Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
David Huxley is waiting to get a bone he needs for his museum collection. Through a series of strange circumstances, he meets Susan Vance, and the duo have a series of misadventures which include a leopard called Baby.
Bringing Up Baby is one of the definitive screwball comedies, with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant delivering perfectly calibrated comic performances that remain benchmarks of the genre. The plot is a masterclass in escalating chaos — each misadventure topping the last — though its appeal is more mechanical than emotionally resonant. Cinematography is solid classical Hollywood work, functional and clean but unremarkable by today's standards. Novelty earns a high mark because the film's frenetic pace, rapid-fire dialogue, and anarchic comic logic gave screwball comedy much of its definitive shape — its voice is utterly singular even decades later. The ending wraps things up neatly and amusingly, though it's more satisfying than surprising.