About Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Sometime I wonder whether people love an old thing because society told them to do so.

Once in a while, there is a trend or a craze about modern/young people come back to the old values in the past. Vintage/ Retro/ Nostalgia.... Whatever it is, the old value we’re craving, we all recall it with beautiful compliments and as a default that everything comes from the past is good. If you don’t love it, there is something wrong with you.

We live in the world that Sir Mix-a-lot’s hit song that begins with this line “I love big butt and I cannot lie” is considered “classy” in new standard. Maybe in 10 years or so, Anaconda will be introduced as powerful and seduced song, not soft porn anymore.

I bet that if someone says he/she isn’t fond of Elvis Presley, Imagine is a John Lennon’s phony song or The Temptations was a lead singer with 4 backup dancers and a slowly weird choreography, the whole world will rage to tell them to shut his/her stupid mouth up. They will use the most beautiful vocabulary in the world to tell you that you’re dumb, ignorance, retarded, racist, republican, trash,….just because you can’t enjoy a thing considered classic.

Why do I have to love a classic? Is this a law or is this a prejudice in society to pretend to have a soul or a wonderful mind to appreciate anything supposed to be good? If I didn’t cry in Schindler’s List, I am a cold-blood animal or a Jew hater. If I didn’t like E.T, I have no childhood. And if I accidently say Forrest Gump is better than Pulp Fiction, someone definitely murders me.

Two out of three “If” mentioned above is true. Do you want to guess?

Anyways, I’m here to say my honest opinion and I stand for it. Just because Black Panther has a black cast and a rich African cultural theme doesn’t mean it’s not overrated. Just open your eyes and see the thing like it is, no political correctness, it’s just a good superhero movie. The truth is The Shining is not scary at all. I’m sorry if some of you lost your sleep because of the twins in the lobby, I yawned myself to depression because that 2-and-a-half-hour movie was a bore fest. And you know what? I didn’t laugh a single time in Ghostbusters either, I didn’t mind the ghost and the plot, this movie and Bill Murray were not funny. I don’t know, maybe Donnie Darko is just pure meaningless or the screenwriter just want to play a cruel game with your mind. And haven’t watched Brokeback Mountain yet doesn’t mean I’m homophobic, that because it take time to prepare myself for a sad ending.

Now, come to the main thing.

Bringing Up Baby is always considered one of greatest screwball comedies in the cinema history. It’s placed 35^th in AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Laughs, 88^th in AFI’s 100 Greatest American films of all time, scored 95% on Rotten Tomato, 8.0 on IMDB, starring 4 times Academy Award winner Katharine Hepburn and 2 Oscar nominees Cary Grant. On the paper, this movie can do no wrong.

It’s obvious what will happen next. I did NOT like it.

One of my friends recommended this movie to me and I was so excited. You know, it’s not only a classic, it’s a black and white classic. It’s starring Katharine Hepburn and the dude from North by Northwest being a cute odd couple in an unexpected adventure with a leopard. How amazing is that! They had a freaking leopard, a real one, not the cute little CGI one you’ll see someday when they remake this movie. And it’s supposed to be goofy, hilarious, light-hearted, you know, it’s still a comedy after all.

Bringing Up Baby is a great example that one super bad element could destroy the whole good thing. I have no problem with the plot, the humor, the dialogs, everything seems doing fine except the main female character. Oh my god, she's the most annoying character I have ever seen in my cinema life. I couldn’t laugh, couldn’t enjoy one moment in the movie just because of her.

Just put it this way. A woman met a man in a ridiculous day, after she mistook his golf ball, his car, destroy his new hat and his chance to get 1 million dollars for his job that he cares so much about, the woman decided she loved him. Unfortunately, this wimpy paleontologist she fell in love with had already had a fiancée. The woman knew full well that:

1.                       The man hates her guts (he said that to her face and tell her to get away from him);

2.                       He is going to be married the next day.

Well, being a decent, noble, well-educated, free will woman, Susan Vance only cared about her happiness. She did everything she could to drag this poor man into a bizarre journey to deliver a live leopard (a “tamed” live leopard) from her house to her aunt’s house, just to keep him close. Because of all random events happened next, this impotent David Huxley missed his wedding, lost his dinosaur bone, locked up in jail and finally, being dumped by his future wife. In this journey, Susan let a wild predator with full teeth, claws and a cute jaw running around a town full of human meat while she comfortably broke several laws, lied to the man she loves, lied to her aunt, lied to the police or literally anyone she met on the way,... Can a person be that annoying, selfish, delusional, irrational and irresponsible? And for what, David Huxley is the weakest man I’ve ever seen. I bet he loved his dinosaur more than any woman in the whole planet. If she didn’t bring 1 million dollars to his museum, I doubt they kissed.

Before that night, the fiction character I hated the most is Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (the novel). Well, last night, Susan Vance comes to close second. Oh, don’t tell me I can’t judge a movie or character in the modern standard, the movie is 80 years old, it was a different time. No no, home-wrecker is disgusting in anywhere, anytime and to anyone. I know David’s fiancée looked like a bitch and he seemed to not love her because he couldn’t care less about his wedding, but there is no good excuse for Susan to steal somebody’s man because she loved him. Did she have any dignity at all?

