Curator Watchlist
A screwball classic that still feels alive: fast, absurd, and gloriously chaotic, with two stars weaponizing charm and timing against each other. Its appeal is the escalating nonsense—mistaken identities, social embarrassment, and a leopard named Baby—played at breakneck speed with immaculate comic precision.
Where to watch: Buy
Fri · 1h 42m
Director: Howard Hawks
Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles
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.
Howard Hawks
Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles
A screwball classic that still feels alive: fast, absurd, and gloriously chaotic, with two stars weaponizing charm and timing against each other. Its appeal is the escalating nonsense—mistaken identities, social embarrassment, and a leopard named Baby—played at breakneck speed with immaculate comic precision.
Bringing Up Baby is one of the great engines of American comedy: a movie that seems to run on pure velocity, with every scene designed to topple into the next. Howard Hawks keeps the tone feather-light even as the situations become more and more ridiculous, and the result is a masterclass in controlled chaos.
Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant are the whole show, and the delight is watching them bounce off each other with total commitment. Hepburn turns Susan into a force of nature, while Grant lets David unravel in exquisitely funny stages, from dignified scholar to bewildered disaster.
What makes it endure is not just the jokes but the precision. The film understands timing, interruption, and escalation better than most comedies made decades later. If you enjoy movies where elegance and absurdity collide, this is essential viewing.
Anna Imhof 🌸 (5★) · 5694 likes
"Production was frequently delayed due to uncontrollable laughing fits between Hepburn and Grant."
eely (5★) · 5036 likes
Cary Grant wearing nothing but a fur trimmed chiffon dressing gown while jumping in the air and saying "I just went GAY all of a sudden" is the only thing that has ever mattered to me
kailey (3.5★) · 3876 likes
cary grant: i- katharine hepburn stuffing as many words in her mouth as she possibly can: alksjflKJFKSLFJskljfksdlfjslkafjlskfjsklfjskafjskl cary grant: wait- everyone else in this movie talking at the speed of light: bambammazzeltamdoopbopbamBAM cary grant: glasses leopard: singing cary grant: falls on his face
nora (5★) · 2281 likes
my favorite genre really is movies where flustered man gets tricked and endangered by conniving woman who thinks he’s hot and likes to make him suffer
phoebe 💫 (4★) · 2206 likes
A comprehensive list of moods: - susan yelling "don't leave me!" to david like 113 times throughout the movie - "they've got baby" / "forget baby" / "where's baby" - "THE INTERCOSTAL CLAVICLE" - david and susan singing "I can't give you anything but love" so many times that they start to harmonize - baby’s evil doppelgänger - "hello is this zoo" - "his name is mr. bone" "well this mr. bones -" "one bone." - "the riverbed's changed!"
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screwball comedy, battle-of-the-sexes, romantic farce, mistaken identity, physical comedy, social embarrassment, escalating chaos, old Hollywood charm
screwball, farce, rom-com, fast-talking, physical comedy, 1930s, chaotic, battle of the sexes, classic Hollywood, animal hijinks