Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938): USA

Paper by Terry Gostow. Viewed on DVD.

Howard Hawk’s Bringing Up Baby is a perfect example of screwball comedy containing all the essentials of the genre: fast paced repartee, courtship, mistaken identity, the coupling of mismatched personalities with episodic hostility, a female character who masterminds the relationship, a male character who cross-dresses and highbrow attitude.

Superficially, Bringing Up Baby is about a paleontologist seeking the single missing bone needed to complete his Brontosaurus and a million dollars to fund the project. On another level, Bringing up Baby is a journey of self-discovery and change. Once the change or transformation, renders the character “complete” or “whole” it is then possible for a mutual true love relationship to bloom. So make no bones about it, my intention is to discuss how Hawk’s use of mise en scene in Bringing Up Baby strengthens this theme.

From the start, Hawks shows us who David Huxley is in relation to himself and others, and his current state of “predicament” by his choices of shot, framing, costume, lighting and character proxemics. Using a long shot, Hawk sets the stage. We see David, a paleontologist, perched atop his scaffolding in close proximity to the skeleton of his Brontosaurus. He is removed from the surroundings physically, and appears unaware of the two characters standing below in the spacious museum hall. He is framed within a frame. He sits inside of his scaffolding that is also framed by the head and neck of the dinosaur. After a medium shot of the two ground characters talking, Hawks pans the camera up and zooms in closer to David in full shot at a quarter turn. We are close enough to see he is perplexed, his brow furrowed, but his position, vis- a- vis the camera, doesn’t allow us to become emotionally involved with him. Hawks has David framed vertically as well as horizontally. The horizontal lines divide or separate his head from his body. And, looking at his head, we know he is visually impaired. Through the round, darkly framed glasses he gazes up and far away, his head in the clouds. If we view David from the neck down, and cover his head, we might easily mistake him for a woman sitting with legs crossed in a dress. Hawk lights the upper half of David’s chest and his face. From mid- chest down his body is shadowed, perhaps emphasizing his lack of awareness of himself. Hawks use of light also creates diagonal shadows on the wall making the frame more complex and slightly off kilter, similar to what we soon recognize as David’s awkwardness with regard to spatial orientation and later, social graces. Also, surrounding David are the shadows of birds. Stuffed birds.

When the telegram arrives, David jumps up, hits his head and rushes down to read it. Hawke shoots a full, followed by a mid-shot, placing the three characters in one frame. We soon learn that the female is David’s fiancé, Alice Swallow and the male, a fellow colleague. Alice is dressed in a dark, square, suit, complete with tie. Her hair is tightly pulled back and tucked under in bun-like fashion. She stands between the two white robed men, like a thorn between two roses, instead of the other way around. Alice keeps David at arms-length, indicative of a personal rather than intimate relationship, rejects his excitement and his attempt to embrace her physically. When Hawk does put David and Swallow in the same frame they are separated by a vertical line. David looks down at the floor as Alice tells him no, no, no and he acquiesces and “swallows” his words. David bids his male colleague adieu saying “Good Bye Alice” turns, opens the door and bumps into it on his way out.

As we leave this introductory scene we know that David is in the midst of a dilemma, true to form for this genre. Literally he is looking for a million dollar endowment to complete his project and is also seeking possession of the bone which will complete his Brontosaurus. Figuratively, he is a square peg trying to make it in a round hole. He is clumsy and forgetful, like the absent-minded professor. He functions from the neck up and has little awareness of himself as a man. His scaffold is like a birdcage, encapsulating and protecting him, and keeping him far from others. He clearly lacks solid footing and relies on others to tell him his next move, giving others almost complete control over him. He is out of sorts with others and does not even know the sum of his own parts. But for now, Hawk’s mise en scene has visually painted a picture of David as a delectable little snack for a playful bird of prey. And, it is doubtful that he will take Ms. Swallow to be his lawful, little wedded wife.

Our antagonist in this classic screwball comedy is Susan Vance, a member of the upper crust and the driving force behind the conflicts and hoops David must jump through in order to complete his male morph. Hawk intentionally chooses a woman who is the complete opposite of Alice Swallow because David requires a completely different experience to facilitate the changes needed. We are introduced to Susan at her exclusive, private club, golfing on the green. She is clothed in a white, flowing shirtwaist dress, her loosely coiffed hair is blowing gently in the wind. And when she opens her mouth, she begins talking him around in circles.

By the time Susan and David leave the club’s restaurant after having met earlier on the golf course, Hawk has shown us three things. First, these two characters will end up together. Secondly, it will be a hilarious, wild goose chase, and third, something within the characters needs to change before the relationship can move forward.

