The best way to describe this movie is, “Loud.” As an audience, we’re used to that element with summer blockbusters, but this is a different kind of loud. Do you know that sound that radiates rooms when you walk into a kid’s birthday party? That’s what this movie reminds me of. All the dialogue is at such a high volume and pitch, it made the jokes hard to follow and most importantly, hard to laugh at.
This highly-acclaimed Howard Hawk’s screwball comedy follows the tightly-would paleontologist, Dr. David Huxley (Cary Grant), who in a quest to raise money for his museum, randomly runs into Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn). To say Susan is eccentric is quite an understatement, as Susan leads David into a journey full of exotic animals, bone-stealing dogs, mistaken identities and prison. Like many screwball comedies, the reason for all these events don’t need an explanation. They are there to serve the growing bond between two very different personalities as David and Susan both grow together and tolerate each other.
I know that plot doesn’t really need to be strong for a screwball comedy to work. It really hinges on the chemistry of the two leads and I just didn’t feel that spark between Grant and Hepburn. I know that they've done countless of movies together, but I just didn’t ever buy that their complete opposite personalities would gel as one. Which leads me back to the randomness of the plot. I felt like the screenwriter was constantly using a Mad Libs template to fill in the holes and gaps.
As mentioned previously, Hepburn’s dialogue is so high-pitched and shrilling that I was just plain annoyed. The jokes and gags are truly funny in their nature, but the way they are delivered are so angst-inducing that I was rarely amused. As always, Grant is the true anchor for the whole movie and he was the sole reason for me to slightly care about what happened to these characters.
This is by no means an awful movie and it really has some cute and funny moments, but I’ve seen much better black and white classic comedies. This was just an old-fashioned film that doesn’t hold up today. If people aren’t familiar to this genre, I can’t see them wanting to come back to it after seeing this film. It’s probably the most disappointing film so far for me on this list. As much as I love these actors and this genre, I was surprised to leave with such a so-so feeling for it.
I give Brining Up Baby 2.5 out of 5 run-away leopards.
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