What's Up Doc - a homage to how many?

Isn't Romantic Comedy redundant?
User avatar
charliechaplinfan
Posts: 9040
Joined: January 15th, 2008, 9:49 am

What's Up Doc - a homage to how many?

Post by charliechaplinfan »

Yesterday I watched What's Up Doc and early on I thought it was a shameless rip off, especially of Bringing Up Baby but changed my mind deciding that it was a fond remembrance of old Hollywood gags, stars and directors. I caught Ryan O'Neal trying to do his Cary Grant all the way through the movie although Barbra Streisand was happily herself, Madeleine Kahn was daffy. How many things were in there, Double Indeminty in the chemist, the split clothes of Bringing Up Baby, the mad chase through San Francisco showing hommage to Buster Keaton but also The Keystone Kops, Chaplin. How many other things were in there as I was in and out but Joe aged 6 was rolling about in laughter absolutely loving it. Also 'Love is never having to say your sorry' is that making fun of Love Story which I've seen so long ago that I can't remember.

I did love Babs, she's beautiful in this, Joe thought so. Ryan O'Neal, not my type I'm afraid, rather have Cary.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
Gary J.
Posts: 199
Joined: November 9th, 2008, 1:22 pm
Location: Sonoma, CA
Contact:

Re: What's Up Doc - a homage to how many?

Post by Gary J. »

Peter Bogdanovich is a student of classic movies as much as anyone on this board and that movie was definitely
his Valentine to movies he loved. There was no attempt to rip off anyone. He even arranged a viewing of it
with Cary Grant to get his opinion on it.
User avatar
Rita Hayworth
Posts: 10068
Joined: February 6th, 2011, 4:01 pm

Re: What's Up Doc - a homage to how many?

Post by Rita Hayworth »

I love this movie!

Bringing Up Baby, Our Man Godfrey, and What's Up Doc are my three top Comedy Movies of all times. I seen this movie as often I seen Charlie Chaplin's Gold Rush. I watch this movie at least twice a year when I'm down and feeling "blues" ... this movie is so enduring its has everything I want ... pure craziness! The antics of this wonderful movie is nothing but pure genius on the part of Peter Bogdanovich who directed it.

Peter thanks for making me laugh! You did well in directing it!

Barbara Streisand and Ryan O'Neal shown here ... are simply incredible this madcap movie!
Image
Image

CCFan: I'm thinking about watching it again this afternoon!

This movie rated :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :!:
Last edited by Rita Hayworth on October 23rd, 2011, 11:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
charliechaplinfan
Posts: 9040
Joined: January 15th, 2008, 9:49 am

Re: What's Up Doc - a homage to how many?

Post by charliechaplinfan »

It was funny and although he took ideas from right, left and centre they felt both fresh and for us movie lovers, reverential.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
User avatar
JackFavell
Posts: 11926
Joined: April 20th, 2009, 9:56 am

Re: What's Up Doc - a homage to how many?

Post by JackFavell »

I saw What's Up Doc with my big sister when it came out and we laughed our heads off. There were only 8 or 10 other people in the theatre with us, so we basically made fools of ourselves but we didn't care, we laughed anyway.

It's definitely an homage, rather than a rip off, to me. It's one of my favorite films from the seventies, and PB walks the line between 70's and 30's very well. the movie has definite Hawksian leanings. I think Bogdanovich created some great set pieces, like the extended chase which ends up at the pier... that whole section with the pane of glass or as they all dive or fall off the end of the dock could have come from a Laurel and Hardy film or a Keystone Cops short. In fact, the more I think of it, the more the film reminds me of L&H. I think PB caught just the right tone for this film, and I watch it periodically, it brings back happy memories for me, as does Bogdanovich's other great work, Paper Moon, which I saw with my mom when I was a kid too.
User avatar
charliechaplinfan
Posts: 9040
Joined: January 15th, 2008, 9:49 am

Re: What's Up Doc - a homage to how many?

