Bringing Up Baby
Directed by	Howard Hawks
Produced by	Cliff Reid Howard Hawks
Written by	Dudley Nichols Hagar Wilde
Starring	Cary Grant Katharine Hepburn
Music by	Roy Webb Jimmy McHugh
Cinematography	Russell Metty
Editing by	George Hively
Distributed by	RKO Pictures
Release date(s)	February 18, 1938 (USA)
Running time	102 minutes
Language	English
IMDb profile

Bringing up Baby is a 1938 screwball comedy which tells the story of a scientist who winds up in various predicaments with a woman who has a unique sense of logic and a leopard named Baby. It stars Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Catlett, and May Robson. Image File history File links Bub1938. ... Howard Hawks Howard Hawks (May 30, 1896 – December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and writer of the classic Hollywood era. ... Dudley Nichols was a Hollywood screenwriter who first came to prominence after winning the screenwriting Oscar for The Informer in 1936. ... Hagar Wilde (July 7, 1905 – September 25, 1971) was a writer for Hollywood films and television shows in the late thirties till the late fifties. ... Archibald Alexander Leach (January 18, 1904 – November 29, 1986), better known by his screen name, Cary Grant, was an English film actor. ... Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an iconic four-time Academy Award-winning American star of film, television and stage, widely recognized for her sharp wit, New England gentility and fierce independence. ... Roy Webb (October 3, 1888 - December 10, 1982) was a film music composer. ... Jimmy McHugh (July 10, 1894 - May 23, 1969), was one of the greatest and most prolific songwriters during the 1920s-1950s. ... Russell Metty (born 1906, died 1978) was an American cinematographer, who worked on many films during the forties, fifties and sixties. ... The classic opening logo of RKO Radio Pictures. ... February 18 is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The screwball comedy has proven to be one of the most elusive of the film genres. ... Binomial name Panthera pardus (Linnaeus, 1758) Synonyms Felis pardus Linnaeus, 1758 Leopards (Panthera pardus) are one of the four big cats of the genus Panthera. ... Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an iconic four-time Academy Award-winning American star of film, television and stage, widely recognized for her sharp wit, New England gentility and fierce independence. ... Archibald Alexander Leach (January 18, 1904 – November 29, 1986), better known by his screen name, Cary Grant, was an English film actor. ... Charles Sherman Ruggles (February 8, 1886 - December 23, 1970) was a comic American actor. ... Barry Fitzgerald (March 10, 1888 - January 14, 1961) was an Irish actor. ... Walter Catlett (February 4, 1889 - November 14, 1960) was an American actor. ... May Robson (April 19, 1858 - October 20, 1942) was an Australian-born actress and playwright. ...

The film was adapted by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde from a story by Hagar Wilde. It was directed by Howard Hawks. It was originally considered a box office failure, which caused Hawks to be fired from his next RKO film, and forced Hepburn to have to buy out her contract. As time went by the film gained more and more attention and is now considered a classic, and continues to generate revenue for Hepburn's estate. Dudley Nichols was a Hollywood screenwriter who first came to prominence after winning the screenwriting Oscar for The Informer in 1936. ... Hagar Wilde (July 7, 1905 – September 25, 1971) was a writer for Hollywood films and television shows in the late thirties till the late fifties. ... Howard Hawks Howard Hawks (May 30, 1896 – December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and writer of the classic Hollywood era. ... RKO could stand for: RKO Pictures The R.K.O. - finishing manoever (and initials) of WWE professional wrestler Randy Orton. ... Estate is a term used in the common law. ...

Bringing up Baby is consistently on the Internet Movie Database's list of top 250 films, was number ninety-seven on American Film Institute's 100 Years, Movies, number fourteen on its 100 Years, 100 Laughs, and number fifty-one on its 100 Years, 100 Passions, and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Entertainment Weekly also voted the film number twenty-four on its list of the Greatest Films. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted it the forty-seventh greatest comedy film of all time. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about actors, films, television shows, video games and production crew personnel. ... The American Film Institute (AFI) is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act. ... The National Film Registry is the registry of films selected by the United States National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of Congress. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... Total Film, published by Future Publishing, is the United Kingdoms second best-selling film magazine, after the longer-established Empire from Emap. ...

Plot

David Huxley (Cary Grant) is a mild-mannered paleontologist beleaguered by problems. For the past four years, he has been trying to assemble the skeleton of a Brontosaurus but is missing one bone (an "intercostal clavicle"). To add to the stress, he is about to get married to a dour woman with a severe personality and must make a favorable impression upon a Mrs. Random, a wealthy woman who is considering donating one million dollars to his museum. The day before his planned wedding, David meets Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) by chance. She is a free-spirited young lady and, unknown to him at first, happens to be Mrs. Random's niece. A paleontologist carefully chips rock from a column of dinosaur vertebrae. ... 1989 US Postage stamp featuring the Brontosaurus The dinosaur genus originally known as Brontosaurus is now officially designated Apatosaurus. ...