From the very beginning of their relationship we see them as a couple not only because Susan manages to find a way to keep them together but because of Hawk’s deliberate use of the following mise en scene: framing, shots, lighting, and character proxemics. Hawk puts the two of them in the same frame. They climb the stairs at the restaurant, facing each other in a medium shot. They stand in front of and behind each other when Susan doesn’t realize that her dress is torn. Hawk does several long takes sans editing with them together developing the “getting to know you” idea even in an embarrassing predicament. But the real indicator of their relationship is the proxemics. The space between them is either intimate or personal. Even when they are arguing, which is always, they are close up and in each other’s faces. And as they exit the restaurant, they are almost glued together in a long shot, the camera pans right to left (after all it is uncomfortable for Susan to be out in public in a backless or butt less dress) and the speed of the characters is ramped up as they cross the room. At this point both Susan and David are beginning to see a glimpse of David’s maleness. He protects her purse, and covers her body. I love what he says when Susan throws pebbles at Mr. Peterson’s window. “I know we ought to go now but somehow I can’t move”. He is at the shocked, paralyzed phase. Oh, and one clarification: As I stated before, Hawk places Susan and David in the same frame. But that is not to say nothing can come between them. In their very first shot on the green, when I stopped the DVD, I saw the caddy standing between them, in the background. And when I stopped the DVD again during the dinner with the aunt and Major Applegate, there, sitting between David and Susan is George, the dog. And only George knows where he’s buried the intercostal clavicle bone which is one of David’s identifiers. So, in this scene, Hawk uses the foreground as the area where things are happening now in public. The mid ground is where David is in terms of his relationship with Susan, and the background is what is on his mind. Follow George and he will find his bone. Bringing Up Baby is a very physical comedy and Hawk purposefully uses long and full shots so we are able to watch their action. One of the reasons I love this film is because of the way they move together, chase each other and then trip and fall. They are always just one step away from falling down a ten-foot cliff or stepping full on into a river over their heads. And Grant performs it all so superbly with his oh so serious facial expressions. Often Hawks uses medium shots when the dialogue is driving the action of the film. For example, in the restaurant scene when they climb the stairs, right after she rips his coat. And speaking of coat, David is wearing a tux with tails, fitting for a penguin. So it looks as if she is pulling him by the tail, which indeed she is. When they head out of the restaurant, and end up in her room sewing his coat, Hawk does his first close-up shot of Susan, when she finds out that he is in a hurry to return to the city to marry Miss Swallow the next morning. Susan’s face is softly lit. She is one-quarter turn from the camera and her expression is proof of the pudding. She is very disappointed because she really likes him. Up until this point, we don’t know if she REALLY likes him, or whether she is only playing with him.

Hawk often lights Susan’s face from above during the film creating a soft, overexposed halo effect, which gives her an almost angelic as well as beautiful look. A little later in the film I think he presents her this way so we see her not only as a manipulative schemer, an accomplished wrap ’em around her little finger kind of gal, or solely a queen of antics. Susan is more than just an ultra feminine force to be reckoned with. She is a positive influence, a zany nutcase and one who hits the ground accidentally as often as David.

By the next morning, after being torpedoed all night by Susan, we see David for the first time begin to establish boundaries during his telephone conversation with Alice when he tells her he doesn’t want “any woman interfering with his affairs because it’s deadly.” I love his responses to Alice’s questions regarding Mr. Peabody “Yes, I spoke to him twice. Yes, but I didn’t talk to him”. Ever reminding me that this is screwball. But David’s attempt at laying down the law is quickly forgotten when he decides to answer the next phone call because he “should” instead of opening the bone package like he really “wants” to do. Others needs are still stronger than his own needs or desires. He picks up the phone and answers in an aggravated tone, “Oh, its YOU.”
At this point, even though Susan wants to be with him, she still insists on twirling him around. And he still goes along like her little pet, resisting the notion that he might, possibly, be able to have a good time. He is still attached to his symbolic bone, and as Hitchcock might say, still following the MacGuffin.

During the evening search in the woods, Hawk does the same thing with light in this comedy that Polanski does in Rosemary’s Baby, a dramatic thriller. The audience watching Rosemary’s Baby doesn’t think creepy, weird things can happen in the daytime and Polanski fools them. Similarly, Hawk films this part of his comedy in darkness. And it is still funny. He succeeds by using low-key high contrast lighting. Their faces are lit and the use of full and long shots allows us to follow the action of the characters dropping off, into the deep water. We hear their splashing, recognize their dialogue and join in the fun. I think Hawk also chooses low-key lighting in this part of the film to hint at the danger posed by the presence of the big bad, untamed leopard. But what really floors me about this dark, low-key lit outdoor scene, is that it is the pivotal point in this screwball comedy. It is here, in the dark forest where the big changes in the characters transpire. After Susan toasts both of David’s socks in the fire, like a weenie roast, David gives up. He just doesn’t care anymore. He sprawls out on the ground. They stand up, trip, roll down one more small hill and David’s glasses break. David’s glasses represent an important part of his identity and after he throws them away the relationship changes.

