In the 1930's and 40's, there were two distinct genres of film that were extremely popular among the American public. The first, film noir, was characterized mainly by crime and intrigue, with a "femme fatale" usually bring about the downfall of the male protagonist. The screwball comedy on the other hand, was typified by a lighthearted, non-realistic attitude, with similarly strong female leads. Unlike film noir however, the female lead in a screwball comedy didn't operate under suspicious, often dastardly motives. Rather, the end of a screwball comedy usually ended in a courtship between the male and female leads, much unlike film noir.
These two dissimilar, often diametrically opposed genres can be exemplified by a single film that falls into that genre perfectly. In the case of film noir, a film that best embodies the genre might be Double Indemnity (1944) directed by Billy Wilder. In the case of screwball comedies, the movie that best epitomizes the genre is Bringing Up Baby (1938) directed by Howard Hawks. Hawks helped to establish this genre with films such as Twentieth Century in 1934, and His Girl Friday in 1940 with Cary Grant, who also starred in Bringing Up Baby.
While film noir and screwball comedies are both completely different genres, they both still had to operate under the classical Hollywood system, or continuity system, as dictated by the major studios at the time. Bringing Up Baby is a perfect example of a film that was made under that classical Hollywood system, and yet still was able to communicate its own individual message to the audience through Hawks' direction. This paper will analyze a single scene from Bringing Up Baby, and demonstrate how Hawks was able to balance the studio's mandated style, while still being able to maintain his own person creative vision.
The scene that I have chosen to analyze is the second scene in the film. David Huxley (Cary Grant) is on a golf course discussing with a lawyer, Mr. Alexander Peabody (George Irving) about the possibility of having one million dollars donated to his museum, The Stuyvesant Museum of Natural History, where he is working on completing a skeletal reproduction of a brontosaurus. While on the golf course, he has his first encounter with Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) who proceeds to steal his golf ball, and ruin his car.
This scene runs approximately four minutes and fifty seconds in length and contains three somewhat separate sequences. The first is comprised of the discussion between Huxley and Mr. Peabody about the possible one million dollar donation to the museum, the second is comprised of the meeting of Huxley and Susan on the golf course, and the third is where Susan, confusing her car with Huxley's, proceeds to smash it up.
The scene opens with a dissolve from the first scene. In that first scene we learn that Huxley is due to play golf with Mr. Peabody that afternoon. As he walks out the door to get ready to go play golf, the dissolve occurs bringing us to the next scene opening up at the golf course. The dissolves itself serves two main purposes.
First, it conveys to the audience the fact that a certain duration of time has elapsed between the two scenes. We know the amount of time that has elapsed during the dissolve, because in the previous scene, Huxley was telling his fiancee Alice Swallow (Virginia Walker) and a colleague about his forthcoming golf game with Mr. Peabody. The second reason is that it demonstrates a change in geographical location from the previous scene.
Hawks was mandated by the classical style itself to use a dissolve for the good reasons which I just demonstrated. Had Hawks used a straight cut, it would have signified that the action was continuous and it would look like Huxley was exiting the door and then instantly appearing on the golf course, all in the same continuous time frame. Obviously this would have disoriented the audience extremely, seeing as how the movie - despite its screwball antics - seeks to place itself in the same universe as reality, where - unlike science fiction - teleportation is not possible.
Once the dissolve is completed, we join Huxley, Peabody and their caddies on the golf course. The action begins with a tracking shot focusing on the four of them as they walk along the course. The tracking shot here also serves two purposes. First, it helps us to identify with the characters, and it helps to accentuate the transparency effect. By using the tracking shot it makes the audience seems like they themselves are walking along the golf course with them. It's that identification itself that establishes the transparency. By feeling like we are walking along the golf course with them, we, in fact, are one of them. The end of the movement of the camera is then motivated by the fact that the men have stopped walking. Since for most of the tracking shot, Huxley and Peabody are situated in the left side of the frame, to allow for a full view of the caddies behind them, the style dictate that Hawks continue to move the camera to the left for a few feet move to get the four men almost perfectly centered in the frame.
