What's Up, Doc?

A friend of mine recently recommended this film to me. I am not a big Barbra Streisand fan so it took me about 20 minutes to get into this film. Once I was in, I was hooked! So rarely do I laugh out loud at comedies from this time period. I especially liked the hotel detective using his "charm" to delay Mrs. Van Hoskins. Kenneth Mars and Liam Dunn were hilarious, too. If physical comedy is not your bag, you may not like What's Up, Doc? But this is definitely one of my favorite comedies...even better than the old comedies to which it is supposed to be an homage. I'm glad someone listed many of the funny quotes from the film in Message Boards. I want to buy this DVD!

What's Up Doc is one of six movies I use to offset ANY bad mood. I have seen it countless times and still can't keep the suitcases straight.

This film is full of visual humor and one liners; Madeline Kahn screaming and taking on all comers while dragging the doorkeeper across the ballroom floor; the hotel crook using his "charm" to drop Mrs. Van Hoskins in her tracks; Eunice hiding in the bathroom because snakes "live in deathly fear of tile"; the promise of Howard conducting an avalanche in A Flat.

My only regret about this movie is that it began endless failed efforts by television and movie makers to replicate the chase through San Francisco. No one has. That sequence is the best example of humor, timing, backdrop, and action, of the chase genre. It has never been equalled by either serious or comedic directors.

Little mentioned in these reviews are Kenneth Mars and Austin Pendelton, two fantastic character actors who are the emeralds surrounding the diamonds of Streisand and O'Neal in the glorious setting of this jewel.

Thank goodness no one in What's Up Doc knows the meaning of the word "propriety!".

Great 70s comedy stars Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal in a remake of the classic BRINGING UP BABY with bits of TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT and CASABLANCA thrown in. Fun all the way in this updated story that has O'Neal playing a doofus professor up for a grant and Streisand as the madcap college dropout who plagues him. Madeline Kahn is hilarious as Eunice Burns.

A great team---and backed by Kenneth Mars, Austin Pendleton, Michael Murphy, Sorrell Booke, Mabel Albertson, Graham Jarvis, John Hillerman, Randy Quaid, and especially Liam Dunn as the judge, in one of the best comedy performances ever. Great chase scenes thru San Francisco. The court room scene is hilarious.

Others in the cast include Garahm Jarvis, M. Emmet Walsh, Eleanor Zee, Philip Roth, Stefan Gierasch, Stan Ross, and Kevin O'Neal.

Streisand sings "You're the Top" over the opening credits and "As Time Goes By" from atop a piano. Funny film has perfect timing all the way, thanks to direction from Peter Bogdanovich. A must see.

This film really does make the equivalent Carry On movies extremely juvenile. Very rarely, if at all does this film delve into lavatorial/innuendo humour. All of its humour is based on slapstick and a terrific script full of one-liners that you never tire of viewing. They could have made a sequel, but then the humour would have soured in the same way that the Naked Gun or Airplane films did. All the characterisations are spot on, everyone except Striesand is portrayed as being bumbling unsubtle fools including the CIA and Russian spys. It's basically a change to see the Americans not taking themselves seriously for once. Kenneth Mars is very amusing as O'Neal's opponent for the music grant. Of particular note is the car chase in San Francisco in an exaggerated Bullitt style. Granted, it is very dated - it's 1972 and chequered flares and velvet is much in evidence, but this adds to the film's charm. It is one of the few films that I was sad to see ending...

After his very successful and critically acclaimed The Last Picture Show, Peter Bogdanovich sought to revive the screwball comedies of the 30s. Aiding and abetting him in the revival are Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal in What's Up Doc?

Babs and Ryan are in roles that were played by Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant 4 decades ago. The resemblance to Bringing Up Baby is unmistakable. You might also recognize the characters Rock Hudson and Paula Prentiss played in Man's Favorite Sport. That both those films were directed by Howard Hawks is also unmistakable. Bogdanovich had also directed a documentary tribute to Hawks.

O'Neal is a musicologist who is looking for a grant to develop a theory about how early cavemen made the first music using igneous rocks that have a tonal quality. I was picturing those Cro-Magnon jam sessions myself, but in a funny way it actually sounds plausible. Anyway he's got some rocks that give out tones and he's traveling with them to demonstrate.

Unfortunately three other people are traveling with the same exact traveling bags, one of them carrying Mabel Albertson's jewels and another carrying some top secret plans. They all stay at the same San Francisco hotel and that's half the comedy. The other half is Barbra trying to 'help' O'Neal out of and into all kinds of situations.

Funniest scenes are O'Neal and Streisand after setting fire to his room and O'Neal dealing with hotel manager John Hillerman. Later on a goofy chase scene through half of San Francisco ending up in the bay and then having to tell it to the judge.

Madeline Kahn who got named in the credits as being 'introduced' plays O'Neal's uptight fiancé. She and Kenneth Mars as O'Neal's rival for the grant stand out among the supporting players.

What's Up Doc? holds up very well, as well as the two Hawks films it is a homage to. Howard Hawks was no doubt pleased.