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Bringing Up Baby (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
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Reviews & Ratings
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Amazon Customer
09-08-2025This movie has three of the greatest artists in Hollywood's golden age at the very top of their form. Awesomely funny and entertaining.
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Jonathan Pauley
09-08-2025I just received my Criterion Collection "Bringing Up Baby" blu ray disc and I viewed the movie on my 60" Samsung 4K UHD TV played on a Sony UHD 4K player and JBL surround sound. Here is my review of this product:THE MOVIE: 5 stars. Simply one of the greatest screwball comedies of all time. Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn are wonderful in this well written, hilarious comedy. However, I will not belabor this point since there are fuller reviews of the movie out there and you may already be familiar with this film.THE SOUND: A nice clean uncompressed monaural track. No complaints. Subtitles are available in English.THE EXTRAS: This Criterion release boasts a number of specials including: A 2005 audio commentary by Peter Bogdanovich, a video essay on Cary Grant, a few interviews including one on the special effects (which are quite good when it came to filming the leopard and placing it in scenes with the actors and actresses), an interview on costuming, and a few more.THE PACKAGING: Nice Criterion clear plastic with nice artwork (including leopard print on the inside. There is a 40 page booklet with an article and pics. Very nice.THE IMAGE QUALITY: This is the only reason I gave this overall release 4 stars. Now, I do own the previous 2005 DVD release and in comparing the two images there is a definite improvement. The previous DVD is blurry and filled with dirt, scratches and other issues. This blu ray print is clean with out dirt or noticeable scratches. The image is also "sharper" than the DVD. However, the image is far from crisp and the film grain is very heavy. Now, as someone who owns over 2,000 movies on blu ray, a majority of them being from the 1920's, 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's I am very, very familiar with how good or how bad 4K and 2K scans of movies from the era can be. I also realize that there can often be issues with the available prints from this era (how deteriorated they may be, how many generations removed a print may be, etc.). Some movies are better preserved than other far a variety of reasons.So, the visual quality on this film is cleaner, brighter and more consistent than the DVD - definitely. The image, however, has soft edges throughout and A LOT of film grain. Mind you, I absolutely love film grain on a beautiful print. I dislike it whenever they scrub the grain digitally. It flattens the image and removes the sharpness and depth of the image. However, this film is neither sharp and it is very heavy film grain.I honestly hoped this release would be better, but I'm assuming Criterion did the best they could with what is available. This will probably be the best this film will look unless a better print is found.If you don't own this movie THIS is the copy to purchase - and what a great movie!If you adore this film already this may well be worth the upgrade - but, be warned - the picture is not stellar. I have several blu rays from this era (1938 and just before and just after) and the image of this move is just okay - so don't expect to be wowed.
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Cassie Fellenger
09-08-2025Great movie and played beautiful. I first watched this movie with my sister and grandmother when I was about 8 years old. This is so slap stick funny and cute. Imagine a time where an entire movie can make you giggle and laugh without any swear words or profanity. Yes, a long time ago wholesome movies were magic. If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing this movie you absolutely must!
Technical Specifications
Screwball sparks fly when Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn let loose in one of the fastest and funniest films ever made—a high-wire act of invention that took American screen comedy to new heights of absurdity. Hoping to procure a million-dollar endowment from a wealthy society matron for his museum, a hapless paleontologist (Grant) finds himself entangled with a dizzy heiress (Hepburn) as the manic misadventures pile up—a missing dinosaur bone, a leopard on the loose, and plenty of gender-bending mayhem among them. Bringing Up Baby’s sophisticated dialogue, spontaneous performances, and giddy innuendo come together in a whirlwind of comic chaos captured with lightning-in-a-bottle brio by director Howard Hawks.BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURESNew, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrackAudio commentary from 2005 featuring filmmaker Peter BogdanovichNew video essay on actor Cary Grant by author Scott EymanNew interview about cinematographer Russell Metty with cinematographer John BaileyNew interview with film scholar Craig Barron on special-effects pioneer Linwood DunnNew selected-scene commentary about costume designer Howard Greer with costume historian Shelly FooteHoward Hawks: A Hell of a Good Life, a 1977 documentary by Hans-Christoph Blumenberg featuring the director’s last filmed interviewAudio interview from 1969 with GrantAudio excerpts from a 1972 conversation between Hawks and BogdanovichTrailerEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearingPLUS: An essay by critic Sheila O’Malley