The use of a pan shot here would also have been just as ineffective as the tracking shot is effective. If the camera were located on the right hand side of them men, as the camera would pan, it would stand to reason that at some point in time, Mr. Peabody would be covering Huxley up somewhat, if not crossing over him completely. If the camera were situated on the left side of them, we would be seeing Huxley's back during the time that he was talking, also a very ineffectual setup.
The long shot of the four men after they have stopped walking, combined with the tracking shot itself, comprises the master shot, as is also mandated by the classical style. Since the tracking of the camera did indeed continue on for a few feet after the men had stopped, Hawks' helps to establish a better use of space within the frame. By lengthening the shot from a long shot to a somewhat longer shot, we not only get to see the men and the golf course, but the audience can now get a better sense of where they are situated on the course itself.
As Peabody begins to explain to Huxley that he is not the one with the one million dollars to donate, that he is only representing the woman, Mrs. Carlton Random, who is donating the money. As an aside, I think that it is worth noting the reason for the character's name of Random. An analogy can be constructed of the screenwriter Dudley Nichols strategically choosing the name Random to demonstrate how the series of events that Huxley gets involved in are not quite as random as they seem to be to him. Rather they are a strategic attempt on Susan's part to get Huxley to fall in love with her.
The shot cuts from the master shot to a tighter, and yet still full body shot of Mr. Peabody as he explains the situation to Huxley. With the camera behind Huxley for the shot we can see his back as he listens to Peabody. This serves a multiple purposes as well. Since Huxley is the male lead and Hawks wants the audience to identify with him more so than the peripheral character of Peabody, he keeps him in the frame. Also, since Huxley is closer to the camera than Peabody, he takes up more space within the frame, demonstrating both his greater importance in the film than that of Peabody, as well as serving to keep our attention focused on him even though he is not the one speaking at the time.
Another option that Hawks had to shoot this would be to have use a medium shot while utilizing the shot-reverse shot technique common for dialogue between two characters. Not only did Hawks choose his particular way of shooting it to this style for the reasons that I just discussed, they are also specific reasons why Hawks chose not to use the shot-reverse shot technique, most importantly the fact that it is was not necessary to see the facial expressions of the characters while they spoke.
After the shot of Peabody speaking, Hawks cuts to a medium shot of Huxley for his reply. This shot is a medium shot rather than the tight long shot used for Peabody's dialogue. Also, with the exception of his caddy in the background, Huxley is the only person in the frame. Rather than shoot from over Peabody's shoulder, which would have been a reverse of the previous shot. Hawks has now completely removed Peabody from the shot, further demonstrating his lack of importance in the overall film. Also, since Cary Grant was a big star in those days, and somewhat of a male sex symbol at the time, people were more interested in seeing him closer up than, other actors in the scene.
The shot then cuts back to Peabody for his dialogue using the same shot as before. As Peabody begins address the ball for his golf swing, we see that that is another reason why Hawks chose to show Peabody's entire body in the shot, to show him in the acts of preparing his golf swing. He could have used this full length shot for this shot only, but his chose to maintain the continuity of Peabody's shot, so as not to distract the audience in anyway, by making it seem that Peabody may have moved.
The first sequence of the scene then comes to an end as Hawks cuts back to the master shot as Huxley leaves the group with his caddy to go and retrieve his errant golf ball. This is where he first encounters Susan Vance. Here we have a match-on-action as we watch Huxley begin to walk to retrieve his ball. The first shot is of him walking out of the master shot. After the completion of the shot from the first sequence, we cut to an almost completely empty frame. We see Huxley on the extreme left hand side of the frame and watch him finish walking across until he stops in the center of the frame. Being in the center of the frame almost by himself - his caddy lags behind him, barely noticeable - we are fully focusing our attention on him as he calls out to someone off screen.
