A 1938 Howard Hawks film starring
Cary Grant and
Katharine Hepburn. The movie is considered the definitive absurdist comedy, and was given very high praise yet garnered no
Oscar nominations.
Grant plays a bumbling, somewhat stiff paleontologist named David who manages to get mixed up with a silly yet charming woman named Susan (Hepburn). They first meet while playing golf and a series of zany mishaps occur between them- David finds Susan repulsive with her absent-minded goofy manner. The two meet again later on and David learns that Susan is good friends with a man he greatly wishes to impress, and she tries to help David gain this man's respect.
During all of this, Susan manages to attain a leopard from her brother Mark in Brazil- the leopard is named Baby. Susan has taken a liking to David, who happens to be engaged to someone, and Susan lures David over to her place by way of pretening the leopard is attacking her. From here on, David and Susan deal with a ton of screwball situations involving Baby and other people. They will lose Baby, David will end up in a frilly woman's robe, and both will end up in jail. Can you guess whether the two fall for each other at the end?
A good movie- the quick dialogue and goofy mishaps can keep a viewer humored. Bringing Up Baby is the first and only "screwball comedy" Hepburn has done.
(In jail) Susan: Anyway, David, when they find out who we are they'll let us out.
David: When they find out who YOU are they'll pad the cell.