MovieChat Forums > Bringing Up Baby (1938) Discussion > Am I the only one?

Am I the only one?

posted 9 years ago by vivacious_dan
16 replies | jump to latest

First, let me say, I am a huuuge classics fan and run a blog having mostly to do with classic films:

battleangel.tumblr.com

John Wayne, Joan Crawford, Doris Day, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Bette Grable, Jimmy Dean, Rock Hudson..the list literally goes on and on.

With that said, I just sat down to watch this last week. It's been quite lionized and is considered the funniest screwball comedy ever made.

While Katherine Hepburn was delightfully flighty, lovable and adorable in her zany heiressness and vulnerability and who could resist Cary Grant as a geeked out paleontologist more concerned with dinosaur bones than with the female sex and their partnership was fantastic (I enjoy their chemistry much more than Hepburn's and Tracy's), I have to say:

I do feel the reputation for this film is slightly inflated.

Am I the only one who vastly, vastly prefers His Girl Friday to this movie? I felt Rosalind Russell's comedic timing was better and, frankly, I found her funnier than Katherine Hepburn. For all the vaunted fast paceness of Bringing Up Baby, if you compare the two films, the frenetic pace of His Girl Friday is actually considerably faster. I enjoyed the plot to His Girl Friday more about a divorced couple working "one last story" together while Rosalind Russell is trying (and failing) to marry and go on her honeymoon with her milquetoast new lover. I preferred the hijinks in His Girl Friday and found myself laughing out loud a lot more frequently:

"See what life insurance policy they'll allow on that old carcass of his."

"Say, I'm better than I ever was!"

"It was never anything to brag about."

I guess I'm just surprised out of the two Howard Hawks directed screwball comedies, Bringing Up Baby gets more adulation as I vastly preferred His Girl Friday. Anyone else?

[–] ppllkk 9 years ago

vivacious_dan wrote:

Am I the only one?

What a ridiculous question. Of course you aren't the only one. No one ever is.

[–] vivacious_dan 9 years ago

I don't think it is ridiculous at all. The vast majority of people seem to prefer Bringing Up Baby to His Girl Friday and as my post alludes to, I didn't like Bringing Up Baby all that much, to put it mildly. That is quite an unpopular opinion especially among classic fans, such as myself. Perfectly reasonable to reach out on the boards here and see if anyone else preferred His Girl Friday for the reasons I listed.

[–] ppllkk 9 years ago

vivacious_dan wrote:

Perfectly reasonable to reach out on the boards here and see if anyone else preferred His Girl Friday for the reasons I listed.

That is a perfectly reasonable question, but that is not the question that you asked in your title. You asked if you were the only one, and that is a ridiculous question, because no one ever is.If you had read my reply, it should've been obvious that that is what I was responding to.

[–] vivacious_dan 9 years ago

Stop being so overly literal. I was not literally asking if I am the only person out of 7 billion people living on earth who prefers His Girl Friday to Bringing Up Baby. My point, completely lost on you, is that it sure feels that way, given the fact that Bringing Up Baby is considered the greatest screwball comedy ever made. That should have been "obvious" to you.

[–] ppllkk 9 years ago

vivacious_dan wrote:

That should have been "obvious" to you.

It was obvious to me that you are using a really dumb cliché. It should have been obvious to you that that was what I was responding to.

[–] nmadura 9 years ago

I love both Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Fridayand find it hard to decide between those two and The Awful Truthas my favorite comedic roles of Grant's. Of the three movies the one I have probably watched most is His Girl Friday so maybe it has a slight edge.

BUB and HGF are both fast paced but I wouldn't call HGF a screwball comedy.

[–] catlover9802 9 years ago

I'm actually not a big fan of His Girl Friday. There's a meanness and thoughtlessness to both Cary Grant's and Rosalind Russell's characters that I find unappealing and not funny.

OTOH, The Awful Truth is one of my all-time favorite movies. It's hilarious, the characters are very likable and root able. On the surface it seems do similar to HGF, but the tone is very different imo. Bringing up Baby is right behind it.