Hawks then does something distinctly against the classical system - or so we are led to believe. As he calls out to the person off-screen. He cuts to an extremely long shot of a woman with her caddy - who we later learn to be Susan - preparing to hit his ball. The straight cut from Huxley pointing at this woman while calling to her off-screen to the extreme long shot gives us the perception that we are seeing her through Huxley's point of view. This contradicts the classical style because point-of-view shots are seen to distinctly disrupt the transparency effect.
However, in this apparent point-of-view shot the camera doesn't move at all, as is common for point-of-view shots because camera movement in those shots can help to more closely duplicate the camera as being the eyes of an actual human being. With the lack of movement in this shot we can not say for certain that it is a point of view shot. There is no distinct proof either way, as was the case for the apparent point-of-view shot in Stagecoach, where it appears that we see the interior of the bar from Doc's point of view only to find out that the camera was placed at his side. In this case, Hawks might very well be adhering to the limits of the style while still serving to evoke the same reaction from the audience that a point-of-view shot serves to evoke - that being the identification of the audience with Huxley.
Hawks' now wants the audience to identify with Susan as the ensuing action focuses with her mainly in the center of the frame. After the cut from the extreme long shot of Susan, we first cut back to Huxley, where he starts running again towards her. Another match-on-action occurs as the next shot we see Huxley finish running, but now we see him coming from the background, while Susan is in the foreground, centered in the frame. We are now asked to identify with a new character, and put Huxley aside for a moment at least, as we learn a bit about this newly introduced character. By centering her in the middle of the frame and focusing our attention on her for much of this sequence, we come to learn that she is the second main character in the film, and not just a peripheral one like Peabody. Of course, the opening credits and the fact that it's Katharine Hepburn stand to serve this same purpose, for the film itself Hawks wants to introduce us to her as a main character.
To help further focus on Susan rather than Huxley, Hawks first cuts to a medium shot of Susan after her golf shot, even though he could have cut to Huxley first as he says "My dear!" after she hits his golf ball. Hawks continues to focus and guide our attention to Susan. As she walks out of frame after a line of dialogue, Hawks pans from his medium shot on her as she walks to find her golf ball, making her movement the motivating factor for the pan.
Another match-on-action occurs as we cut from Huxley and Susan walking out of frame to another tracking shot of the two of them and their caddies as they approach the eighteenth hole. This tracking shot is almost identical to the tracking shot the opened up the scene, with one extremely important difference. Whereas the first tracking shot to open the scene ran from right to left, this tracking shot runs from left to right. I feel that this is a very important decision on the part of Hawks. The first tracking shot shows Huxley in pursuit of the one million dollar donation to his museum. By running the second tracking shot with Susan in the opposite direction, Hawks is creating a sense of cinematic foreshadowing. The contrasting tracking shots foreshadow the fact that all the screwball antics that Huxley will be involved in from now on - brought about by Susan and her quest to have him fall in love with her - will serve to act against his pursuit of the donation. This foreshadowing is further demonstrated by showing Huxley calling out to Peabody that he'll be with him "in a minute", even though it's apparent from Susan apparent lack of understanding that it will much longer than that. In fact, as it turns out Huxley never does get back to Mr. Peabody in this scene.
During the tracking shot, Hawks continues to guide our attention on Susan. Huxley's back is toward the camera nearly the entire time, while Susan almost never stops talking. The camera movement is also motivated by Susan. When she stops walking for a moment, the camera pauses as well. When she starts walking again, the camera continues to track along with her, even though Huxley still hasn't started walking again. She remained in the center of the frame in the next shot as she prepares to putt. The next shot she is on the left side of the frame, but this is mostly so wee can see her entire putt as we watch the ball go into the hole. The next we one again see her in the center of the frame.
Since up to this point, she has been in the center of the frame for every shot that she has been in with Huxley, we can say that this is a noticeable pattern set up intentionally by Hawks to convey a certain meaning. By pushing Huxley out of the center of the frame, always keeping him off to the side or in the background while she talks, this can be construed a metaphor demonstrating how Susan's behavior serves to completely dominate Huxley's life over the course of the film.
