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Movies / On DVD / Bringing Up Baby
Bringing Up Baby

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Bringing Up Baby (1938)

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Reviews Counted:35

Fresh:33

Rotten:2

Average Rating:8.4/10

Consensus: With Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy at their effervescent best, Bringing Up Baby is a seamlessly assembled comedy with enduring appeal.

Runtime: 1 hr 42 mins

Genre: Comedies

Synopsis: A nonstop profusion of hilarious calamities, coincidences, and misunderstandings ensue when an accident-prone heiress turns a sheltered scientist's life upside down. Dr. David Huxley (Cary Grant)... A nonstop profusion of hilarious calamities, coincidences, and misunderstandings ensue when an accident-prone heiress turns a sheltered scientist's life upside down. Dr. David Huxley (Cary Grant) is a straitlaced paleontologist juggling three important events at once: the arrival of an extremely rare bone needed to complete his brontosaurus skeleton; a meeting to ask for a million dollars for his museum from a wealthy donor; and his impending marriage to the humorless Miss Swallow (Virginia Walker). Into David's life comes Susan (Katharine Hepburn), a free-spirited young woman who seems to bring trouble wherever she goes. Thanks to Susan, David finds himself involved in one ridiculous situation after another, and soon the two are prowling around a country estate looking for the missing dinosaur bone, hunting for a lost pet leopard named Baby, and somehow falling in love. Grant and Hepburn form a sharp-witted and hysterical comic duo, and Howard Hawks directs BRINGING UP BABY with the control of a master, creating a shining example of brilliant screwball comedy. [More]

Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, May Robson

Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, May Robson, Walter Catlett, Fritz Feld, Barry Fitzgerald

Director: Howard Hawks

Director: Howard Hawks
Composer: Roy Webb
Producer: Howard Hawks

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Mar 1, 2005

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • All the earnest paleontoligist (Cary Grant) wants is an intercostal clavicle to complete his brontosaurus skeleton. What he gets is an out-of-control toboggan ride with a scatterbrained heiress (Katharine Hepburn) nuts about him (or maybe just nuts). Riding along are a dog named George, a leopard named Baby, a snooty society matron with a spare million, a caretaker on the sauce and more. In this giddy romp directed by Howard Hawks, Grant ends up in a negligee, Hepburn ends up in a bottomless evening gown, everyone ends up in jail and Bringing Up Baby ends up as the most glorious laughter-inducing movie ever!
  • Source: Warner Home Video
  •  
     
     
     

    Reviews for Bringing Up Baby

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    1 - 20 (sorted by comments)
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    A delightful piece of utter absurdity and one of director Hawks' most inspired lampoons of the battle between the sexes.

    Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    TV Guide's Movie Guide

    One of the highest high points of the entire screwball comedy genre, with its sharp script and wonderfully balanced leads.

    Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
    04/02/08
    Channel 4 Film

    One of the great screwball comedies of all time; wonderful patter; delightful performances by Hepburn and Grant. A true timeless winner.

    comment Comment
    01/07/04
    Bob Bloom
    Bob Bloom
    Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)

    There are many who make the argument that Bringing Up Baby is a forgotten treasure ... Don’t believe a word of it.

    Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
    02/28/05
    Chris Barsanti
    Chris Barsanti
    Filmcritic.com

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    02/04/05
    Daniel M. Kimmel
    Daniel M. Kimmel
    Worcester Telegram & Gazette

    Though it's almost impossible, try to sit back sometime and enjoy this 1938 Howard Hawks masterpiece not only for its gags, but for the grace of its construction, the assurance of its style, and the richness of its themes.

    Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
    06/26/07
    Dave Kehr
    Dave Kehr
    Chicago Reader
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    One of Hollywood's greatest comedies.

    Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
    01/21/06
    Dennis Schwartz
    Dennis Schwartz
    Ozus' World Movie Reviews

    The speedy, 102-minute film is a total delight, and the performances are so invigorating that it can withstand many multiple viewings without losing its sparks.

    Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
    05/05/05
    Douglas Pratt
    Douglas Pratt
    Hollywood Reporter
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    It's hard to believe that Hawks' lunatic screwball comedy, one of the genre's best, with top-notch turns by Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, was underrated by critics and a commercial flop; history proves otherwise.

    Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
    05/07/06
    Emanuel Levy
    Emanuel Levy
    EmanuelLevy.Com

    The great screwball comedies of the 1930s and ’40s are polar opposites of today’s, which makes revisiting them a joy.

    Full Review Source: Reno Gazette-Journal | comment Comment
    04/08/05
    Forrest Hartman
    Forrest Hartman
    Reno Gazette-Journal

    If you've never been to the movies, Bringing Up Baby will be all new to you -- a zany-ridden product of the goofy farce school. But who hasn't been to the movies?

    Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
    05/20/03
    Frank S. Nugent
    Frank S. Nugent
    New York Times

    One of the finest screwball comedies ever.

    Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
    02/09/06
    Geoff Andrew
    Geoff Andrew
    Time Out

    The magic of Bringing Up Baby can hardly be confined to the period in which it was made.

    Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment Comment
    02/27/01
    James Kendrick
    James Kendrick
    Q Network Film Desk

    Splendid screwball farce: You can't help but love this teaming

    comment Comment
    07/15/03
    James Sanford
    James Sanford
    Kalamazoo Gazette

    Comedian Harold Lloyd called this the most perfectly constructed comedy he'd ever seen, and he was right.

    Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Jeffrey M. Anderson
    Jeffrey M. Anderson
    Combustible Celluloid

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    02/17/03
    Jeffrey Westhoff
    Jeffrey Westhoff
    Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

    If Hawks had a real gift it was the ability of moving things along.

    Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
    03/01/05
    Jeremiah Kipp
    Jeremiah Kipp
    Slant Magazine

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    07/10/07
    Joe Lozito
    Joe Lozito
    Big Picture Big Sound

    Its purpose is only to delight, and it succeeds.

    Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
    02/26/05
    John J. Puccio
    John J. Puccio
    DVDTown.com

    The gold standard of screwball comedy.

    comment Comment
    01/26/04
    Jonathan R. Perry
    Jonathan R. Perry
    Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas)
     
     
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