An unaccountably poor performer at the 1938 box office, Howard Hawks's classic took the screwball cycle started by It Happened One Night to its dizzying, dazzling peak.
Funnier than David Schwimmer in his wildest dreams, Cary Grant is the young-fogey palaeontologist who strays into the whirlwind path of Katharine Hepburn, going against the urbane grain as a scatty heiress. Exasperated pursuit of a missing dinosaur bone follows, involving a serenade-loving leopard (that'll be Baby), a spot of cross-dressing ("I just went gay all of a sudden!") and rat-a-tat dialogue that hits more comic BPM than any film save for Hawks's His Girl Friday. If nits must be picked we'll go for the slightly overcooked prison sequence. But then you've got an ending that marries slapstick and romance in such perfect unison you can't help but pledge eternal love.
DVD Extras:
Nothing, bub.
