Though Bringing Up Baby was not a box-office success when released in 1938, it has since become a favorite of film critics and audiences. Directed by Howard Hawks, the film is an example of screwball comedy, a genre which emerged in the early 1930s. Known as a genre depicting "a battle of the sexes," the films present independent women, fast paced dialogue, and moments of slapstick in absurd storylines that eventually lead to romance between the male and female leads, in this case played by Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Like most comedies, the film serves to critique society, particularly masculinity and class.

Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in a scene from the film Bringing Up Baby.

Further Reading:

Gehring, Wes K. Screwball Comedy: A Genre of Madcap Romance. New York, Greenwood, 1986.

Shumway, David. "Screwball Comedies: Constructing Romance, Mystifying Marriage." Cinema Journal, No. 30, 1991, pp. 7-23.