The Story: From the 1938 Howard Hawks' screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby.
1) Director Howard Hawks had a penchant for re-writing scripts during principal photography. He'd work on them the night before shooting and turn in the pages to the actors—simplified dialog, maybe with an added idea, and the actors would look at the pages with new eyes to help with blocking or bits of business. It kept the material fresh. Thus you will see deletions throughout the dialogue (from the Wilde-Nichols shooting script), replaced with things re-written by the additional screenwriters, as well as Hawks and Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn who were constantly fine-tuning...and ruining takes by cracking each other up.
2) Yes, that was a real leopard. Hepburn didn't have a problem with it—it was tame and trained. But Hepburn wasn't taking a lot of chances—she would throw on extra perfume before shooting with the animal to discourage it coming too near. Grant, on the other hand, was terrified of it. Stunt doubles were used for shots of the cat playing with his (supposed) pants leg, and a judicial use of split-screen special effects put the two in frame, even if they were 30 seconds apart from each other in real-time.
3) Some of the dialog is going so fast in the film that Hepburn and Grant don't even finish their lines before the next one has started, giving the scene more of a chaotic feel than it already has. In fact, the last line—"I wish it wouldn't"—is more in response to "I never saw anything take such a liking to anyone in my life" than "It would follow you anywhere." I've tried to make allowances.
4) I still debate whether the movie's title refers to the leopard or to the arrested developed David Huxley, whiny boy-man-nerd, whose stuffy museum-life playing with dead things is only introduced to the chaos of real life by the O.M.P.D.G (Original Manic Pixie Dream Girl)* , Susan Vance.
The Set-Up: Socialite and heiress Susan Vance (Katherine Hepburn) has met and become intrigued with respected paleontologist David Huxley (Cary Grant) and it couldn't come up at a more inconvenient time: he's just received the important intercostal clavicle he needs to complete his brontosaurus skeleton reconstruction, he's trying to secure a million dollar donation to his museum, and he's getting married...today. Hence, a call from Susan that leads him to assume the worst—Susan has been attacked by a leopard and he rushes to her Manhattan apartment to help.
Action.
Susan is sitting in the chair where we left her. She looks up calmly as
the door flies open and David dashes in and stops short, seeing her safe.
SUSAN
Yes, I'm all right. Except that I've got a leopard.
DAVID Telling me a ridiculous story about a leopard!
SUSAN Wasn't a ridiculous story. I have a leopard.
SUSAN
(indicates)
In the bathroom. Right in there.
DAVID
(as he stalks to the bathroom door)
I can see that I've been victimized once more by the victim of your unbridled
imagination!
As he speaks he is pulling open the bathroom door, which opens outward.
We see what he sees: a full-grown leopard leaps out of the bathtub and
rears up playfully before him.
SUSAN Don't worry about him. He's really all right. What are you going to do?
SUSAN
No you won't call the Zoo! I'm going to keep him. Oh no, you can't do that, David!
SUSAN
(with calm finality)
Mark says I'm to keep him, and I intend to keep him.
(picking up Mark's letter)
Listen!
(waves letter at him)
From my brother Mark. From Brazil.
SUSAN '...a leopard I picked up. Guard him
with your life. He's three years old, gentle as a kitten,
SUSAN (continues reading)
‘He also likes music -- particularly that song, "I Can't Give You
Anything But Love, Baby."’
She goes to the victrola and snaps on a record. "I Can't Give You
Anything But Love, Baby" blares out. There is a scratching at the
bathroom door and the chair begins to vibrate as Baby tries to get out.
DAVID
(frantically)
Stop it, Susan! Stop it! This is probably the silliest thing that's ever happened to me.
David gets off the table
DAVID
(still backing around)
Make him stand still!
(backs against the piano and closes his eyes in awful apprehension) Baby plays with David's pant cuff.
She turns off the music
SUSAN Look! Isn't it affectionate?
Words by Hagar Wilde and Dudley Nichols and Robert McGowan and Gertrude Purcell
Pictures by Russell Metty and Howard Hawks
Bringing Up Baby is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Warner Home Video and now The Criterion Collection.
* A term that I despise for the same reasons I despise metrics and assumptions based on race, gender, sexuality, religion, country of origin, etc.—it's a lazy way to categorize something and put it in an easy recognizable little box while denying nuance and individuality.
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