FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
Directed & Produced by: Howard Hawks. Written by: Dudley Nichols & Hagar Wilde. Cinematography: Russell Metty. Edited by: George Hively. Music by: Roy Webb. Released by: Warner Home Video. Country of Origin: USA. 102 min. Not Rated. With: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charlie Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald, May Robson, Walter Catlett & Fritz Feld. DVD Features: Commentary by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich. Documentaries Cary Grant: A Class Apart and The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks. Cartoon short "A Star is Hatched" & comedy short "Campus Cinderella". Howard Hawks movie trailer gallery. Subtitles in English, French & Spanish.
In this hilarious screwball comedy, paleontologist David Huxley (played
by Grant) crosses paths with heiress Susan Vance (Hepburn in her only
screwball role) and mayhem and madness ensue. David falls
deeper and deeper into chaos as he’s mistakenly accused of stealing
Susan's purse, rips off the back of her dress and
sings a rendition of "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby" to coax her
pet leopard, Baby, down from a rooftop.
Hepburn is amusing but can also be slightly annoying as the reckless and impulsive
heiress, but Grant's performance as the awkward and aggravated
professor is near flawless. His comic timing (as in the scene where he
follows a bare-bottomed Hepburn through the dinner club) is impeccable.
DVD Extras: In his audio commentary, Peter Bogdanovich frequently
quotes director Howard Hawks. (The filmmaker interviewed Hawks in the
sixties and seventies.) Much of what Bogdanovich says here is also
found in the feature-length documentaries on Grant and Hawks produced by Turner Classic Movies.
Cary Grant: A Class Apart is
fascinating and thoroughly delves into the actor's life,
discussing everything from his most brilliant performances to his
unhappy childhood and alledged homosexual relationship with Randolph
Scott. Regarding this, Grant’s third wife, Betsy Drake, bitingly asks, “Why would I believe that
Cary was homosexual when we were busy f*******.” Interviews include writer Sidney Sheldon,
actress Eva Marie Saint,
and wife Barbara Harris, along with excerpts from his autobiographical essays. In the Howard
Hawks' documentary, the speed-demon director discusses his
experiences with colleagues like William Faulkner, Hepburn, Lauren Bacall and Dean Martin
from an interview in the early ‘70s. It abundantly features footage from his multi-genre career.
The movie trailers are interesting but the "vault treasures," "Campus Cinderella" and "A Star is
Hatched," are random
and unnecessary additions. Lauren Hines
|