Bringing Up Baby

I recently read an entry in Stephen Teo’s book on Wong Kar-Wai, in which he characterized Faye Wong’s performance in Chungking Express as being a comedic performance similar to Katharine Hepburn’s in Bringing Up Baby (1938). This is also a well-known example of the screwball comedies of the late 30s and early 40s. And after seeing the film, I can see what Teo was getting at. However, I find that a lot of the jokes fell flat, but what struck me was the rapid-fire dialogue and great timing needed for the physical comedy. I read a bit about the film and learned that it was Hepburn’s first comedic role and that director Howard Hawks had to train her with vaudevillians for the role, however Cary Grant was already well schooled. I was also surprised to learn that initially this film was a box office failure-since it has come to be known as one of Hawks’ triumphs.