Bringing Up Baby is an American screwball comedy film released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1938. The story was based upon the short story by Hagar Wilde which was originally published in Collier's Weekly magazine on April 10, 1937.
The film revolves around the protagonist's, Susan Vance, a ditsy heiress, and David Huxley, an intelligent but romantically ignorant man. The two are brought together when David goes in search of the missing piece of bone to complete his skeleton of a Brontosaurus. Susan, thinking he is a zoologist, convinces him to go on an adventure with her to rehome her pet leopard, Baby. Along the way, he realizes the important aspects of life and comes to develop feelings for Susan.
The film follows a different storyline to the short story – in the story, David and Susan are already engaged and she is gifted a pet panther that escapes and results in the two going on a comical journey to find the pet. However, director, Howard Hawks, hired screenwriter, Dudley Nichols, to adapt the story for a more cinematic experience, with the film undergoing several script changes pre and post-production. Nichols specifically wrote the part of Susan for Hepburn, basing David and Susan’s affair on the alleged real-life affair between John Ford and Hepburn.
