Which 1938 screwball comedy stars Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn?

The 1938 screwball comedy starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn is Bringing Up Baby. Grant plays the distracted paleontologist David Huxley, while Hepburn plays the impulsive heiress Susan Vance, whose chaotic behavior disrupts his work and impending marriage.

Directed by Howard Hawks, the film turns misunderstandings, rapid-fire dialogue, eccentric characters, and a tame leopard named Baby into a sustained comic chase. Its screenplay was adapted by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde from Wilde’s 1937 story published in Collier’s. The script was written specifically with Hepburn’s personality in mind.

Bringing Up Baby was not an immediate box-office success and temporarily damaged Hepburn’s standing in Hollywood. Its reputation improved during later theatrical revivals and television showings, when critics and audiences increasingly recognized its carefully timed absurdity. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1990.