Absurd comedy comes to City Lights series

This Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant film is not only the pinnacle of Howard Hawks's directing career (which includes "His Girl Friday" and "The Big Sleep") but also the finest piece of screwball comedy, and maybe even comedy overall, ever produced in film. Grant and Hepburn are in top form, as a paleontologist and an heiress respectively, who never seem to be able to stop bumping into one another.

Bringing up Baby - R Starring: Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn Directed by: Howard Hanks Playing: Friday at 7:30 in Ballantine room 013

When originally released, "Bringing Up Baby" flopped and ended Hepburn's career at RKO Radio Pictures and prevented Hawks from directing "Gunga Din." Maybe viewers were not ready for the absurdity factor of this work, which reaches its peak with the introduction of the "baby" of the title -- a leopard. Whatever the case, it has survived the test of time far more than even 1938's best picture winner, Frank Capra's "You can't take it with you," and instigates more hearty guffaws than any modern comedy.