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Directed by Howard Hawks, Bringing Up Baby (1938) follows the tribulations of David Huxley (Cary Grant), a mild-mannered paleontologist who has been trying to assemble the skeleton of a Brontosaurus for the past four years, but is missing one bone in order to complete it: the intercostal clavicle. Adding to his stress is his forthcoming marriage to the dour Alice Swallow (Virginia Walker) and the need to impress Elizabeth Random (May Robson), who is considering a million-dollar donation to his museum. The day before his wedding, David meets a free-spirited society girl named Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) by chance at a golf course. Unbeknownst to him at first, she is Mrs. Random's niece. Susan's brother, Mark, has sent her a tame leopard from Brazil named Baby (Nissa) to give to their aunt. Believing David is a zoologist, she invites him to her country home in Connecticut to help bring up Baby, which includes singing "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby" ...

Today is Vincent Price's 105th birthday. I have only seen four of his pictures, but since one of them is widely regarded as one of finest films noir of all time (and features one of my favourite actors, Dana Andrews), I thought I would tell you a little bit about it for this week's «Film Friday.» Directed by Otto Preminger, Laura (1944) opens in New York with the discovery of the facially disfigured body of the beautiful and highly successful advertising executive Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney), murdered by a shotgun blast to the face, inside the doorway of her apartment. Police detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) interviews each of the suspects: Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb), an imperious society columnist and Laura's possessive mentor; Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price), Laura's weak-willed playboy fiancé; and Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson), Laura's socialite aunt, who is in love with Shelby. Mark also questions Laura's loyal housekeeper, Bessie Clary (Dorothy ...

In 1940, up-and-coming Broadway star Gene Kelly was offered the lead role in Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's new musical Pal Joey , based on the eponymous novel by John O'Hara about an ambitious and manipulative small-time nightclub performer. Opening at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Christmas Day of that year, the show brought Gene his best reviews up to that date. For instance, John Martin of The New York Times wrote of him: «A tap-dancer who can characterize his routines and turn them into an integral element of an imaginative theatrical whole would seem to be pretty close, indeed, to unique.» One of Gene's performances in Pal Joey was attended by established Hollywood star Judy Garland , who asked to meet him after the show. Gene agreed and then accompanied Judy and her entourage, which included her mother Ethel and several press agents, to dinner at the newly-opened Copacabana nightclub, at 10 East 60th Street. They sang and danced until 3 a.m., after which Gene ...