What's Up, Doc? is a 1972 American screwball comedy film released by Warner Bros., directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, and Madeline Kahn in her first feature film role (for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe). It was intended to pay homage to comedy films of the 1930s, especially Bringing Up Baby, as well as Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny cartoons (another Warner Bros. character).
The film was a success, and became the third-highest grossing film of 1972. The film won the Writers Guild of America 1973 "Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen" award for writers Buck Henry, David Newman and Robert Benton. It was ranked number 61 on the list of the 100 greatest American comedies published by the American Film Institute (AFI), and ranked number 68 on the AFI's list of 100 greatest love stories in American cinema. It was also ranked number 58 on the list of the WGA's 101 Funniest Screenplays published by the Writers Guild of America. The film was very loosely based on the novel A Glimpse of Tiger by Herman Raucher, which is ironic in light of its WGA award. The film was originally slated for release on December 13, 1970 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer but was indefinitely shelved due to ongoing financial difficulties. In 1971, Warner Bros. picked up the distribution rights. The film premiered on March 10, 1972
Synopsis
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The story, which takes place in San Francisco, centers on four identical plaid overnight bags and the people who own them.
- One of the bags belongs to Howard Bannister, Ph.D. (Ryan O'Neal), and is filled with igneous "tambula" rocks that have certain musical properties. Bannister, a musicologist from the Iowa Conservatory of Music, and his tightly wound, overbearing fiancée, Eunice Burns (Madeline Kahn), have come to San Francisco to obtain a grant offered by Frederick Larrabee (Austin Pendleton). Howard has a theory that ancient man may have used rocks to create music. Howard's rival for the grant is the ethically challenged, dubiously-accented Hugh Simon (Kenneth Mars), who apparently is from Yugoslavia (Croatia) but seems to be doing work in Western Europe.
- The second bag belongs to Judy Maxwell (Barbra Streisand) and is filled with her clothesâ€"including underwearâ€"and a large dictionary. No matter where Judy goes, trouble happens, from car crashes to spontaneous combustion of hotel rooms. She never finished college, but nevertheless has amassed a considerable amount of knowledge from all of the courses she took at the many institutions of higher learning from which she was expelled.
- The third bag belongs to Mrs. Van Hoskins (Mabel Albertson), a rich woman who is using it to store her valuable jewels.
- The fourth and last overnight bag belongs to the mysterious "Mr. Smith" (Michael Murphy) and contains top-secret government papers. There is at least some indication that he has them illegally and wishes to make them public. The equally mysterious "Mr. Jones" (Philip Roth) identifies himself as from the government, and is on a mission to recover the documents.
Howard, Eunice, Mrs. Van Hoskins, and Mr. Smith all happen to check into the Hotel Bristol at the same time, whereupon Judy lodges herself there without paying and begins pursuing Howard (to his bewilderment). Two hotel employees (Sorrell Booke and Stefan Gierasch) attempt to steal the jewels belonging to Mrs. Van Hoskins, while Mr. Jones attempts to get the bag belonging to Mr. Smith. Over the course of the evening, the bags get switched haphazardly from room to room as the four parties unwittingly take one another's suitcases. Without realizing it, Howard ends up with the jewels, Judy with the documents, Mr. Smith with the clothes, and the thieves with the rocks. Meanwhile, Judy manages to secure the grant for Howard while masquerading as Eunice, and then accidentally destroys his hotel room. The following day, everyone makes their way to Mr. Larrabee's home where a major fight scene occurs. Howard and Judy take all the bags and flee through San Francisco pursued by the thieves, Mr. Smith, Mr. Jones, Eunice, Simon, Larabee and a few roped-in bystanders. They go through Chinatown, down Lombard Street, and eventually into San Francisco Bay. All the protagonists finally end up in court, under the gavel of a world-weary and curmudgeonly judge (Liam Dunn) who, improbably, turns out to be Judy's father. At the shock of seeing his daughter in the middle of the trouble (she's been hiding in a blanket during the proceeding), he collapses along with his desk.
In the end, everything is cleared up: Howard gets his rocks back, Mrs. Van Hoskins pays the considerable damages in Howard's name with the reward money he would have received for the return of her jewels, the hotel thieves are forced to flee the country and the papers are put back in the hands of the government. Judy exposes Simon as a fraud and plagiarist (thus getting Howard the grant), Eunice leaves Howard for Larrabee, and Judy announces she is taking one more attempt at college, studying Music History at the Iowa Conservatory of Music. The film ends on a suitably romantic (and silly) note as Howard and Judy share an airborne kiss while their in-flight movie is the Bugs Bunny cartoon that gave the film its name.
