Bringing Up Baby (1938) 102 Minutes

Exactly 232 years after Paul Revere’s famous ride, Mr. Wiener brought

Movienight its oldest Selection yet. Howard Hawk’s classic comedy delivered

some much needed levity to the Back Yard, which for the first time in four

weeks was the same Back Yard as the week before.

Sadly, Nubs couldn’t make it to Movienight so his current streak of nine

straight picks has been dashed. Speaking of streaks, Jaja made it to her

first Movienight since the loss of our Original Back Yard much to everyone’s

great pleasure.

Prior to the screening, Tooda brought everyone to attention for Official Movienight Business. After great deliberation by the Membership it has been decided that MOFO’s slot in the rotation will be bestowed upon the richly deserving WildCard Slim. As toasts to Slim subsided, Tooda announced as well that stalwart guest Buffy has become an Official Member of Movienight. Like WildCard before her, Buffy’s entrance into Movienight does not include SELECTOR status, so as is true of Jaja, Buffy (for the moment) is a designated viewer.

Velvet was warm and quiet inside this week, and the windy calm was enjoyed by the whole Membership (save Nubs) who were joined by Amy and Pat Towne. Hard to believe it given where we started, but with just seven people in the Back Yard ‘Bringing Up Baby’ had the fewest viewers since the five person audience assembled for Netti’s ‘Harold and Maude.’

‘Bringing Up Baby’ beats out Tooda’s ‘The Great Dictator’ by two years to claim the title of Oldest Movienight Pick of All Time. It features (outside of ‘Visions of Light’) the debut of legends Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, as well as one of cinema’s greatest directors - Howard Hawks.

“Because I just went gay all of a sudden!”

Written by: Dudley Nichols & Hagar Wilde

Directed by: Howard Hawks

BBD Comments:

Mr. Wiener made a pitch perfect pick when he decided to bring this classic to the Stucco. ‘Bringing Up Baby’ is one of the most genuinely funny movies of all-time, and for the first time since ‘What’s Up, Doc?’ the Crew roared their way through a screwball comedy.

On the heels of the emotional aftermath of ‘The Sea Inside,’ it was such a pleasure to have a film that takes you by the hand. ‘Bringing Up Baby’ did what Movienight is meant to do - let all of our troubles, and all the troubling news from a very troubling week, slip away for 102 minutes of communal levity.

It was such a relief to not have to move any equipment last week, and Mr. Wiener’s graciousness is appreciated as always. Thanks are due as well to Velvet. I hope she enjoyed the warmth inside more than she missed barking her head off. Either way, the silence this week was wonderful and I was finally able to appreciate how nice a setting this Back Yard really is. Apologies for my swift exit last night, thanks to all for breaking down the set-up in my absence.

For those that don’t yet know, Netti Amy and I made it to Eli’s B-Day party where I beat the creator of ‘Saw’ in a clapping push-up contest, and Tarantino hit on Amy. Following a near dust-up between me and the paparazzi, the three of us returned to my place where Jaja and Buffy were still kicking it. All in all, a pretty great evening.

Thanks for the great pick Mr. Wiener. And congratulations to our new Member and our new SELECTOR.

Onwards.

Brandon Comments:

‘Bringing Up Baby’ brought up more than just a few chuckles, it brought up a whole lot of “back-hand motions” meant for Katharine Hepburn. Yes, this film is very funny, especially for a film from 1938, but it also really made me want to slap the hell out of Hepburn. I know she’s playing a character, so I will direct my animosity toward this particular character instead of the actor. If a mediocre-looking, small-breasted woman stole my car right in front of me, I would do a hell of a lot more than stand on the running board and try and convince her that it wasn’t her car. Within a second, I would have already had my hand around her neck, the E-brake on, and pulled that broad across the hood of the car demanding an answer. And if she ruined a $1 million business meeting for me, you better be damned sure I would have burned her house down, defecated all over her 30-acre yard, and driven drywall nails through her palms and feet in an homage to stigmata. And destroying the bones of the brontosaurus that took four years to build

Oh, man! I just don’t think I could bring myself to try and save her after that, let alone give her a kiss and say you love her.

That being stated, I really did like ‘Bringing Up Baby,’ even though it may sound like I didn’t. I just get pissed off with old classic comedies where everyone acts like an asshole. But there were some great gags, and Cary Grant is always a class act. And the chemistry and comical timing between Grant and Hepburn was top notch. But I would have just once liked to have seen Cary grab Katharine’s arm and say, “You’re a fucking nut-job, lady! Get the hell outta my face!” But that is probably a little too racy for 1938.

Buffy Comments:

I still can’t believe it’s true—who could have thought that a plucky girl from nowhere could come to LA and live her dream of finally becoming a Movienight Official Member: Non-Selector Status? Since I invented Movienight, all I can say is, it’s about time. Let it be known, I have been asked my feelings on being denied SELECTOR status, and quite honestly I don’t see why I should skip a status that brave Wildcard Slim has been required to hold ere I joined this fine grouping. For now, I am content to be called Member—but I do need a Movienight name. Anyhoo, in the spirit of being dubbed Official, I thought about slacking on my review duties this week, but you know? I’m just too hardcore.

It has been duly noted that timing is everything when it comes to Movienight, and a lighthearted comedy is a nice follow-up to cyanide powder. There is much to be said for any film that has a hilarious line about Hamlet’s ghost. Plus, a little of that old-fashioned subtlety brings peace to my soul in the time of Idiocracy.

Let it be known that Cary Grant is my #1 crush of all time. I know he’s not a real person, and I keep thinking I’ll grow out of it, and then I see him again… I wish I could offer some objective p.o.v. on Grant’s performance, but I cannot. He’s the only performer like that for me. Well, him and Ozzy. My mom wasn’t a big Hepburn fan, so she never really pushed her movies and I never really paid much attention to her until my late teens. I thought she was fab in this movie, so young and tiny and lovely, with her usual gumption…I love seeing a beautiful woman brave enough to get the job done, even when it involves a damn leopard, and falling down embankments and whatnot, instead of worrying that her precious insured teeth are going to get knocked out and phoning in the performance from her trailer. A certain bravery within your soul about living and desiring to do things yourself makes for a better performer, I believe. Perhaps in both these actors’ cases it’s the vaudeville—usually that’s it.

The costumes seemed like their own character…Some of the gowns I loved, some of them I thought had to be for comic effect. How could anyone go about town in sleeves which could house several families of refugees? And that alien headpiece, that was pretty hilarious. Oh, but how I wish we lived in an era where gals wore veiled hats.

Anyway…putting these two kids with made-up accents together to have a jolly old time falling in love was a great idea, and that’s plenty enough for me on the Patio. Wiener, I’m very glad I got to watch this with the group and hope we didn’t keep up the parents!!! Thanks as always for hosting us at your lovely home.

WOO HOO, HOLLYWOOD DREAMS COME TRUE. You just gotta believe.

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