What's Up Doc

One of the funnest movies of the seventies and an all time personal film favorite, 1972's comedy classic WHAT'S UP DOC is 90 minutes of clever hilarity.

Ryan O'Neal (Love Story, Barry Lyndon) stars as Howard Bannister, a musicologist with a suitcase full of rocks and zero personality. This is one of O'Neal's best performances, a flawless, clueless straight man for every punch line.

Upon arrival in San Francisco with his overbearing fiancee Eunice (Madeline Kahn in a brilliant film debut), Howard soon discovers his case is an identical match for three others filled with diamonds, secret documents and cash.

Director Peter Bogdanovich (Paper Moon, The Last Picture Show) mines comic gold out of a flawless cast and a very funny screenplay by the legendary Buck Henry. Henry wrote such film classics as "The Graduate" and created the TV Show "Get Smart" with Mel Brooks. This is one of his best scripts, matching clever wordplay to rival Monty Python with classic physical comedy.

If you look back at Bogdanovich and the run of films he delivered on the big screen between 1971 and 1975, it's impressive as hell:"The Last Picture Show", "What's Up Doc?" and "Paper Moon". A student of film genres, this was my introduction to screwball comedies as a pre-teen! Bogdanovich finds deep roots here from the comedies of the 1930's satrring Cary Grant and Carole Lombard. I have fond memories of my Mom, sister and I seeing this at least three times in the theater and laughing our heads off every time.

Barbra Streisand (The Prince of Tides, Funny Girl) serves as the hilarious center of the plot as Judy Maxwell, a one-woman wrecking crew barging into Howard's very carefully structured life. Barbra has never been more likeable on film and shows terrific comic timing. She's a tour de force of destruction and laughs.

In a great cast, Kenneth Mars stands out as Howard's competitor Hugh Simon, with an unmanageable head of hair and bizarre accent. He is flawless at delivering lines like "I don't know who he his but she is definitely not herself!"

Liam Dunn has a great ten minute scene as a frustrated judge and John Hillerman almost steals the movie as a hotel manager, but its Kahn who truly walks away with every scene she's in. She went right from this to "Young Frankenstein" and "Blazing Saddles" and never looked back.

Look fast for John Byner and a very young Randy Quaid as fellow guests at the Larabee Foundation banquet. ("Waiter, what wine are you serving to table one?)

Featuring one of the best car chases ever filmed and nearly non-stop mayhem, WHAT'S UP DOC delivers a plaid overnight case full of laughs. As a matter of fact, FOUR cases full. A brilliant, laugh-out-loud A+ that easily grabs a spot in the top half of my all-time Top 100 films.