As this second sequence comes to an end, Susan walks out of frame, and we hear Peabody in the distance call to Huxley. Refocusing on Huxley now that Susan has left, Hawks cuts to another possible point-of-view shot as we see Peabody of in the distance. This shot is less ambiguous because the next shot shows a side view of Huxley as he yells toward Peabody, and since we see the extreme long shot of Peabody, it gives less of an impression that we are seeing through Huxley's eyes.
The third sequence begins as we see Susan trying to back her car out of a parking space by literally trying to bang the car in front of her out the way. It is worth noting here that even though we are in a completely different place than that of the second sequence, Hawks still adheres to the classical style by continuing to observe the 180-degree rule. Whereas in the previous sequence, Susan left the from to the right to go to the parking lot, we see Huxley leave the frame in the same direction when he sees Susan smashing up what is actually his car, and we see him enter the frame at the parking lot from the left.
The shot of Huxley after the first shot of Susan banging the cars is an important one. He begins to chase after her, and yet he still feels compelled to stop and let Mr. Peabody know that he'll still be with him "in a minute." Not only does this shot show Huxley realizing that Susan is driving his car - after the caddy points it out - but watching him pause to call to Peabody shows how Susan is a direct obstacle to his million dollar donation.
This third sequence, even though it takes up, time wise, nearly half of the scene, isn't really composed of too many shots, and serves a more metaphorical purpose in my opinion. There are still some important cinematic aspects to this sequence though, that further demonstrate Hawks adherence to the classical style. As we see Susan bump into the car in from of her, Hawks cuts to a close-up to show her grimace as she bangs into it. There are also various close-ups of the car bumpers so that we may more closely survey the damage that Susan is causing to Huxley's car.
Hawks' also uses the shot-reverse shot technique for their dialogue. When Susan is speaking, we see her in the car and see Huxley's back as she talks. When Huxley talks, the shot is reversed and we see Susan's back as she sits in the car while he talks.
As I mentioned, this sequence is very metaphorical in nature. The car, driven by Susan but actually own by Huxley is a clear metaphor for his life for the rest of the film. It might be Huxley's, but Susan's in control, and even though she may appear confused and even somewhat stupid, by not appearing to comprehend the fact that the car is Huxley's, the fact of the matter is that she is in complete control, knowing exactly what she is doing. The scene ends with Huxley hanging on to his car, standing on the running board as Susan's drives it out of the golf course. As Susan has now taken control over his life somewhat by driving his car, Huxley hanging on for dear life only demonstrates his lack of control, and the fact that he is "just along for the ride."
Keeping in mind that this is a screwball comedy, I find it important to also discuss what makes this sequence funny. It is funny for many different reasons, not all of which concern the dialogue. Of course, it is funny to see Susan fail to understand that the car is Huxley's even though he has explained as clear as is humanly possible that the car simply is his. Cinematically speaking, I find it funny to see Susan totally oblivious to all the damage she is causing to the car, seeing up close, all the dents that she herself can not see.
Watching Huxley hang on for dear life as Susan speeds out of the parking lot is funny in and of itself, but an extra amount of humor is added when we see Mr. Peabody notice the same thing, as he sees Huxley's head zip by just above the bushes. The scene ends with Huxley calling out to Mr. Peabody once again: "I'll be with you in a minute, Mr. Peabody!" In the last shot of the scene, Hawks decides to shoot the car from behind, distancing itself from the camera as it leaves the golf course. It will obviously be much more than a minute for Huxley to get back to Mr. Peabody.
The final shot of the scene then moves into another dissolve, exactly like the one used to open up the scene with, and for the same reason - to demonstrate the passage of time and change in geographical location.
This scene, along with all the others in the film, demonstrate perfectly how director Howard Hawks was able to work within the rules of the classical Hollywood system, while still having the freedom to both maintain his own personal creative vision, as well convey the meaning to the audience that he wanted through certain cinematic cues.