Weekly Film Wreck: Bringing Up Baby

I thought I'd get all clever on you guys with a little wordplay. I've already got my Weekly Film Rec, so the Weekly Film Wreck will be it's companion. As I'm sure you've already deduced, this space is going to be dedicated to films that I just don't care for. Sometime, it will be classics that I can't understand why people enjoy them, sometimes it's going to be horrible films that I can't imagine anyone would like. I'll never not recommend something, just because sometimes you have to see for yourself (and if I do this right, your curiosity will be piqued just enough to seek the film out). The one problem I face is that if I'm operating from a film I saw months or years ago, I'm not going to be really inclined to revisit it (but in some cases, I might, just to reassess my opinion).

I don't need to revisit this week's selection because I already did that (speaking of which, I think it's time to revisit Sunday Screenings... Paul?). Bringing Up Baby is widely regarded as a classic. It's saved for all time in the National Film Registry and #88 on the AFI Top 100 (and #14 on their 100 Laughs), but I couldn't even watch the whole way through a second time.

In my recent Radioland Murders post, I talk about the how the madcap antics are excused because of the nature of live radio and the murder investigation. Everyone is motivated by something different and trying to achieve their goal before everything falls apart. There's not time for anything else. In Bringing Up Baby, this is done with no reason. It exists only because the film needs to be feature length. If people would simply take the time (which they have) to listen to one another, everything would be cleared up in fifteen minutes. This makes the entirety of Bringing Up Baby contrivance. All films are built on some level of contrivance, but Bringing Up Baby is nothing but. It makes for an incredibly obnoxious viewing.

Katharine Hepburn's Susan is the epitome of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. I stand by my comment in the Sunday Screenings post that Grant's David would get frustrated of the runaround faster than the dialogue flies out of people's mouths in Bringing Up Baby that he would be just as miserable as he was with his fiancee. What he really wants is a happy medium. Of course, he's gone mad by the end, as well, so maybe their lives together will be lunacy.

I don't know how Bringing Up Baby achieved "classic" status. Maybe it's because its Hawks, Grant, and Hepburn during their peaks and, therefore, it must be great. Lord knows they've each made enough great films. This just isn't one of them.

“Nonsense, you tried it in the tail yesterday and it didn’t work” is still a great line, though.