The DVD claims this 1938 box office flop is hilarious, but it's not. The scriptwriters give Grant a believable character and consistently funny lines, but his partner, Hepburn, is incapable of being a dizzy, dopey, screwball girl who, having met Grant on the day before his wedding, is determined to win him. She's gorgeous, but insufferably obnoxious and as irritating as poison ivy. And what, pray tell, is a leopard doing in the story?
This boring comedy is considered a classic because ... Hepburn and Grant have become, in the decades since 1938, movie icons. At least 4 of Hepburn's films are among my top favorites, but this one, peeeuuu. In Hepburn's defense, this was an impossible role. None of her fellow screwballs - Irene Dunne, Jean Arthur, Claudette Colbert, Carole Lombard - could have made this nutcase irresistibly adorable. BTW, Baby, the leopard, and George, the dog, turn in top notch performances.
This boring comedy is considered a classic because ... Hepburn and Grant have become, in the decades since 1938, movie icons. At least 4 of Hepburn's films are among my top favorites, but this one, peeeuuu. In Hepburn's defense, this was an impossible role. None of her fellow screwballs - Irene Dunne, Jean Arthur, Claudette Colbert, Carole Lombard - could have made this nutcase irresistibly adorable. BTW, Baby, the leopard, and George, the dog, turn in top notch performances.