The film’s optimistic integration of intellectual and physical impulses lends it a feeling of wholeness closer to Howard Hawks’s later, more serene films.
An uneven set illustrates the facets of Cooper’s persona. Worth it for fans? Yup.
Bringing up Baby remains an over-appreciated curiosity piece, but the DVD treatment is all-around first rate.
There’s a cult around Howard Hawks, who was unquestionably one of the most competent filmmakers of his era.
Witness John Barrymore’s brash thee-at-ah director remove puddy from his nose for the sake of his art.
The central conceit, that theater is the house of true art and film the way station of the illiterate, might’ve come off as self-important on stage.
The film organizes its space within a nodal web of slightly claustrophobic locations, always shrouded in fog or cigarette smoke.