In 1937, Hagar Wilde published a slight story in Collier's about a couple who get over a rocky patch in their relationship by tending a panther together. That same year, Wilde adapted her own story for the big screen with the assistance of Dudley Nichols. With a bonus subplot about transporting a dinosaur bone, Howard Hawks directing, and Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn starring, Bringing Up Baby became one of the defining screwball comedies. In fleshing out the story, Wilde and Nichols made Susan Vance (Hepburn) a socialite who sucks nerdy, uptight paleontologist David Huxley (Grant) into her whirlpool of lunacy, which causes the hapless duo to lose both cat and bone, get arrested, steal and crash several vehicles, collapse a brontosaurus skeleton, and of course, fall in love. Hawks commented that the film's one "fault" is that there are no "normal" people in the film, but the through-and-through zaniness of Bringing Up Baby makes it constant fun. The film's greatest strength is its two leads. Dashing Grant and level-headed Hepburn play against type with surprisingly effective results even though their romance is as illogical as everything else about this screwball classic.
Appropriate for a film of its stature, Bringing Up Baby is one of the newest additions to the Criterion Collection. The image is clean and stable with a few stray blurry shots (such as a long shot of the two leads right before they attempt to lure Baby off a roof by singing the cat's favorite song) that may have more to do with how the movie was filmed than a lapse in its 4K transfer.
The most substantial of the numerous supplements is an hour-long film featuring Hawks's final interview. It's a bit dry, but filmmaker Hans-Christoph Blumenberg's approach is pleasingly natural as he captures Hawks at home or visiting a car race. More entertaining is an audio-only interview with Cary Grant from 1969 in which he discusses his career with his trademark stammering charm and humor. There are also video essays on Grant's development as an actor, cinematographer Russell Metty, and visual effects artist Linwood Duncan, who devised a number of tricks to keep the actors safe from the leopard who played Baby. Wilde's original story from which the film was adapted is also included.
