Somebody please kill this woman

Bringing Up Baby

I can’t believe myself, I actually finished watching this film. Basically it took ages for this to download and after I started watching 15 minutes of it, I must admit that I felt like I was dying of fury against this incredibly impertinent person. Sure, she’s not doing that on purpose and it’s really, really hilarious, but oh my, it took me quite a while to accept that side of her, and I kept telling myself that she actually is a genuinely honest, interesting and witty woman who actually just wanted to help (at least at the beginning). It’s just that whatever she does ends up completely disastrous and she seems to have absolutely no idea what’s going on, which adds to the film’s hilarity of course.
Another horrible drawback of this film was (and in my opinion contributed to the film’s bad performance at the box office at that time) Katharine Hepburn’s role that was simply too, erm, loud for my tastes. She had such a squeaking annoying voice throughout the whole film, and although I know it’s supposed to be funny, sometimes the fast talking of several people plus dog barking is just too much for my ears. Surely I partially blame society’s intolerance towards strong-willed women who are actually smarter and more interesting than the guy, but I think these aesthetcal aspects have had their influence the flop as well.

Similarly, I actually like Katharine Hepburn as an actress, and I really find her to be brilliant from a technical standpoint. From her biography, she also seems to be the same kind of smart and capable woman as she plays in her roles. But I really am not a big fan of her looks (oh my goodness, that hair! It looks like they copied the 80s *cough*) and especially not of her voice, haha.

How should I put it, I think this is a fabulous example of a great screwball comedy and reminded me a lot of “Ninotchka”, Wilder’s “The Apartment” and especially “Avanti”. Now this really makes me want to get more films from the SZ screwball comedy series. “Bringing Up Baby” made me discover the genre and realize that I really, really like it. Screwball comedies are full of hilarious sexual innuendo and defy the society of those days by making men and women fight on equal grounds (unlike certain other love stories *cough*Casablanca*cough*). I also really like how these comedies make it so plausible that such different people with such subtly working chemistry get together by putting them into unusual situations. After all, I really think that David and Susan in this film are made for each other, it’s just that he had to realize it – despite her annoying character, she opens him to get out of his boring life, does crazy things with him (which he ultimately enjoyed) and shows him the world. How can one not fall in love with such an oddity of a woman? Ah, I just love it <3
I definitely want to watch “It happened one night” and “Holiday”. What else would be recommendable, I wonder?

PS. What, Bela Lugosi was in “Ninotchka”? I never realized that. Also, I should add “Queen Christina” to my soon-to-watch list.