Bringing Up Baby

Bringing Up Baby. 1938 RKO Radio Pictures & Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, Walter Catlett, Barry Fitzgerald
Director: Howard Hawks
Available as a single DVD, or part of the Classic Comedies Collection from Amazon.

This film is allegedly the first mainstream work of fiction to use the word "gay" referring to homosexuality, and not just being happy. Cary Grant ad-libbed a line during one scene, saying "Because I just went gay all of a sudden". Construe it how you will.

David Huxley (Grant) is a mild-mannered paleontologist suffering from a plethora of problems, namely getting married to the wrong woman for him, Alice Swallow (Virginia Walker), and professionally, he is trying to assemble a brontosaurus skeleton, but he's missing just one bone, an "intercostal clavicle". Huxley must also make a good impression on Mrs. Random (May Robson), a rich lady considering a donation of one million dollars to his museum. The day before his wedding, David meets Susan Vance (Hepburn) by chance at the golf course. Susan is a free spirit, and unknown to David, Mrs. Random's niece. Susan's brother has sent her a leopard from Brazil named Baby, which she is supposed to give to her aunt. Susan believes David to be a zoologist, and tries desperately to lure him to her residence to help care for the animal. Predictably, Susan falls for David, and plans to keep him at her house indefinitely.

While at Susan's home, David spots her dog George stealing and burying the one dinosaur bone that he needs to complete the skeleton. After Mrs. Random arrives, chaos breaks out as Baby runs away, as does George, as well as a vicious leopard from the nearby circus that Susan and David let out of its cage, mistaking it for Baby. It's up to them to rescue Susan's pets, return the wild leopard to the circus, find the missing dinosaur bone, secure the million dollar donation, and somehow end up together by the end of the movie, Alice Swallow be damned.

Oh, and there's a road accident involving a chicken truck. You can't go wrong with that!

This is a highly recommended screwball comedy well worth your time.