[–] catlover9802 9 years ago

I meant that BUB is one of my favorite movies.

I can't seem to find the edit button, if there is one.

[–] Enrique-8 9 years ago

I completely and wholeheartedly AGREE this movie is just not that great at all.

Enrique Sanchez

[–] ace-150 9 years ago

It was too over the top. I just kept wondering if Susan's aunt couldn't afford to get her a lobotomy. I preferred, for example, The Awful Truth, because the characters were somewhat exaggerated but still recognizable as real people. Good comedy generally works because you can recognize yourself in it. Who could possibly relate to Susan in BUB? Or to any of the characters?

[–] ppllkk 9 years ago

ace-150 wrote:

It was too over the top.

Well, it was too over-the-top for you, but humor is very subjective, and an awful lot of people, including myself think that it is an immense amount of fun.

Good comedy generally works because you can recognize yourself in it.

If that is what you like in comedy, I would certainly not argue about your personal preference. But your generalization is over the top.

[–] louiseculmer 9 years ago

I like Bringing Up baby better than His Girl Friday, but It is not the funniest cary Grant film for me. For me, father Goose is the funniest.

[–] lm362 9 years ago

The trivia section says that this was the first time she was in a comedy and had trouble with her comedic timing. I think her efforts here to do that better really makes what she did funny.

[–] waltereckland 9 years ago

No, you are not the only one. I have enjoyed His Girl Friday many times but I find it impossible to sit through Bringing Up Baby without fast forwarding. His Girl Friday is fast paced and witty. Bring Up Baby is fast paced, stupid, and you never get a break. There are some nice dramatic moments in His Girl Friday where you can catch your breath.

I also find the characters in His Girl Friday to be much more interesting and likeable. The Grant character in His Girl Friday is a loveable rogue. The Grant character in Bringing Up Baby is affable but weak and acts like a complete boob. The Rosalind Russell character in His Girl Friday is torn between doing what she loves (newspaper woman) and doing what she things will be good for her (housewife). Her character shows some real strength and depth. The Hepburn character in Bringing Up baby is beautiful, has some adorable moments, but is totally self centered and very shallow.

[–] Merrida 9 years ago

Nope you're not the only one. I'm also a classic movie buff, and such a fan of the silver screen. Not to mention, a particularly big fan of Katharine Hepburn's.

I immediately compared this frenetic pace and excessive overlapping yapping with His Girl Friday, with Russell. They both utilized the same scattered sense of talking over other actors. But in His Girl Friday, it made sense, and the delivery was so strong. Russell's timing is impeccable, case in point would have to be Auntie Mame, Trouble With Angels, etc. She's flawless.

And for the most part, I'll admit I'm biased towards films with Hepburn and Grant because I like them so much individually, and they have superb onscreen chemistry. So it miffed me watching this movie where I got the impression there was little more than a skeleton of a script and got the feeling that the actors were told the basic plot and just told to adlib their way through.

There are so many lines that are just ramblings and yelling, like they're trying too hard, and that makes them look desperate, not funny, and certainly not entertaining.

Perhaps the lack of a "straight man" in this comedy is indeed what's lacking, I'm not sure. But as a fan, I'm also disappointed in what comes across as just a frenzied, frantic farce.

______________________________________
Sic vis pacem para bellum.

[–] Akira_Ziggy 9 years ago

It's good thing that everyone has slightly differing opinions over which films they prefer and even ones they find hard or even impossible to watch. If we had the same feelings we wouldn't have seen such a diverse catalog of films. Recent movies, epsecially from the major studios, suggest they're not that interesting new ideas.

I personally prefer Bringing Up Baby, but do love His Girl Friday. I can some would find the comedy in BUB to be somewhat over the top, but somehow it totally appeals to my sense of humour.

Somebody else mentioned being able to identify with a character being something that helps with liking a film and maybe my choice therefore comes from being able to empathise more with Cary Grant's character in BUB than HGF.

It's also interesting that some people say they are put off a film by it containing lots of unlikeable characters. That doesn't really bother me as long I can understand the motives behind what they're doing.