Critics reviews

Possessed by an overwhelming sense of comic energy, Howard Hawks' screwball masterpiece heaps on misunderstandings, misadventures, perfectly timed jokes, and patter to the point that it's easy to overlook how rich and fluid it is a piece of filmmaking, effortlessly transitioning from one thing into the next.

The enduring fascination of this 1938 screwball comedy is due to much more than its uproarious gags. Having already helped to launch the genre, the director Howard Hawks here establishes archetypes of theme and character that still hold sway...

Much like Hawks' frequently comic (and yes, dark) Scarface... in which Paul Muni is the front and center murderous, oddly lovable loon, Baby offers a rejection of how one should conduct oneself in supposed "regular" society, both in living lives with "dignity" (Oh, Grant and that colorless potential marriage) and how one persuasively woos a suitor (is stalking OK? It is with Kate Hepburn), that the picture remains downright radical.

As is typical of the genre, the pair is mismatched, the banter is rapid-fire and full of double entendres, and the plot leads to a variety of slapstick situations in WASPy locales (the Connecticut countryside).

Hawks here introduces us to his distinctive take on the comedy of power and powerlessness: he likes pushing the protagonist's loss of control into the realm of humiliation, and then, in a compensatory gesture of equal force, he shifts the focus to the humbled protagonist's recovery of his dignity and power - sometimes via detachment, sometimes via exasperation.