As a comedy, ‘Bringing Up Baby’ is truly remarkable. The classic screwball, slapstick antics that I know and love from Bugs Bunny and the like play so crisply between Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant.
However, I have one particular peeve with the film. Susan (Katherine Hepburn) is an absolutely loathsome character. She represents everything I’ve come to dislike in people. Susan is manipulative to the point of cruelty. Rude and impatient. She never stops talking. And what’s worse she does countless terrible things to David (Cary Grant), who happens to be engaged, in the name of love. Before getting lost in a tirade about the ills of this character, I should give her some credit.
The juxtaposition of David and Susan is what makes the comedic sparks of this film happen. David’s frustration ebbs and flows so perfectly, he is a pristine object for the viewer’s sympathy. The emotion in David that doesn’t move or grow as well as it may is his love for Susan. In the end of the film, David and Susan end up together. There is no development of David’s feelings (apart from frustration) towards Susan whatsoever.
It’s funny, yeah. But the romantic subplot was distracting and infuriating. How could David fall for Susan? She ruins everything, and isn’t even that coquettish in doing so. Without this weak attempt at romance, this would have been a quintessential buddy comedy. Two unlikely companions engage in hilarious antics. Why just because they’re a man and a woman do they have to fall in love?