Blu-ray Review A Few Words About A few words about…™ Bringing Up Baby – in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robin9]

Am I the only one who prefers 'Holiday" (Columbia, 1938) to this and (possibly) "The Philadelphia Story"? To me, she's so much more likable in "Holiday" and what a GREAT supporting cast!

No; you are not the only one.

 

[RobertMG]

If I recall correctly, the safety fine grain isn’t what it sounds to be. I believe it may be a duplicate, ie 4th generation dupe, and not derived from original.

”these things happen” when a film is popular.

Would a lot of RKO titles had their original negatives disappeared, ruined, junked over used etc when C and C Cola got the titles?

 

[Robert Crawford]

I've moved posts about "Million Dollar Movie" and old local TV programs to this thread. Please, continue that discussion in that thread. Thank you.

 

[PatrickDA]

That's funny. "Holiday" hasn't done much for me over the years, but to each their own. I agree "The Philadelphia Story" losses stream in the third act. "Bringing Up Baby" is the most consistently entertaining one of the bunch.

 

[Robert Crawford]

That's funny. "Holiday" hasn't done much for me over the years, but to each their own. I agree "The Philadelphia Story" losses stream in the third act. "Bringing Up Baby" is the most consistently entertaining one of the bunch.

Yup, to each their own as "The Philadelphia Story" is by far my favorite of the three movies.

 

[Rob_Ray]

It's a tough call for me. HOLIDAY is probably my favorite of the three as far as the material is concerned, although I prefer Mary Astor and (sacrilege I know) Ann Harding from the 1930 version. BRINGING UP BABY is sheer perfection until around the 90 minute mark (the overlong jail sequence), when all the manic excitement grows wearisome for me and I am ready for a quick wrap up. THE PHILADELPHIA STORY has a perfect cast, but does bog down in the middle when we leave the Lord estate.

 

[roxy1927]

I first saw BUB at the packed Regency and that place was rocking with laughter. A great introduction to the film. I had gotten to the point where I would only see a film for the first time in a theater because seeing it on the TV took so much away from it. And Manhattan had many revival houses where double features ruled on a continuing changing basis. If you missed a film it was likely to turn up again at some point. Alas that is now in the past.

 

[warnerbro]

One of the funniest things ever put on film. It's a shame we don't have better source material. It looks pretty rough. But this is probably the best we can hope for. I never get tired of watching this. It's fresh every time.

 

[HawksFord]

Bringing Up Baby is one of my top ten favorite movies, and it is a favorite of my wife as well (anything with Katherine Hepburn is one of her favorites). Some years ago, when our youngest boy was in high school, we showed him the movie. He hated it. He found the Hepburn character thoroughly unlikable and manipulative. In hindsight, it was probably the wrong time in his life for him to appreciate the movie. He might appreciate it more now.

 

[Garysb]

Perhaps "My Man Godfrey" would be a better screwball comedy to introduce to someone who dislikes the Hepburn character. Carole Lombard's character is just as rich and manipulative as Hepburn's character in "Baby" but Lombard would appear much less abrasive. Though the major difference is the Lombard character appears much less bright.

 

[Rick Thompson]

There is only one actress that i didnt care for in a cary grant film and that would be Ann Sheridan in i was a male war bride.

I LOVE that film, and the chemistry she has with Grant. I'd buy a blu of it in a minute, but the DVD will have to do for now.

 

[verneaux]

To appreciate these movies along with the comedies of Lubitsch or Preston Sturges it helps to have an appreciation, love and respect for language. People don’t talk like this in real life and they didn’t when I was coming up in the 60’s and 70’s. But I would watch these films and delight in the wordplay.

 

[roxy1927]

I don't think people really care anymore. To them it probably sounds stilted. Audiences once delighted in witty wordplay, even general audiences, but we've descended into a crudeness(again thank you Mel Brooks) where vulgarity is esteemed and even attempts at wit are flat-footed.

