While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard, Baby.While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard, Baby.While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard, Baby.
- Awards
- 2 wins
- Major Applegate
- (as Charlie Ruggles)
- Minor Role
- (uncredited)
- Mrs. Peabody
- (uncredited)
- George the Dog
- (uncredited)
- David's Caddy
- (uncredited)
- Joe - Bartender
- (uncredited)
- Doorman
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThroughout filming, RKO executives complained that the film was destined for commercial failure. They asked Howard Hawks to insert more romance and less slapstick and told him to take away Cary Grant's glasses, but he ignored them.
- GoofsWhen Susan follows Fritz into the house, the shadow of the boom mic can be seen against the wall of the house.
- Quotes
Mrs. Random: Well who are you?
David Huxley: I don't know. I'm not quite myself today.
Mrs. Random: Well, you look perfectly idiotic in those clothes.
David Huxley: These aren't *my* clothes.
Mrs. Random: Well, where *are* your clothes?
David Huxley: I've *lost* my clothes!
Mrs. Random: But why are you wearing *these* clothes?
David Huxley: Because I just went *GAY* all of a sudden!
Mrs. Random: Now see here young man, stop this nonsense. What are you doing?
David Huxley: I'm sitting in the middle of 42nd Street waiting for a bus.
- Alternate versionsSome scenes were cut for the German theatrical release. In 1992 the German ZDF TV reconstructed the missing scenes but the German voice actors/actress who dubbed the movie were no longer available. Thus the reconstructed version changes between the existing dubbed scenes and English-speaking scenes with German subtitles. However, the additional scenes are also from a different print, resulting in a much lesser contrast.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The 42nd Annual Academy Awards (1970)
- SoundtracksI Can't Give You Anything but Love
(1928) (uncredited)
Words by Dorothy Fields
Music by Jimmy McHugh
Played as background music very often throughout the film
Sung a cappella by Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant
There is not one actress in the annals of film who I adore more than Katharine Hepburn; she is a compelling performer, of great charm, intelligence and wit; of very real, idiosyncratic looks that to this eye are beautiful, vivacious, impish. In "Bringing Up Baby" her Susan Vance is a very interesting diversion from her more usual type of character - the slightly superior, in-control ice maiden, as shown in say "The Philadelphia Story". She is phenomenal in that film, yet here beguiling in a completely different fashion, playing a slightly scatterbrained, sprightly, charmingly delinquent woman, who seems to have no control over anything; least of all her feelings for Grant. Her giddy, breathless exuberance and anarchic helplessness are really endearing; it's a wonderful film that stretches out the credulity of Grant's wonderfully straight-laced character's resistance to Miss Vance. The ending is a gorgeous, satisfying pay-off, as he finally gives way, as would we all! It's a charming, suitable ending that rectifies the slight fall-off of the preceding jail section of the film. That is very amusing, but in a more predictable, slightly laboured way. In stark contrast to the first 70-80 minutes of the film, which amounts to about the finest sustained American comedy I have seen of that length - "Way Out West" and "Duck Soup" being shorter in total.
Cary Grant, truly an institution of a comedic player, is very different to his more remembered persona of later years. It's remarkable to see this absurd little man, bespectacled, unworldly and cutting an orthodox figure played so perfectly by the suave Grant. This is gleefully played on with the sublime scene where Hepburn and Grant are trying to catch the leopard - Kate butterfly net in hand! She accidentally happens to break his glasses and is even more taken with him without them... The tension between how we usually remember Grant and the character he is playing here does add an extra layer of amusement to the film. Need I really add that the rest of the film's company are note perfect? Charles Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald and many more really give the perfectly matched stars a fine backdrop.
I shan't spoil too much of this heady, sublimely silly film... just go and watch it and see Howard Hawks, a master craftsman, at his best - there are no pretensions but making a quite wonderful character comedy - and Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant on insurmountable form. With these delightful stars and anarchic, scintillating comic material, what we have on our hands is an unutterably fine film, one of my very favourites of all time. Where else are you going to get such plot threads running simultaneously as: a hunt for a rare archeological find buried by a dog, an absurd upper-middle-class family dinner and an escaped leopard?
Rating:- *****/*****
- HenryHextonEsq
- Jan 30, 2003
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Leoparden küßt man nicht
- Filming locations
- Arthur Ranch, Malibu, California, USA(Exterior)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $1,073,000 (estimated)
- Gross worldwide
- $11,665
- Runtime1 hour 42 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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