The scenes which involved Baby roaming around freely, notably in Susan's apartment, had to be done in a cage, with the camera and sound picked up through holes in the fencing.
The script contains an expression that was very common in the USA up until about the 1950s that by today's standards is absolutely unbelievable and (thankfully) would never be used today. In the first scene, when Alice tells Cary Grant's character that "Mr. Peabody may possibly donate a million dollars to the museum", he responds "A million dollars? Say, that's pretty WHITE of Mr. Peabody, isn't it?"
The theatrical trailer is made up mostly of unused alternate takes of the scenes in the film. For instance, in the take used in the trailer, Cary Grant doesn't jerk downward when Katharine Hepburn rips his coat like he does in the take used in the movie.
There is no musical score for the film, with the exception of the opening and end titles.
This film employed a great deal of split screen and optical tricks, such as rear screen projection, so that having the big cat in close proximity to the actors (especially Cary Grant who was more worried about acting with the cat than Katharine Hepburn) could be kept to a minimum. (Hepburn is sometimes shown petting and handling Baby. The leopard's trainer praised Hepburn, stating that Kate was fearless and could become an animal trainer if she so desired.) Most of the split screens had a lot of movement in them, which meant the dividing line had to be moved around as well. Even the scenes of Susan dragging the mean Leopard on a leash are split screened. You can see that the rope does not line up. A puppet Leopard was also used in some shots. It's most clearly seen in the shot after Susan gets the Leopard dragged into the jail. The reaction shot immediately afterwards, shows David and Mrs. Random with "Baby" the Leopard on the table. The Leopard is a puppet.
This movie fared so badly at the box office that Howard Hawks was fired from his next production at RKO and Katharine Hepburn bought out her contract to avoid being cast in the film Mother Carey's Chickens. Coincidentally, Hepburn was labeled "box office poison" on the same day her contract was dissolved.
Though Katharine Hepburn never received royalties as an actress in the film, because she was a part investor, the film did provide a financial return for her (and still does for her estate).
To build their New England-style home, Howard Hawks wife Slim used the set plans from his film Bringing Up Baby.
Was voted the 24th Greatest Film of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
In Peter Bogdanovich's 1972 comedy What's Up, Doc? the character of Dr. Howard Bannister (played by Ryan O'Neal) is in part modelled on Lloyd. The Howard Hawks comedy that inspired it, Bringing Up Baby, also featured a main character modeled after Lloyd, played by a bespectacled and flustered Cary Grant.