Bringing up Baby: Absurd Then, Funny Now.

After reading some of the reviews that Bringing up Baby received when it was first released, one wouldn’t expect to be entertained from this film. When this film was released in 1938, film critics laughed at the goofiness of the plot and mocked the effects used throughout the film. It would be one thing for modern viewers to be criticizing the film style, due to comparisons with today’s techniques, but for reviewers at the time of the release to blatantly make fun of this film says a lot about the public audience of that time, and what was acceptable in movies. Due to our class’s reactions to this film (because of it being funny, or pathetically silly?), one would venture to say that at some point over the past seventy years the public has drastically shifted their opinions on this comedy. There are several reasons for this distinct change of attitude towards Bringing up Baby.
Bringing up Baby was arguably one of the more silly movies to be released during its time. A significant reason why it received such criticism at the time of release is due to the fact that viewers were not as familiar to this style of comedy, nor could they look past the blunders of the film and realize that this was not a movie to take seriously. A New York Times review from 1938 critiques the film by saying, “And the gags! Have you heard the one about the trained leopard and the wild leopard who get loose at the same time? Or the one about the shallow brook with the deep hole? Or the one about the man wearing a woman's negligee? Or the one about the Irishman who drains his flask and sees a wild animal which really is a wild animal”, obviously, this reviewer could not expand his suspension of disbelief and accept Bringing up Baby as an impractical movie that was not meant to deliver a deep meaning.
One major reason why viewers today generally accept Bringing up Baby as a successful comedy is due to the recent production of comedies and what the public deems acceptable. Thanks to films like Dumb and Dumber and Billy Madison, producers can usually create films that have absolutely no academic merit, and the public will realize this and view it as a movie not to take serious. Audiences in 1938 tended to view films with the assumption that they were going to gain something out of the viewing; this is why Bringing up Baby was not successful at the time of release. Today, audiences can accept the humor in the intentional blunders in films, because we have seen them used before and we are not surprised by nearly anything when it comes to the “Comedy” genre.
In 1938, Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn were relatively young in their acting careers. Often, it seems, we appreciate actors and actresses more after they have been given the chance for their talents to mature over time. Looking back today at Bringing up Baby, critics realize the talent that was underappreciated at the time of original release. Hepburn, a four-time winner and twelve-time nominee for the Oscar given to the best actress in a leading role, came off as a ditzy young woman to critics of Bringing up Baby. Grant was no disappointment in the later half of his career either, staring in North by Northwest and being nominated for two Oscars. Though not as famous in the beginning of their careers, Hepburn and Grant made Bringing up Baby a funny movie that many people can enjoy.
Like a good bottle of wine, some things just need time for people to show the proper amount of appreciation that it deserves. Bringing up Baby probably would’ve been more of a success if it had been released decades later. Nonetheless, it is now considered one of the more successful comedies in the early years of film production.