Post by charliechaplinfan »

I haven't seen Paper Moon, the car chase reminded me in part of the chase in Sherlock jnr. Joe, who loves cars adored the chase sequence and where better than San Francisco. It's Barbra streisand who surprises me, I'm so used to her being someone my dad listened to who had never appeared to me as a younger, carefree girl before. After discoevering her as Fanny Brice and Dolly Levi, I decided that my dad didn't appreciate the best of her.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
User avatar
Rita Hayworth
Posts: 10068
Joined: February 6th, 2011, 4:01 pm

Re: What's Up Doc - a homage to how many?

Post by Rita Hayworth »

charliechaplinfan wrote:I haven't seen Paper Moon, the car chase reminded me in part of the chase in Sherlock jnr. Joe, who loves cars adored the chase sequence and where better than San Francisco. It's Barbra streisand who surprises me, I'm so used to her being someone my dad listened to who had never appeared to me as a younger, carefree girl before. After discoevering her as Fanny Brice and Dolly Levi, I decided that my dad didn't appreciate the best of her.
Paper Moon is another good Ryan O'Neal Movie and I enjoyed it a lot. Tatum O'Neal was incredible in this movie and I was surprised the maturity of Ryan's daughter that was in this heartwarming movie. One's of Peter's masterpieces! Many friends of mine did not care for it and its breaks my heart hearing it. I guess everyone a "critic" ...
User avatar
JackFavell
Posts: 11926
Joined: April 20th, 2009, 9:56 am

Re: What's Up Doc - a homage to how many?

Post by JackFavell »

You know, I think people either love or hate Barbra. I liked her when I was little and had no idea that she was such a polarizing actress and singer. My parents liked showtunes, so I grew up with her Funny Girl songs in my head. I've been coming back around to her, she really is very funny. This movie and Funny Girl are my favorite of her movies. In this one I love the string of colleges she rattles off, and the way she says "hi, daddy" to slow burning Liam Dunn as the antacid popping judge. The scene in the drugstore is a riot, and also the way she charms everyone and twists Austin Pendleton around her finger at Howard's big dinner. The whole hotel room and TV scene had me rolling on the floor like Joe when I was a kid.

I've been trying to think of which classic movie had a bunch of switched luggage, I swear I saw something recently that suddenly made me think of What's Up Doc? but I just can't bring it to mind. There's a bit of My Favorite Wife, with O'Neal trying to keep Madeline Kahn from finding Barbra in his hotel room.

I know you said you didn't like Ryan O'Neal, but he gives his best performance in Paper Moon. I think you might enjoy it despite his mildness in this film. He is much better than i ever realized, and I think he deserves credit for pulling off a Cary Grant style performance with none of the Grant mannerisms. Take a look at the reviews of Paper Moon on IMDB sometime, they might convince you to watch it. I looked it up before I bought myself a copy the movie, just to make sure my memory wasn't playing tricks on me. This is one of the only films on IMDB that I've seen to get completely positive reviews.
User avatar
ChiO
Posts: 3899
Joined: January 2nd, 2008, 1:26 pm
Location: Chicago

Re: What's Up Doc - a homage to how many?

Post by ChiO »

I know you said you didn't like Ryan O'Neal, but he gives his best performance in Paper Moon.
I would also submit for your approval: BARRY LYNDON and TOUGH GUYS DON'T DANCE, the latter of which has the added benefit of Lawrence Tierney, Isabella Rossellini, Penn Gillette and Clarence Williams III.
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan
I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles
Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
User avatar
knitwit45
Posts: 4689
Joined: May 4th, 2007, 9:33 pm
Location: Gardner, KS

Re: What's Up Doc - a homage to how many?

Post by knitwit45 »

I do not care for his movie roles, he always seems to be smirking...but he was really good as "Bones" father on that TV show.
RedRiver
Posts: 4200
Joined: July 28th, 2011, 9:42 am

Re: What's Up Doc - a homage to how many?

Post by RedRiver »

This is a cute comedy. Colorful, zany, glamorous. But it is SO not Hawks, McCarey or Sturges. Where the screwballs thrown by those pitchers are intimate and controlled, "Doc" is all over the place. Down the street, on the pier, in the water and off to jail. There are too many characters. When Hawks precisely introduces a handfull of players into a dinner party, they serve specific purposes. This film has people crashing in and out of scenes so fast I hardly know who's who.

