What's Up, Doc?

3/9/19721h 34m

Theatrical (limited) Release (US)

~ A screwball comedy. Remember them? ~

Overview:

The accidental mix-up of four identical plaid overnight bags leads to a series of increasingly wild and wacky situations.

Director:

Peter Bogdanovich

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$4,000,000.00

Revenue:

$66,000,000.00

Key words:

hotel
judge
chase
san francisco, california
chaos
screwball comedy
dictionary
bag
rocks
jewels

Cast

Barbra Streisand

~ as ~

Judy Maxwell

Ryan O'Neal

~ as ~

Howard Bannister

Madeline Kahn

~ as ~

Eunice Burns

Kenneth Mars

~ as ~

Hugh Simon

Austin Pendleton

~ as ~

Frederick Larrabee

Michael Murphy

~ as ~

Mr. Smith

Philip Roth

~ as ~

Mr. Jones

Sorrell Booke

~ as ~

Harry

Stefan Gierasch

~ as ~

Fritz

Mabel Albertson

~ as ~

Mrs. Van Hoskins

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

CinemaSerf
Written 6 month(s) ago
7
I'm really not a fan of screwball humour, and after the first five minutes of this perfectly choreographed series of synchronised improbabilities, accompanied by a downright irritating characterisation of "Judy" by Barbra Streisand, I fully expected to hate this film. Once it's settled down, though, and Madeline Kahn gets to grips with her equally exasperating persona, I did really start to feel that geeky rock guy "Howard" (Ryan O'Neal) was completely out of his depth as these two women took hold of his life and made every effort to trash it. Right from the start, we know that there's a sub-plot involving a tartan holdall, well four of them, and with some underhand shenanigans going on to obtain one of those that must contain something secret we now have the ingredients for some slapstick chaos that provides one of the best "Wacky Races" style car chases through San Francisco with nobody safe! There's an engaging chemistry between Streisand and O'Neal and it does remind you that before she started obsessing about how people pronounce her surname, she had really good comedy timing to go with her belting voice. Though the denouement isn't exactly a shock, there are plenty of twists and turns en route to keep this entertaining romp quite watchable almost fifty years later and it showcases nicely the skills of O'Neal as a perfect foil, too.