Katharine Hepburn – Bringing Up Baby
Long before Meryl Streep became the dominant acting force of her generation, Hepburn achieved the same – universally lauded and awarded, she captured four Oscar wins out of a dozen nominations spread out over 5 decades of big screen work. Like Streep she possessed an uncanny versatility, but also held a poise, dignity and self-assuredness that infused every performance. Bringing Up Baby, On Golden Pond, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, The Philadelphia Story, Pat & Mike, The African Queen, Woman of the Year and Little Women – hers is a sensationally enduring, eclectic and rich resume.
Although her regular pairings with Spencer Tracy tend to linger longest in the memory (they loved each other and brought out the best in each other), Bringing Up Baby is such a funny film and features an otherwise out of the ordinary quirkiness from Hepburn and thus earns this nod. Hepburn and her co-star Cary Grant would go on to recapture the lightning of their on-screen chemistry for 1940’s The Philadelphia Story, but they are funnier here, more effortless, more endearing. Their respective charisma, wittiness and ease with a well-crafted line gels here to give us another epic screwball comedy from an era when they seemed to be popping up all the time. This exchange is typical of the easy rapport this film generates:-
Susan Vance: You mean you want *me* to go home?
David Huxley: Yes.
Susan Vance: You mean you don’t want me to help you any more?
David Huxley: No.
Susan Vance: After all the fun we’ve had?
David Huxley: Yes.
Susan Vance: And after all the things I’ve done for you?
David Huxley: That’s what I mean.
They really don’t make them like this any more (with the exception of Up In The Air).
