Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Here is a trailer for the film, it features many of the important (and hilarious) moments.

Bringing Up Baby (1938) is a classic romantic comedy following David Huxley (Cary Grant) and Susan Vance (Katherine Hepburn). This is completely full of witty banter and crazy, hilarious situations that Susan keeps pulling David into. Susan is an heiress belonging to a well-connected and influential family. David is an paleontologist reconstructing a giant brontosaurus skeleton and is also engaged to his assistant Alice Swallow. They are due to be married the next day at the start of the film. The meeting of Susan and David starts by the two running into each other at a golf course where David is attempting to win over a potential investor of $1 million towards the museum. Immediately, Susan is so taken with David that she acts quite mischievously to get him near her at any possible moment. Much of the major conflict of the movie centers around a leopard named "Baby" brought to the heiress' home. Susan enlists David's help to deliver Baby to her country home in Connecticut where it will be safer. Of course, Baby escapes and it is a wild and hilarious chase to get him back. Almost the entire family gets put in jail for being 'crazy' and allegedly lying about their identities.

There are many classic romantic comedy tropes in this film, all of which I believe are highly effective. Many of these smaller aspects work really well in the film. The witty banter is at the forefront of the film. David and Susan are constantly arguing, but it is often really funny because it is David complaining about the situation Susan has pulled him into and Susan just egging him on. Similarly, the treatment of gender in the film really surprised me. The dynamic of the relationship is interesting as the character of Susan is so far above David in almost every way. She is richer, well-connected, funny and charismatic. He is the classic absentminded professor type. He is too involved in his work to care about anything else and he is willing to marry someone who he doesn't love because Alice promotes his work.

Susan is the dominant one in the relationship, but her gender is never undermined or criticized. She is never told to stop what she is doing because she is a woman, rather just because she creating wild circumstances for everyone because of her choices. The best part is that she really does not care at all! Susan is living her live how she wants, without bothering to worry about society or her family/friends' expectations. The only person's opinion that she truly cares about his David's. Overall, Bringing Up Baby is progressive in the representation of gender for 1938. As a woman watching this film, I really felt empowered by Susan's attitude toward life. She is not bothered by other's opinions of her and lives life excitedly with confidence.

This film was hilarious from beginning to end. I highly recommend it to even those who dislike romantic comedies. Bringing Up Baby has such a distinct and unique tone compared to many contemporary romantic comedies. The relationship between David and Susan is so cleverly played.

*Spoiler Alert*

The end of the film was not extremely mushy or unfitting for the film; David realizing that his time with Susan was the most fun day of his entire life was such a beautiful touch to the scene and revealed his immense respect for her even though he constantly complained about her actions. The ladder falling and breaking after Susan's extreme happiness upon David telling her he does love her is so fitting. David's love is tested further after the Brontosaurus skeleton breaks but he is too in love to care.