| LAST PICTURE SHOW / 06 : Peter Bogdanovich's 'What's Up, Doc?' (1972) [6/10] |
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| Sunday, 31 December 2006 | |
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby was soundly blasted in 1938 by the critic for the New York Times as well as by some other reviewers as a silly, insipid waste of time; Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn were panned for their frivolous performances, and the film was not even a financial success... This year, however, reviewing a movie I directed called What's Up, Doc?, a few critics compared it unfavorably to Bringing Up Baby, which they now referred to as an old comedy classic... Anyway, bearing in mind the history of Bringing Up Baby, I'm looking forward to 2006 for the definitive critical word on What's Up, Doc? As the man said, times change. Peter Bogdanovich, The Best American Films of 1939 (from Picture Shows : Peter Bogdanovich on the Movies, 1973; pp154-5) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I happened to buy and read Picture Shows (also published under the title Pieces of Time) in August 2006, and because of the above passage decided that before the year was out I'd purchase, watch and review What's Up, Doc? - which task I have (perhaps predictably) managed to postpone till the very last day of December. Not that I'm not by any means claiming that what follows is "the definitive critical word" on the film - especially given the fact that I watched the picture alone, on DVD, on a computer, rather than in a cinema with a live audience. Indeed, Bogdanovich himself was referring to the general reception for Bringing Up Baby and What's Up, Doc? - the latter having been greeted by rave reviews from, among others, the New York Times ("totally cheerful ... has a soul of its own ... ") and Variety ("the picture is a total smash ... there are literally reels of pure, unadulterated and sustained laughs.") And unlike Bringing Up Baby, What's Up, Doc? - a raucous San Francisco-set comedy starring Barbta Streisand as a kooky free-spirit and Ryan O'Neal as the uptight musicologist whose life she breezily gatecrashes - decidedly was "a financial success", ranking behind only The Godfather and The Poseidon Adventure in North America's box office chart for 1972 (its takings of $28m would equate to roughly $108m at today's ticket-prices.) Not that the plaudits and dollars impressed the voters at the Academy: of the 1972's B.O. top six, only What's Up, Doc? and Jeremiah Johnson failed to notch Oscar nominations (Deliverance and Cabaret being the illustrious remaining pair.) 34 years on, you won't find many people who reckon the Academy erred in "snubbing" Bogdanovich: What's Up, Doc?, which has long been a staple on daytime TV and is readily available via DVD (as part of Warner Bros' 'Streisand Collection'), is seldom reckoned a "comedy classic" in the Bringing Up Baby mould, but nor would you find many who'd regard it as "a silly, inspid waste of time." It boasts a more-than-respectable IMDb "user rating" of 7.3 out of 10, and a Rotten Tomatoes 'Critics Tomatometer' score of '85% Fresh.' But both assessments strike me as somewhat generous - especially considering Bogdanovich's two previous films were the terrific Targets and the masterpiece The Last Picture Show. A rather strenuous attempt to hommage screwball comedies of the thirties and forties, What's Up, Doc? suggests that comedy isn't by any means Bogdanovich's strong suit - which would be borne out by his subsequent, wildly uneven career (most recent feature: 2001's woeful The Cat's Meow.) His leading man O'Neal seems only a marginally more comfortable fit for the knockabout material (was rather better served by Walter Hill's The Driver), while a little of Streisand's self-satisfied shtick goes rather a long way. Luckily, there are many compensations on the sidelines: Austin Pendleton, looking and sounding a bit like Crispin Glover avant la lettre, provides especially good value in his brief appearances as a mega-rich arts benefactor, though it's Liam Dunn who most entertainingly steals the show very late on with his vaudeville-worthy turn as a veteran, hypochondriac night-court judge (it helps that he gets deft support from none other than M Emmet Walsh in one of his trademark corpulent-cop roles.) Elsewhere, however, the script (unpromisingly credited to David Newman & Robert Benton and Buck Henry, from Bogdanovich's own story) relies too often on clumping doubletalk, limp puns or tiresome spoonerisms - the very last line a dismayingly cheap, then-topical reference to O'Neal big smash Love Story. Several of the performers resort to shameless mugging in an attempt to milk cheap laughs - such techniques haven't dated at all well, likewise the belaboured slapstick sequences set in the fancy hotel in which more than half of the picture takes place. The flatness of these scenes is in notable contrast to the section of the picture which has held up best over the decades: the famous extended, demolition-derby car-chase up and down the uniquely vertiginous San Francisco cityscape - a kind of Bullitt-for-laughs that, while often corny, remains capable of provoking a chuckle or five. Neil Young 31st December, 2006 WHAT'S UP, DOC? : [6/10] : USA 1972 : Peter BOGDANOVICH : 90 mins (DVD timing)seen on DVD at home in Sunderland (UK), 31st December 2006
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