It's certainly superior to Bogdanovich's other attempt to bring up baby, ILLEGALLY YOURS. Even this one is not bad. It's not anything. It merely floats along, with Rob Lowe wearing Cary Grant's glasses, neither offending nor inspiring the discerning filmgoer. It's just...there.

PAPER MOON and THE LAST PICTURE SHOW are my favorite films by this director. Grounded, gentle, folksy and nostalgic, they move me to emotion and ponderance in ways the silly comedies don't.
Gary J.
Posts: 199
Joined: November 9th, 2008, 1:22 pm
Location: Sonoma, CA
Contact:

Re: What's Up Doc - a homage to how many?

Post by Gary J. »

NICKELODEON (76) is another of Bogdanovich's valentine to the movies. I know it doesn't appeal to most movie-goers and I'll admit
that the story teeters to the brink more than once, but the atmosphere is so right that I always lose myself in the moment while viewing it.
User avatar
charliechaplinfan
Posts: 9040
Joined: January 15th, 2008, 9:49 am

Re: What's Up Doc - a homage to how many?

Post by charliechaplinfan »

I think I expressed myself badly, I don't dislike Ryan O'Neal, I haven't seen him in very much, he's not my type, for blonde cuteness give me Robert Redford, O'Neal hasn't moved me so far in his onscreen performances and I don't find him attractive enough to dig out a movie just for his sake. I did think he gave a creditable Cary Grant like performance, for me when someone tries to be Cary, it reminds me so much of the man himself, no one else will do. The exception is Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot.

Joe only saw the second half of the picture, I somehow think we'll be watching it again.

As for Barbra Streisand, my Dad must have picked the very worst of her to listen to, I really like some of her songs, the really popular ones I guess and the shows tunes but others for me are just too powerful. Her musicals, I think she gave the musical the last great chance to stand on it's feet. Her musicals and Cabaret I absolutely love and it's the women that make them.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
User avatar
JackFavell
Posts: 11926
Joined: April 20th, 2009, 9:56 am

Re: What's Up Doc - a homage to how many?

Post by JackFavell »

I would also submit for your approval: BARRY LYNDON and TOUGH GUYS DON'T DANCE, the latter of which has the added benefit of Lawrence Tierney, Isabella Rossellini, Penn Gillette and Clarence Williams III.
I can't get through more than five or ten minutes of Barry Lyndon - I think it's the teeth. :D No matter how accurate it might be, the stark reality of body odor and bad teeth makes me almost swoon with nausea. Perhaps I'll give it another try sometime, if you think it's worth it.

I have never seen the other film. I love Isabella Rossellini. And Penn Gillette.
NICKELODEON (76) is another of Bogdanovich's valentine to the movies. I know it doesn't appeal to most movie-goers and I'll admit
that the story teeters to the brink more than once, but the atmosphere is so right that I always lose myself in the moment while viewing it.
As for Nickelodeon, I remember being very disappointed in it when I was a kid, it's just too long and overdrawn, but I came away from it with a great fondness for John Ritter, pre- Three's Company. I like Hearts of the West better.

I think O'Neal frittered away his career in those smirky roles which is too bad, because he seems to have had some talent lurking beneath the pretty surface. While not a favorite, I do like him very much in the two Bogdanovich films. I've always been curious to see his old Peyton Place TV show.
RedRiver
Posts: 4200
Joined: July 28th, 2011, 9:42 am

Re: What's Up Doc - a homage to how many?

Post by RedRiver »

You know, I saw one episode of a frantic and clever sitcom about revolution era America. This was, maybe, fifteen years ago. O'Neal was quite charming. Subtle and understated, with the timing so crucial to this type of material. I think he and his wife were inkeepers, with grown children. The show was racy, witty and lightning paced. A bit of a FAWLTY TOWERS feel to it.

I had the impression I might have been watching the pilot. Not sure if the show ever got off the ground. If not, it's a pity. It looked like a winner.
Post Reply