BEFORE: What's more classic than Tracy and Hepburn? Grant and Hepburn, I suppose. Kate Hepburn carries over for this screwball comedy. "Screwball" being quite different from "slapstick", in that there are fewer cream pies thrown and less falling down. (See, I went to film school...) The humor here is based more on situations like mistaken identity and other confusions. Really, the only time the two genres ever merged successfully was on shows like "Three's Company" and "Bosom Buddies".
The TCM roadtrip is still at Grand Central Station in NYC - and I've already seen most of today's line-up, including "On the Town", "Funny Girl", "Marty" and "Awakenings". I'm passing on "It Should Happen to You", "The Seven Little Foys", "There's No Business Like Show Business" and "Let's Make Love" - but I am picking up "The Killing Fields" from another channel today, so another push.
THE PLOT: While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard "Baby."
AFTER: As we see here, screwball comedy is often prone to devolving into random nonsense. You have to take into an account that this film was released in 1938, the country had not yet recovered from the Great Depression, so this was probably the only plot the filmmakers could afford. If any character had taken just a minute to properly explain anything, well, then the characters would understand each other, and then what kind of comedy would that be?
Plus the actors were apparently told to shout all of their lines, so that the crew could use cheaper, less sensitive microphones - and it's quite obvious that they were instructed to deliver all of the dialogue quite quickly, which ultimately would use less film stock. How else to explain why one of Hollywood's most beloved actresses often sounds like a hyperactive chipmunk?
Hepburn's character, in addition to being a klutz, keeps encountering/annoying Cary Grant's character - but I couldn't decide if she was intentionally keeping him away from his job + relationship, or if she really was supposed to be that stupid and clueless. Damn, there's such a fine line sometimes!
Yes, his character is engaged, but it's shown to be a passionless relationship - sort of like Hepburn's lack-of-romance with Gig Young in last night's film. I also feel like I've seen this plot before, because of a similarity to "Forces of Nature" - Grant's character can't seem to get to his wedding, either, since things keep going wrong and Hepburn's ineptitude in keeping track of a leopard (really?) prevents him from getting there. So Ben Affleck = modern-day Cary Grant, and Kate Hepburn was like the Sandra Bullock of the 1930's?
At least this film avoided the major snag in "Desk Set", which failed to describe why Spencer Tracy's character was a better romantic match than Gig Young. Here, there's no mistaking it - the fiancee is a real cold fish, and Hepburn's character is much more wild, exciting and interesting. Too bad she's also more accident-prone, troublesome and annoying.
It does seem odd that during the Depression, some people were mere peons, working in butcher shops and as circus roustabouts, while others lived in mansions with extensive grounds and were able to donate $1 million (in 1938 dollars!) to a museum, while importing exotic pets like leopards from Brazil. And yet they never once think to put said leopard on a leash, or in a cage - that's just short-sighted. I've never wished harder to see someone get mauled by a leopard, but I was disappointed.
RATING: 3 out of 10 olives
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