*Two lame disclaimers: 1) The audio is doing something weird, 2) I sound like I’m barely alive
This clip is from a chunk of perfection disguised as the 1938 screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby directed by Howard Hawks. This was the second of four films that Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant would star in together (the first being the incredible Sylvia Scarlett which I’ll have to do a post on soon. The others being the under appreciated Holiday and the over appreciated The Philadelphia Story ).
In the film Hepburn plays perhaps the greatest woman cinema has ever seen: Susan Vance, the whimsical, crazy, fearless, and unbelievably fun girl you wish was your best friend. Susan sets her sights on David Huxley (Cary Grant), a timid paleontologist who is trying his damndest to secure a million dollar donation to his museum from Susan’s stodgy old rich lady aunt, Mrs. Carlton Random. Lots of things happen, a leopard named Baby is involved, some Brontosaurus bones, a dog named George, yadayadayada, and a masterpiece of screwball comedy is born. Slapstick perfection with dialogue by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde to rival my love Garson Kanin. Every line is golden.