995, pp. 348–349.
- ^ Leaming 1995, pp. 348–9.
- ^ Leaming 1995, p. 349.
- ^ a b Mast 1988, p. 29.
- ^ a b c d e f Mast 1988, p. 7.
- ^ "Censored Films and Television at University of Virginia online". University of Virginia Library. Archived from the original on October 3, 2011. Retrieved March 9, 2014.
- ^ Boswell 2009, p. 43.
- ^ a b Russo 1987, p. 47.
- ^ a b Harper, Douglas (2001–2013). "Gay". Online Etymology dictionary.
- ^ a b c d Mast 1988, p. 8.
- ^ Vieira, Mark A., Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood, Abrams, 1999, pg. 133
- ^ Vieira, Mark A., Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood, Abrams, 1999, pg. 168
- ^ a b Eliot 2004, pp. 176–177.
- ^ Eliot 2004, p. 174.
- ^ a b Eliot 2004, p. 178.
- ^ McCarthy 1997, p. 248.
- ^ a b c d e McCarthy 1997, p. 254.
- ^ a b McCarthy 1997, p. 250.
- ^ McCarthy 1997, pp. 250–251.
- ^ a b Mast 1988, p. 261.
- ^ McCarthy 1997, p. 251.
- ^ a b c d McCarthy 1997, p. 252.
- ^ a b c Bringing Up Baby DVD. Special Features. Peter Bogdanovich Audio Commentary. Turner Home Entertainment. 2005.
- ^ a b McCarthy 1997, p. 253.
- ^ a b c d Mast 1988, p. 14.
- ^ Mast 1988, p. 12.
- ^ a b c d Mast 1988, p. 13.
- ^ Mast 1988, p. 9.
- ^ Mast 1988, p. 268.
- ^ Mast 1988, p. 266.
- ^ Mast 1988, p. 267.
- Film Daily: 12. February 11, 1938.
- ^ "Bringing Up Baby". Harrison's Reports: 31. February 19, 1938.
- ^ Mosher, John (March 5, 1938). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. pp. 61–62.
- ^ Mast 1988, p. 265.
- ^ a b c Laham 2009, p. 29.
- ^ "Bringing Up Baby (1938)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
- ^ "Bringing Up Baby reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
- ^ a b McCarthy 1997, p. 255.
- ^ Brown 1995, p. 140.
- ^ McCarthy 1997, p. 257.
- ^ a b McCarthy 1997, p. 256.
- ^ a b Mast 1988, p. 16.
- ^ Eliot 2004, pp. 180–1.
- ^ McCarthy 1997, pp. 255–7.
- ^ Mast 1988, p. 15.
- ^ Cavell 1981, p. 1.
- ^ Mast 1988, p. 3.
- ^ a b Carr 2002, p. 48.
- ^ Bowman, Donna; Gillette, Amelie; Hyden, Steven; Murray, Noel; Pierce, Leonard; Rabin, Nathan (August 4, 2008). "Wild things: 16 films featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls". The A.V. Club. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
- ^ Steven H. Scheuer (1990). Movies on TV and Videocassette, 1991-1992
- ^ Martin Connors, Jim Craddock (1999). VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever 1999
- ^ Films and Filming, Issues 411-423, 1989.
- ^ "'Who's That Girl' (PG)". The Washington Post. August 8, 1987. Retrieved March 9, 2014.
- ^ Premiere. "The 100 Greatest Characters of All Time". Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., April 2004, retrieved November 18, 2013.
- ^ Premiere. "The 100 Greatest Characters of All Time". Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., April 2006, retrieved November 18, 2013.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies" (PDF). American Film Institute. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs" (PDF). American Film Institute. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions" (PDF). American Film Institute. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)" (PDF). American Film Institute. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
Bibliography
- Boswell, John (February 15, 2009). Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-06714-8.
- Brown, Gene (November 1, 1995). Movie time: a chronology of Hollywood and the movie industry from its beginnings to the present. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-02-860429-9.
- Carr, Jay (January 2002). The A List: The National Society of Film Critics' 100 Essential Films. Da Capo Press. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-306-81096-1.
- ISBN 978-0-674-73906-2.
- Eliot, Marc (2004). Cary Grant: A Biography. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 978-0-307-20983-2.
- Hanson, Patricia King, ed. (1993). The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films, 1931–1940. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-07908-3.
- Laham, Nicholas (January 1, 2009). Currents of Comedy on the American Screen: How Film and Television Deliver Different Laughs for Changing Times. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-5383-2.
- Leaming, Barbara (1995). Katharine Hepburn. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. ISBN 978-0-87910-293-7.
- Mast, Gerald (1988). Bringing Up Baby. Howard Hawks, director. New Brunswick and London: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-1341-6.
- McCarthy, Todd (1997). Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 978-0-8021-3740-1.
- ISBN 978-0-06-096132-9.
Further reading
- Swaab, Peter (January 4, 2011). Bringing Up Baby. British Film Institute. ISBN 978-1-84457-070-6.
External links
- Bringing Up Baby at IMDb
- Bringing Up Baby at AllMovie
- Bringing Up Baby at the TCM Movie Database
- Bringing Up Baby at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Pauline Kael analysis
- Bringing Up Baby at moviediva
- Reprints of historic reviews, photo gallery at CaryGrant.net
- Bringing Up Baby on Theater of Romance: July 24, 1945
- Bringing Up Baby essay by Michael Schlesinger on the National Film Registry site.
- Bringing Up Baby: Bones, Balls, and Butterflies an essay by Sheila O’Malley at the Criterion Collection