We tried to watch Bringing Up Baby last night, but the DVD started skipping. Combined with the fact I was still reeling from a Saturday spent helping Alex celebrate his birthday, and I gave up and went to bed. Too bad, it had just reached the point where Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) pretends she's being attacked by the leopard so Dr. Huxley (Cary Grant) will rush over.
It just occurred to me this morning he brought his fossilized Brontosaurus bone along with him to her place. Would a jungle cat gnaw a fossilized bone? It'd be like eating a rock, which doesn't seem very catlike, but I suppose that could lead to hilarity when they have to take it to a dentist. And of course Huxley would be disraught that the last bone they need to complete the skeleton has been devoured/destroyed/damaged by a giant cat this crazy woman has.
I've watched several of Howard Hawks' movies before, notably To Have and Have Not and Rio Bravo, since my dad's a fan of Hawks' work. This was an earlier film, which might explain why the overlapping, interrupting dialogue was a bit harder for me to follow. Perhaps Hawks still hadn't quite worked the kinks out yet. Or, since this was a comedy, whereas the others were not, he wanted it to be a little confusing for the audience, so they'd feel as befuddled by the whole thing as Huxley seemed to be. Or I was tired.
I was impressed with Cary Grant in the little bit of the movie we got to see. I hadn't pegged him as such a good comedic actor. His character was how I think Clark Kent in All-Star Superman acts: a decent fellow, friendly, enthusiastic, but overrun by stronger, louder personalities around him. With Grant's character, it's both the women in the movie that run roughshod over him. He can't gain any traction with Hepburn's character or his future wife. Anything he says or does, no matter how accurate or well-intentioned, they simply bulldoze over by force of their personalities.
All of which makes me wonder if Cary Grant could have been a good Superman. I'd tend to think so, if only because he was a fine actor, and I'd expect talent would show through. Heck, Hepburn would probably make a fine Lois Lane. Susan Vance is a bit too spacey for Lois, but I doubt it'd be difficult for Hepburn to tone that down, and crank the noseyness up to 11.
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Grant had The Look that would just have made a perfect Superman, I agree. He had the range to play all 'three' men very well.
As for Hepburn, I would expect a performance more in line with 'Rooster Cogburn' and have no doubt that Lois would have been in very safe hands there too!
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