Bringing Up Baby and Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Bringing Up Baby has been mentioned amongst screwball comedies. Many of them emphasize romantic comedy, but “Baby” always stood out as different from rom-coms. What’s Up, Doc? is a 1970s update on the idea. So was Who’s That Girl? in 1987. I was reading a summary of Planes, Trains and Automobiles because Jim Hull’s Subtxt site labels it as comedy/buddy.

Then, I see the resemblance. Both movies advance by bad luck turns. It’s actually like a story long version of the action sequence technique wherein something good happens, “but” it turns bad, then something else good happens, then it turns bad.

Lots of stories have this pattern.