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
- Liam Dunn as Judge Maxwell
- John Hillerman as Hotel Manager Kaltenborn
- George Morfogen as Rudy, Head Waiter
- Graham Jarvis as Bailiff
- Randy Quaid as Professor Hosquith
- M. Emmet Walsh as Arresting Officer
- Sylvester Stallone as Hotel Guest (uncredited)
Several actors who later appeared in Mel Brooks films appear in this film, including Madeline Kahn (Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, History of the World Part I), Kenneth Mars (The Producers, Young Frankenstein), Liam Dunn (Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie), and John Hillerman (Blazing Saddles).
Locations
The opening and ending scenes were filmed at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) in the South Terminal (now Terminal 1). The opening scene was filmed in the downstairs TWA Baggage Claim area. The next to last scene was filmed in the upstairs departure area beneath the arrival/departure board and at the flight insurance counter.
The San Francisco Hilton was the shooting location for the "Bristol Hotel". Part of the movie was filmed in Paramus, New Jersey.
The exterior of the hotel, where Streisand is hanging from a ledge, was shot in Westwood, Los Angeles.
The San Francisco setting was chosen to allow an elaborate comic spoof of the San Francisco car chase in the hit 1968 movie Bullitt. Bogdanovich claims the rousing chase sequence accounted for one-fourth of the film's $4 million budget. The classic "plate glass" scene, in which O'Neal and Streisand are pedaling on a stolen grocery store delivery bicycle, was filmed at Balboa and 23rd Avenue in the Richmond District. In another scene, their out of control bike ends up going down Clay Street in Chinatown. The Volkswagen Beetle is stolen from the curb in front of Saint Peter and Paul Church at Washington Square Park, and the Beetle hides on a car carrier on Sacramento St. just west of Van Ness Avenue in an area where many car dealerships were once located. The production did not have permission from the city to drive cars down the concrete steps in Alta Plaza Park in San Francisco; these were badly damaged during filming and still show the scars today. At the end of the car chase, almost everyone ends up foundering in San Francisco Bay â€" except O'Neal and Streisand, comfortably afloat in their Volkswagen Beetle. This was a play on Volkswagen print and TV ads from a few years earlier that championed the Beetle's remarkable (and real) ability to float on water. During the making of this scene, the actor Sorrell Booke almost drowned in the Bay.
The final scene on board of a TWA Boeing 707 shows O'Neal looking out the righthand window showing the Marina District and the (now demolished) Embarcadero Freeway.
Music
Although What's Up, Doc? is not a musical, it contains some singing and other musical interest. The song "You're The Top" from the musical Anything Goes is sung for the opening and closing credits by Streisand and by Streisand and O'Neal, respectively. The same Cole Porter musical supplied at least two other tunes played as background music: "Anything Goes" and "I Get a Kick Out of You", heard during the first hotel-lobby scene.
About two-thirds of the way into the film, Howard accompanies Judy at the piano as she sings the beginning of "As Time Goes By" (made famous in the film Casablanca). The scene includes Streisand imitating Humphrey Bogart with the line, "Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world....he walks into mine. Play it, Sam."
Musical in-jokes abound throughout the film. Over-the-top Muzak-styled elevator music featuring Cole Porter's songs is used throughout the hotel elevator scenes. In the chase scene, a Chinese marching band is inexplicably playing the Mexican tune "La Cucaracha" on German glockenspiels. At the American Musicologists' banquet, themes from Thoinot Arbeau's Orchésographie can be heard in the background, incongruously played on a Hammond organ and a sitar.
George Gershwin's "Someone to Watch over Me" is whistled by Streisand outside the hotel drug store.
The Bugs Bunny number â€" derived from his characteristic tagline â€" that gives the movie its title appears as well, with the original animation, in the last scene. Instrumental versions of "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone", an old Tin Pan Alley hit which had appeared in Looney Tunes cartoon One Froggy Evening, are background music during the opening scene in the airport.
Box office
In North America, the movie was a massive commercial success, grossing $66,000,000 against a budget of $4 million. It became the 3rd highest grossing film of the year, ranking behind The Godfather and The Poseidon Adventure.
The film was re-released in North America in 1973 and earned an additional $3 million in theatrical rentals.
Accolades
The film won the Writers Guild of America 1973 "Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen" award for writers Buck Henry, David Newman and Robert Benton. Madeline Kahn nominated the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year â€" Actress. The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
- 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs â€" #61
- 2002: AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions â€" #68
Home video/Blu-ray release
What's Up, Doc? was originally released on VHS in 1982 and made $28,500,000 in video rentals.
As part of a collectors box set, it was finally released on DVD in July 2003 and then on Blu-ray in August 2010.
See also
- List of American films of 1972
References
External links
- What's Up, Doc? on IMDb
- What's Up, Doc? at Rotten Tomatoes
- What's Up, Doc? at the TCM Movie Database
- What's Up, Doc? at AllMovie
- Barbra Streisand Archives "What's Up, Doc?" page