Susan's brother (Mark) has sent her a tame leopard from Brazil, "Baby," which she is supposed to give to her aunt. Susan believes David is a zoologist rather than a paleontologist and she practically stalks him in order to get David to go to her country home in Connecticut to help her take care of Baby. Complications arise as Susan decides that she has fallen in love with David and she endeavors to keep him at her house for as long as possible to prevent him from marrying his colleague. At this point, the plot becomes further entangled as Susan's dog, George, steals and buries the last dinosaur bone that David needs to complete his brontosaurus skeleton at the museum. Susan's aunt Elizabeth (Mrs. Random) arrives. She is unaware of who David really is because Susan has introduced him as a man named "Mr. Bone". Baby runs off, as do George and a decidedly untame leopard from a nearby circus that Susan and David had inadvertently let loose from its cage, thinking it was Baby. Now Susan and David must find Baby, George the dog, and the dinosaur bone, while ensuring that Mrs. Random donates her million dollars to the museum. To accomplish this, they must first get out of the county jail, where they've been mistakenly locked up by a befuddled town constable. Zoology (Greek zoon = animal and logos = word) is the biological discipline which involves the study of animals. ...

Cast

• Katharine Hepburn
• Cary Grant
• Charles Ruggles
• Walter Catlett
• Barry Fitzgerald
• May Robson
• Fritz Feld
• Leona Roberts
• George Irving
• Tala Birell
• Virginia Walker
• John Kelly
• Asta (George, the dog)
• Nissa (Baby, the leopard)

Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an iconic four-time Academy Award-winning American star of film, television and stage, widely recognized for her sharp wit, New England gentility and fierce independence. ... Archibald Alexander Leach (January 18, 1904 – November 29, 1986), better known by his screen name, Cary Grant, was an English film actor. ... Charles Sherman Ruggles (February 8, 1886 - December 23, 1970) was a comic American actor. ... Walter Catlett (February 4, 1889 - November 14, 1960) was an American actor. ... Barry Fitzgerald (March 10, 1888 - January 14, 1961) was an Irish actor. ... May Robson (April 19, 1858 - October 20, 1942) was an Australian-born actress and playwright. ... Fritz Feld (October 15, 1900 – November 18, 1993) was a film actor. ... John Kelly (b. ... Asta (born Skippy) was a Wire-Haired Fox Terrier best known for his acting work in the 1934 screwball comedy The Thin Man. ...

Trivia

Grant and Hepburn

Arguably, this was the first film to use the word "gay" in a homosexual context. Robert Chapman's The Dictionary of American Slang reports that the adjective "gay" was used by homosexuals, among themselves, in this sense since at least 1920. Donald Webster Cory writes in The Homosexual in America (1951): This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... For other uses, see Gay (disambiguation). ... Since its coinage, the word homosexuality has acquired multiple meanings. ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 3 - Babe Ruth is traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ...

"Psychoanalysts have informed me that their homosexual patients were calling themselves gay in the nineteen-twenties, and certainly by the nineteen-thirties it was the most common word in use by homosexuals themselves."

Donald Webster Cory wrote that it was such an insiders' term that "an advertisement for a roommate can actually ask for a gay youth, but could not possibly call for a homosexual." According to Vito Russo the script actually had Dexter (Grant) saying "I... I suppose you think its odd, my wearing this. I realise it looks odd... I don't usually... I mean, I don't own one of these." However Grant ad-libbed his own line, "Because I just went gay all of the sudden." Vito Russo had pointed out that this was an indication that people in Hollywood, at least in Grant's circles, were already familiar with the slang connotations of the word. However, Grant himself nor anyone involved in the film ever confirmed this. Of course Grant was speculated to have been bisexual, and may have avoided the question altogether. The question may have never been asked in the first place. The term "gay" did not become widely familiar to the general public, until the Stonewall riots in 1969.^[1] See AdLib for the computer sound card manufacturer. ... ... Bisexual redirects here. ... The Stonewall riots, which as a whole is often called the Stonewall Rebellion, were a series of violent conflicts between lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, and queer persons and police officers in New York City. ... 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ...

Footnote

1. ^ Vito Russo, The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies [revised edition] Harrow & Row, 1987. p. 47

The Celluloid Closet is the title of a 1995 documentary film directed and written by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Bringing up Baby

• Bringing up Baby at the Internet Movie Database