What's Up, Doc? (1972)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Peter Bogdanovich

Writers:

Peter Bogdanovich (story)
Buck Henry (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

10 March 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Music | Romance

Tagline:

A screwball comedy. Remember them?

Plot:

Two researchers have come to San Francisco to compete for a research grant in Music. One seems a bit distracted...

Plot Keywords:

Jewel | Hotel | Prehistoric | Spy | Love

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 1 win

Cast

Barbra Streisand	...	Judy Maxwell
Ryan O'Neal	...	Dr. Howard Bannister
Madeline Kahn	...	Eunice Burns
Kenneth Mars	...	Hugh Simon
Austin Pendleton	...	Frederick Larrabee
Michael Murphy	...	Mr. Smith
Philip Roth	...	Mr. Jones (as Phil Roth)
Sorrell Booke	...	Harry
Stefan Gierasch	...	Fritz
Mabel Albertson	...	Mrs. Van Hoskins
Liam Dunn	...	Judge Maxwell
John Hillerman	...	Mr. Kaltenborn
George Morfogen	...	Rudy, the Headwaiter
Graham Jarvis	...	Bailiff
Randy Quaid	...	Professor Hosquith

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M (DVD rating) | Finland:S | Norway:12 | Sweden:Btl | USA:G | West Germany:12 | Australia:G | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

22nd Avenue & Balboa Street, San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Saticoy Productions

Trivia:

When Judy Maxwell first enters the Bristol Hotel, a piano version of Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" can be heard in the background. Porter also wrote "You're The Top," the song that begins and ends the movie.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The fresh concrete that the cars drive through in the chase sequence is obviously only a thin layer (probably less than an inch thick), much too thin to be actual pavement.

Quotes:

Howard: Sir, my name is Howard Bannister and I'm from Ames, Iowa.
Judge Maxwell: No excuse.
Howard: No, sir, it all started when I bumped my head in the taxi... on the way in from the airport.
Judge Maxwell: Are you pleading insanity or amnesia?
Howard: Neither. I went to the drugstore to get something for a headache... the druggist tried to charge me for a radio. She said her husband would pay for it. But I didn't, of course.
Judge Maxwell: Of course.
Howard: She ripped my jacket and when Eunice came along...
Judge Maxwell: Who's Eunice?
Howard: Eunice is my fiancée.
Judge Maxwell: You have a wife AND a fiancée?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Simpsons: Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy (#6.10)" (1994)

Soundtrack:

You're the Top

That's a person named Eunice?

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!".