Howard Hawks

Bringing Up Baby

Bringing Up Baby

Screwball sparks fly when Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn let loose in one of the fastest and funniest films ever made—a high-wire act of invention that took American screen comedy to new heights of absurdity. Hoping to procure a million-dollar endowment from a wealthy society matron for his museum, a hapless paleontologist (Grant) finds himself entangled with a dizzy heiress (Hepburn) as the manic misadventures pile up—a missing dinosaur bone, a leopard on the loose, and plenty of gender-bending mayhem among them. Bringing Up Baby’s sophisticated dialogue, spontaneous performances, and giddy innuendo come together in a whirlwind of comic chaos captured with lightning-in-a-bottle brio by director Howard Hawks.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1938
  • 102 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.37:1
  • English
  • Spine #1085

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Audio commentary from 2005 featuring filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
  • New video essay on actor Cary Grant by author Scott Eyman
  • New interview about cinematographer Russell Metty with cinematographer John Bailey
  • New interview with film scholar Craig Barron on special-effects pioneer Linwood Dunn
  • New selected-scene commentary about costume designer Howard Greer featuring costume historian Shelly Foote
  • Howard Hawks: A Hell of a Good Life, a 1977 documentary by Hans-Christoph Blumenberg featuring the director’s last filmed interview
  • Audio interview from 1969 with Grant
  • Audio excerpts from a 1972 conversation between Hawks and Bogdanovich
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Sheila O’Malley and the 1937 short story by Hagar Wilde on which the film is based

New cover design by F. Ron Miller

Purchase Options

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Audio commentary from 2005 featuring filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
  • New video essay on actor Cary Grant by author Scott Eyman
  • New interview about cinematographer Russell Metty with cinematographer John Bailey
  • New interview with film scholar Craig Barron on special-effects pioneer Linwood Dunn
  • New selected-scene commentary about costume designer Howard Greer featuring costume historian Shelly Foote
  • Howard Hawks: A Hell of a Good Life, a 1977 documentary by Hans-Christoph Blumenberg featuring the director’s last filmed interview
  • Audio interview from 1969 with Grant
  • Audio excerpts from a 1972 conversation between Hawks and Bogdanovich
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Sheila O’Malley and the 1937 short story by Hagar Wilde on which the film is based

New cover design by F. Ron Miller

Bringing Up Baby
Cast
Katharine Hepburn
Susan Vance
Cary Grant
David Huxley
Charles Ruggles
Major Applegate
Walter Catlett
Slocum
Barry Fitzgerald
Mr. Gogarty
May Robson
Aunt Elizabeth
Fritz Feld
Dr. Lehman
Leona Roberts
Mrs. Gogarty
George Irving
Alexander Peabody
Tala Birell
Mrs. Lehman
Virginia Walker
Alice Swallow
John Kelly
Elmer
Nissa the leopard
Baby
Asta
George the dog
Credits
Director
Howard Hawks
Associate producer
Cliff Reid
Screenplay
Dudley Nichols
Hagar Wilde
Based on the story by
Hagar Wilde
Director of photography
Russell Metty
Art direction
Van Nest Polglase
Editor
George Hively
Costumes
Howard Greer
Special effects
Vernon L. Walker
Music
Roy Webb

Current

Bringing Up Baby: Bones, Balls, and Butterflies
Bringing Up Baby: Bones, Balls, and Butterflies

Howard Hawks’s madcap battle of the sexes is a reminder of how necessary and sneakily profound silliness can be.

By Sheila O’Malley

Dream Awhile, Scheme Awhile: The Love Theme in Bringing Up Baby

Songbook

Dream Awhile, Scheme Awhile: The Love Theme in Bringing Up Baby

A ’20s jazz hit provides a rare moment of peace in Howard Hawks’s frenzied screwball comedy.

By Lesley Chow