Bringing Up Baby

1938.  1 hour 42 minutes.  Comedy

Screenplay: Dudley Nicols, Hagar Wilde

Based on an original story by: Hagar Wilde

Director & Producer: Howard Hawks

Musical Director: Ray Webb

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Players:

Katherine Hepburn - Susan Vance

Cary Grant - Dr David Huxley (alias Mr Bone)

May Robson - Elizabeth Carlton Random

Charles Ruggles - Major Horace Applegate

Walter Catlett - Constable Slocum

Barry Fitzgerald - Aloysius Gogarty

Fritz Field - Dr Fritz Lehman

George Irving - Alexander Peabody

Leona Roberts - Hannah Gogarty

Tala Birrell - Mrs Lehman

John Kelly - Elmer

Skipper - George (Mrs Random's dog)

Nissa - Baby and the circus leopard

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Plot:

This film is quite fast paced.  We were in a whirl when it had finished!  Cary Grant plays Dr David Huxley, a palaeontologist.  He meets Susan Vance, a scatter-brained heiress, played by Katherine Hepburn.  When Susan's brother sends her a real leopard, called Baby, from Brazil, she asks David to help her take it to her farm in Connecticut, as she believes David to be a zoologist.  This leads to one mad-cap situation after another.

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My thoughts on the film:

Well, I don't mind telling you, I was exhausted by the end of it!  It was just so fast, with lots of people talking quickly and running around!   I think Cary Grant's character was very tolerant of Katherine Hepburn's character.  I wouldn't have stood for any of that.  She also talked so quickly I struggled to keep up with her.  I felt dizzy by the end!  Apparently, this film was written especially for Katherine Hepburn and filming was often delayed because she and Cary Grant would frequently be in fits of laughter.

Mrs T was thrilled with this film.  She enjoyed every minute of it.  Mrs T is a very big fan of Cary Grant and has a picture of him up in the Anderson shelter!  On the whole it was an enjoyable film, but concentration was needed in case we missed anything.  When we left the cinema, I spent the walk home trying to explain to Mrs T how impractical it would be to keep a leopard!  By bedtime (with Rupert, our fox terrier, laid on the bed), she realised a leopard just wouldn't fit in to our household.

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