Don't Make a Scene: Bringing Up Baby

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.

 

72 INT. SUSAN'S APARTMENT - MORNING

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. 

DAVID Susan!

SUSAN (calmly) Hello, Yes, David. 

DAVID Susan! Are you Why, you're all right? 

SUSAN Yes, I'm all right. Except that I've got a leopard. 

DAVID You lied to me.

SUSAN No, yes, but I didn't—

DAVID Telling me a ridiculous story about a leopard!

SUSAN Wasn't a ridiculous story. I have a leopard.

DAVID (stiffening with suspicion) Well, where is this alleged the leopard? 

SUSAN (indicates) In the bathroom. Right in there.

DAVID I don't believe you, Susan.

SUSAN But, you have to believe me.

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. 

DAVID Coming all the way for—AAH!

David, dumbfounded, hastily slams the door and leans against it tensely. 

SUSAN See? That will teach you to go around talking saying things about people! 

DAVID (a man in a crisis) Susan! You must get out of this apartment at once! 

SUSAN Don't be silly. But, David, I can't. I have a lease.

DAVID Oh, it isn't that! You've got to get that thing out of here.

DAVID I'll fix that.

SUSAN Don't worry about him. He's really all right. What are you going to do? 

DAVID Then you must get this thing out! I'll calling  I'm going to call the Zoo! 

SUSAN No you won't call the Zoo! I'm going to keep him. Oh no, you can't do that, David! 

SUSAN Oh, that's the meanest thing I ever heard. He's a pet. He'd be miserable in a zoo.

DAVID (drags a chair and props it against bathroom door) But you can't. I won't allow it! 

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 (starts reading) ‘Dear Susan -- I'm sending you Baby,'

SUSAN That's Baby

SUSAN '...a leopard I picked up. Guard him with your life. He's three years old, gentle as a kitten, 

SUSAN ...and he likes dogs.’ (pauses, frowns, then smiles apologetically) 

SUSAN I don't know whether Mark means he eats dogs or is fond of them. Mark's so vague at times. 

DAVID Vague!

SUSAN (continues reading) ‘He also likes music -- particularly that song, "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby."’ 

DAVID That's absurd! Your brother is joking. 

SUSAN Oh no, it's quite. I tried it. No, it isn't, David. Really. Listen! 

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.

SUSAN I know it's silly, but it's true. He absolutely adores the tune.

DAVID What's the difference whether he adores it or not?

SUSAN It's funny he should like such an old tune, isn't it? But I imagine down in Brazil they got—

She turns to the bathrrom, hearing Baby behind the door
SUSAN Look!

DAVID Oh, stop it, Susan!

SUSAN Oh, David, let me show him to you.

DAVID Oh, don't do that, Susan! Don't go near the d—

But he is too late. The leopard is already out and coming toward David, who backs away.

DAVID Oh, dear, dear, dear.

SUSAN Now watch, David. You'll see. He'll go right toward the music(stopping the victrola) 

SUSAN There! You see? He Look at that! 

SUSAN Isn't it remarkable? It loves it! 

DAVID (shakily, backing away) Susan, if we put the victrola in the bathroom, would he go back in? 

SUSAN Oh, yes. But the music sounds better out here. And besides, he likes it.

DAVID (Her nervously watches as baby moves towards him) Oh, here it comes. 

DAVID Oh, now, go away.

Baby nuzzles his leg.

DAVID Oh my, go away. 

DAVID I'm going to get out of here.

David gets off the table

DAVID Oh. Oh, Susan, I don't like leopards.

SUSAN Just think of him as being a house cat, David

DAVID Well, I don't like cats either.

SUSAN Stand still, David. Don't be nervous. 

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.

SUSAN Oh, don't be silly, David. You can't make a leopard stand still.

DAVID Susan, do something. Turn off the Victrola.

SUSAN I don't think it's the music, David. I think it's you.

She turns off the music

SUSAN David, I think you've found a real friend.

Baby, now on its back, plays with David's shoe.

SUSAN Look! Isn't it affectionate? 

SUSAN Just like a little baby kitten. 

SUSAN I never saw anything take such a liking to anyone in my life. It would follow you anywhere.

DAVID I wish it wouldn't...

 

Bringing Up Baby 

 

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.