Bringing Up Badness

As I have been watching these classical Hollywood films for school, I've decided that, for the most part, films and actors really do live up to their reputations. Humphrey Bogart really is charismatic, wolfish, and interesting to watch. Sunset Boulevard really is fascinating, well-written, and well-acted. Joan Crawford really is complex, enigmatic, and magnetic. All true.

However, occasionally, films or actors don't live up to the hype and I don't know what the big deal is. As fun as it is to watch John Wayne the first time, once you've seen one of his performances, you've seen them all. Touch of Evil, as I blogged about previously, is a hyper-stylized exercise in "Look at me, ma! I'm directing a movie!" by Orson Welles. As effective as 95% of it is, the final few minutes of The Long, Hot Summer are lamer than Paul Sheldon, post-hobbling.



My latest disappointments are Bringing Up Baby and Katherine Hepburn. Admittedly, having the little TMC host-guy come out prior to the movie and announce that it's "one of the funniest movies ever made" sort of set it up for failure. I mean, that kind of hyperbole is pretty hard to live up to. More than that though, I think maybe I'm just not made for screwball comedy. Some part of me, the part that yells at the tv screen when no one's around, just watches the characters and thinks, "Shut up! If you would just shut up and listen to each other for ten seconds, the problem this stupid film is centering around would be solved." I think it's the contrivance that's bothersome. It strains my suspension of disbelief and my patience to watch Katherine Hepburn prattle on endlessly while Cary Grant stammers and stumbles endlessly. It's like a Mamet play that's supposed to be funny and zany but isn't.

Katherine Hepburn. Don't like her. Never have. Didn't like her as an old, creaky On Golden Pond lady and didn't like her as a young, kittenish Bringing Up Baby heiress. I didn't even like Cate Blanchett "channeling" her in Scorcese's The Aviator. I just don't see what the big deal is. Her bizarro, old-money accent and angular looks just never did a thing for me. As Susan Vance in Bringing Up Baby, I just wanted to punch her in the face.

So, sadly, I didn't make it all the way through the movie. I watched over half of it and then, due to the lateness of the hour and the stupidness of the movie, I shut it off and went to bed. I'm still putting it on my list of watched films because I think I can talk about it in a useful way if called upon - but it's definitely not going on my list of Great Films to Rewatch in the Future.