8.17.21
Best in the game? Bringing Up Baby. When I think about which rom-com sits at the absolute top of my list, I can get no higher than Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn with a leopard.
Rom-coms In Name Only (RCINO??) are ticking me off. I’m looking for books with a great story, obviously. Excellent writing. Likeable people. But the book has to have been written to inspire first a smile and then a giggle and then an outright laugh. For me, anyway, most of the books branded “romcom” just don’t fit the bill.
And since I’m grumpy anyway, I argue with the “com” part in a lot of romantic comedy movies, too. Most of the modern ones are witty more than funny. But what can I offer as an example of Just Plain Funny?
Bringing Up Baby. Cary Grant in a feathered negligee, not understanding that Aunt Elizabeth had been told that his name was Mr. Bone. Goggerty coming face to face with a leopard. Katherine Hepburn with the heel off one of her shoes, marching about saying “I was born on the side of a mountain” or swinging on the prison cell door or trying to do the trick of popping an olive into her mouth.
Cary and Katherine looking for the dog who has stolen the intercostal clavicle of a dinosaur:
David: Here, George!
Susan: Here, George!
David: George!
Susan: George!
David: Oh, do stop, Susan—you sound like an echo.
Susan: I’m sorry.
David: George!
Susan: Nice George!
David: George!
Susan: Nice George!
That’s a good movie. Go watch that now—and then pre-order DASH & THE MOONGLOW MYSTIC. Because it’s FUNNY!
