Katharine Hepburn as Susan Vance and Cary Grant as David Huxley
Bringing Up Baby (1938), is an adorable screwball comedy starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Susan Vance (Hepburn), a flighty, free-spirited millionheiress meets David Huxley (Grant), an uptight paleontologist, a day before his wedding.
Once Vance realizes she's in love with Huxley, she tries to keep him from his wedding with a series of planned mishaps. Throughout the film, poor Huxley grows increasingly frustrated with the young heiress, due to extreme circumstances like the misplacement of her live pet leopard, "Baby," and the total collapse of his full-scale brontosaurus reconstruction, but he can't prevent his eventual infatuation with her.
High Fashion Cred: Since Hepburn plays megarich heiress Susan Vance, she gets to wear some incredible high-end outfits, like the gold lame gown with an incredible sheer veil worn to a fancy restaurant. Susan unknowingly rips the back of the dress all the way up to her waist during a hilarious slapstick scene.
Best Dressed: The ridiculously fabulous polka dotted chiffon dressing gown that Susan Vance wears in a brief, but memorable telephone scene was my favorite outfit of the whole movie. The frothy confection is a couture dream come true! Bonus points for the leopard accessory. I just wish I could find a better picture of it!
Grant and Hepburn look for Baby and Henry
Most unexpected scene stealer: After David Huxley takes a shower at Susan Vance's home, his clothes are magically missing and the only thing he can find to wear is a woman's marabou-trimmed négligée. When asked why he's wearing the hilarious outfit, in an apparent ad-lib Grant replied in exasperation, "Because I went gay all of a sudden!" while leaping into the air. Apparently, this film was the first work of fiction to use gay in a homosexual context.
Grant and Hepburn playing a round of golf
Substance score: 7. In 2007, American Film Institute ranked Bringing Up Baby #88 on its list of the 100 greatest movies of all time. It's an adorable slapstick comedy that proves you don't need a ton of nudity and cuss words to make a great comedy. Now if only current filmmakers take note.
A publicity shot of Katharine Hepburn and "Baby" the leopard
FMN celebrates both iconic films that have shaped fashion in a significant way and documentaries offering a behind the scenes look into the fashion industry. In a series of blog posts following our FMN viewing parties, I analyze the impact of each film on fashion.