 

[Dick]

I was born in 1962. We had two channels on the TV, and had to use a 30 foot antenna to get those and got cable when I was in high school, giving us 7 channels. I watched any movie from any time period and had little choice in what was offered. One things for sure... I never EVER judged a movie based on it's age. I watched it and gave myself into the world of fantasy they presented. The amazing thing is that a huge number of my all-time favorite moves came out decades before I was born. I never questioned the quality of the FX, or whether the acting was "dated". I just accepted what ever it was. Bringing Up Baby came out 24 years before I was born and I saw it for the first time at the age of 14 (so 38 years later) and loved it and still love it.

It seems nowadays, that most younger people (and definitely not all) find anything that's more than 5-10 years old to be ancient, the FX have to be pixel perfect, it has to be compared and judged based on the ideals of today's society, and every detail of the plot has to be completely justifiable and make complete and logical sense based on our knowledge of science today, and god forbid there are any continuity errors or plot holes.

Can't people just relax, sit down and ENJOY a movie anymore?

Yup...do it all the time.

 

[Dick]

The "screwball comedy" as a genre was also pretty well played out by the time BABY rolled around.

Gotta disagree with you there, Will...

HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940)
ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (1944)
BALL OF FIRE (1941)
PALM BEACH STORY (1942)
UNFAITHFULLY YOURS (1948)
MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK (1944)
MAN WHO CAME TO CINNER (1942)
MONKEY BUSINESS (1952)
MR. AND MRS. SMITH (1941)
and a lot more.

Then you have the much more recent "renaissance" of screwball:

RAISING ARIZONA (1987)
WHAT'S UP DOC? (1972)
SLEEPER (1973)
THE MONEY PIT (1986)
Again, lots more.

 

[roxy1927]

Why do you think the film was not a hit when it opened? It didn't even do that well at Radio City where both Hepburn and Grant were very popular.

 

[Malcolm R]

Director Howard Hawks stated what he thought was the problem with the film:

Hawks later said the film "had a great fault and I learned an awful lot from that. There were no normal people in it. Everyone you met was a screwball and since that time I learned my lesson and don't intend ever again to make everybody crazy."

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Watched the Blu-ray a few days ago and had a great time. I did like one of the extras on the disc Howard Hawks: A Hell of a Good Life (1977) made by German TV a month before his death.

 

[B-ROLL]

Gotta disagree with you there, Will...

HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940)
ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (1944)
BALL OF FIRE (1941)
PALM BEACH STORY (1942)
UNFAITHFULLY YOURS (1948)
MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK (1944)
MAN WHO CAME TO CINNER (1942)
MONKEY BUSINESS (1952)
MR. AND MRS. SMITH (1941)
and a lot more.

Then you have the much more recent "renaissance" of screwball:

RAISING ARIZONA (1987)
WHAT'S UP DOC? (1972)
SLEEPER (1973)
THE MONEY PIT (1986)
Again, lots more.

I would also argue more recently Keanu

I wish Jordan Peele went more in the direction of this one than the one he went with his subsequent films - but I guess someone had to do it.

 

[Will Krupp]

Gotta disagree with you there, Will...

Allow me to clarify, Rick.

What I meant was that particular 1930's "screwball comedy" phenomenon of madcap heiresses and a nutty upper class with the participants behaving in irrational ways had pretty much played out and exhausted audiences by 1938. Elements of the screwball comedy may have remained (and may still remain to this day) but a lot of the required characteristics for pure "screwball" ended by the late 30's and stayed relatively dormant until the specific revival of the genre much later on. I have never looked at something like HIS GIRL FRIDAY, for example, as pure "screwball" because there is no alpha female controlling the romantic outcome, no satirical depiction of the idle class, etc. etc. The genre itself was forced to change and adapt.

In my opinion, it also doesn't help that a lot of modern film scholars have chosen to (I feel) mislabel any farce with larger than life elements as a screwball comedy (even if there aren't any screwballs present.)