Not just her action is bad, her personality is worse. In the first minutes she opened her mouth, all I can hear in my head was my pray: “Oh god (I don’t know which god, any god), please don’t let her be the lead, don’t let her be the lead, don’t let her be the lead”. Well, as I expected, there is no god and that annoying talkative girl is the main female character, as if the male lead isn’t bad enough. Not only did she talk and interrupt people but also she always thought she was right, didn’t listen to anyone like she didn’t do anything wrong. She had no idea about consequences or anyone’s feeling, she just did the thing she wanted like a freaking 5 years old spoiled brat. She caused a lot of trouble and as usual, got someone else cleaning up for her. And people just told me that girl was just “scatterbrained”.

And you know what, in the end, she was still beautiful, rich and get the guy.

Because I hate/dislike/am not so fond of Susan Vance, I turned my computer off 2 times just to calm myself down so I could continue watching it (I promised my friend I’ll watch it). And all the time I suffered this trauma, I was torn by the lies I told myself “She’s not that bad”, “This is a classic, it has to be good” and “They didn’t make stupid films in the past”. In all the movie, I used all my energy and attention just to tolerate Susan Vance, so I didn’t pay any attention to anything actually good was happening.

Now thinking about it, I realize that Cary Grant’s character is just a typical stereotype of a nerd, so it’s understandable that he can’t talk back to a woman like Susan. To be fair, no one can, but normal people will try their best not to slap her in the face and David fell for her. As he explained, one day with Susan was more exciting and worth living than his entire life, which totally made sense, considering he worked in a bone museum and a cold-blooded fiancée. David was a gentleman I guess, with a bummer life and a patient that could kill an elephant with kindness. Besides to be a jerk to his fiancée, David was a terrible wedding planner and an awful paleontologist. He deserved Susan though. We all know he won’t have a single voice in that house once he was married her.

According to definition of screwball comedy, the entire movie was built on the chemistry and interaction of the man and woman, finally leading to a romantic relationship or marriage. In this case, David and Susan made a “terrific” couple because how different they are. It’s so “classic” and cliché to have a couple having nothing in common but the fact that Susan fell for David first and tried to make David love her back is quite cute. I don’t think there is any stubborn and determined girl like her anywhere in that prime. Thank to Disney, women now and then are all princesses, we are waiting or looking for our prince charming. Well, Susan didn’t wait or look, she saw David and she simply took him by her leopard, that’s all. In this movie, Susan’s personality was so strong and totally overpowered David’s, makes him follow her lead all the time. The pair was entertaining until I went back to the thought “He had already had a fiancée” and it ruined everything. What if they made David become a bachelor, or I don’t know, he just had a crush on this one girl, I could save myself from this torture.

The truth is while I am quite picky in stupid movies, I’m easier when it comes to annoying character. Just for you know, I can put up with Ruby Rhod’s loud mouth and his chipmunk voice in The Fifth Element, tolerate Mary Jane’s slutty choice and her damsel-in-distress screams in the entire Spiderman trilogy and except all the pointless actions that Rose Tico did in The Last Jedi (Being an Vietnamese, I have nothing against the actress, I’m just judging her character, which is too bad for the minorities when her story line with Finn and Poe did nothing helpful but destroying everything and killing a lot of people). And you know what, I didn’t hate Skyler White and Marie Schrader in Breaking Bad either. Sure, they got on my nerves sometimes but when I considered their situations and their abilities and personalities to take actions, the characters were doing what they should do and it’s reasonable in their own way. So they’re not that bad and I’m in peace with their flaws.

The fact that I can sympathy for Marie and her purple color and still can’t stand Susan, she must be something. To me, this Susan character is so unbearably obnoxious. The worst thing is I am like the only one that hate her. Literally like no one else complains about it. All I read is how good and hilarious the movie was, the perfect comedic timing, the great chemistry between two leads and Susan was “a strong woman”. Seriously, not one person see how horrible she was?

According to wikipedia, which is not so reliable, Susan Vance’s character is based on Katharine Hepburn’s personality. I honesty hope that wasn’t true, because Katharine Hepburn is the only thing that make Susan more tolerated. The actress’s beauty and charisma makes Susan so dame adorable and not annoying all the time, maybe 3% not annoying. Her outfit, make-up, hair, the old tone and behavior of this golden era made her an irresistible and elegant look but then destroyed when she opened her trouble mouth.

After a month watching the movie, when I can think clearly and more thoughtful, I think some of the scenes were quite great. The scene with the torn dress was undeniable charming and brilliant. The story in Bringing Up Baby when they involve the leopard was quite unexpected and hilarious with witty dialogs, some slapstick comedies in right time and right places. It was so nice to watch an old movie, when you don’t have to hear any cuss word to express feelings or they didn’t use sex or fart jokes to make it funny. After all, the only problem I had was just one character and she overshadowed everything great about this movie. What a shame!

Let’s be honest, not all the things from the past are great, some are just trash. Sometime you just have to be fair in your own standard to watch an old movie or listen to an old song. And fake your feeling to live up the public opinion is just sad and stupid.

Well, for the closing paragraph, I just want to repeat that I don’t have to pretend anything in my blog (because I have no soul and an amazing mind and I accept that). It’s not the first time I denied my chance to like a classic but in the other movies, I usually blame myself for not having what it takes to appreciate them. Well, I guess there is the first time for everything. I’m not sorry for not liking Bringing Up Baby, it’s just not my cup of tea. And for the moment of truth: This review is written just to talk trash about the character Susan Vance. Hate is a powerful motivation, isn’t it?

Now I feel better.