Sitting by the fire, for the first time David sits across from Susan at a personal distance and is forthright with her about how she has lied and withheld information from him. She has made him appear as a foolish, psychologically screwed up person. She deliberately took all of his clothes except for the frilly foo foo bathrobe, leaving him with no option but to play the idiot cross dresser and then further drives the scene by telling her Aunt and Colonel Applegate that he could be potentially violent if his wishes and demands went unmet. But by masterminding this scene, Susan forces David to deal with an entirely unknown aspect of his personality and the resulting emotional turmoil. This get-up and his place in this situation is so not he. Dressed in this tacky, see threw negligee cover-up, he is bursting at the seams for probably the first time, in his life and all hell is breaking loose. He is overtly sarcastic about spoiled, scatter-brained Susan. He stands face to face and reacts sardonically to whatever Susan’s Aunt questions him about his identity not knowing that she is, in fact, the potential benefactor of his grant. He shouts out loud to bring order to mayhem and when Susan continues to yak a mile a minute, he stomps on her foot, leaving her, sitting by the stairs playing “he loves me, loves me not” on her toes.
So, by the time they get to the fireside scene, you could say he’s been though a lot. He can face her as a man and honestly bust her. And for the first time, Susan shuts up, nods in response to his statements, and admits her deceptions. They begin to negotiate a real relationship. He requests her honesty, to say what she does and do what she says. She agrees.

The relationship further develops in the jailhouse scene where he becomes her knight in armor. He forces the life-threatening leopard into the cell using a chair just like the lion tamers in the circus. And then he faints, into her arms and she catches him. A reciprocal response

Oh and there is one tightly framed shot when all of the characters are “backed into a corner” inside jail, and surrounded by vertical, black cell bars. Their placement, Hawk’s use of a high, long shot shows, us how captive they are, caged really. Hawk places them so that the camera can see each and every character’s frightened expression when, for the first time they see the bad leopard enter the jailhouse. I did not discover this shot but I surely enjoyed this wonderful surprise.

Bringing Up Baby ends in the same place it all started, the museum hall. David is sitting ground level, feet firmly planted on the ground, in his thinkers pose. But this time he wears no glasses. He takes one quick peek at Susan as he hears and sees her entering the room and high tails it up the scaffolding and away to his place of refuge. The camera cuts to a medium eye level shot, quarter turn of Susan, donning a black leopard patterned veiled hat, and delightfully holding up David’s bone. She gushes about how George finally gave her the bone. She is framed alone. David tells her thanks and to please leave. He too is in a frame of his own. Hawks switches to an extreme long shot behind and to Susan’s right and we watch as she scales a very tall ladder like a leopard to the top, forging ahead no matter what. And for the first time in the scene, they are in the same frame. As Susan reaches the top of the ladder, she is completely baffled by David’s sudden attempt to disappear. We see her in a medium eye level shot close enough to see her perplexed expression on her face. In her foreground are the massive vertebrae of the dinosaur, Hawk’s way of suggesting that the gap in their relationship is still enormous. In the background, of this somewhat low key high contrast scene, behind Susan is a pattern of heavy diagonal lines .The lines going from the lower left and running to the upper right, are sturdy, almost plank-like. The diagonal lines beginning in the lower right side of the frame and extending to the top left are very narrow, and definitely not as strong or supportive. But the diagonal lines do cross. Perhaps the lines are a metaphor for the current state of David and Susan’s relationship. She is committed and strong, and more stable of the two and represents the diagonal running left to right. David, on the other hand is less sure of his commitment. Nevertheless, he is there and part of the relationship. Their paths are still intersecting. The camera cuts to David in a full, low angle shot And as the conversation becomes more intimate and Susan realizes David does love her, Hawk has slowly pulled the camera back showing Susan’s swooning ladder swinging right and left as if taking on a life of its own. The only thing standing between them, mid-ground is a gigantic dinosaur and we watch as Susan, in a long shot, barely makes it over to the skeleton and then over to David as we watch the dinosaur slowly collapse to the ground. And up above the fallen pile of bones sit the two lovebirds, embracing in what has now become the love nest.


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