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What's up, Doc? (1972) - Bogdanovich
Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride
The set-up? Four identical suitcases arrive in San Francisco and end up staying at the same ritzy hotel; one of them is brimming with diamonds; another contains top secret documents and one of them is literally packed with rocks.
A deliciously low brow and rather dopey comedy. A great period piece when Barbara Streisand and Ryan O'Neil when they were at the tippy top of the Hollywood pile with impossibly youthful looking bit players like M Emmet Walsh, Randy Quaid, Austin Pendelton and Liam Dunn contributing to the mix. Everyone's got their hair. Plus a classic chase scene through the streets of San Francisco on a grocery store delivery bike.
There's a lot of seamless set-ups. When the spotter at the airport points out his man with top secret documents. The "tail" grabs a set of golf clubs to blend in as a tourist and begins following him, up and down (mostly up) the hilly streets. Streisand crosses a street causing multiple traffic accidents without nary a scratch to her person. She takes one look at look at bookish scholar from Ohio (O'Neil) in a hotel lobby, and enters his life like the proverbial bull in a china shop. When Kahn and O'Neil first appear together, it's obvious that she's merely managing his career; so the audience immediately accepts that Streisand could steal him away with not much fuss or bloodletting.
Lots of gags and funny lines:
"Must you stand so close?"
"I'm near-sighted"
"Use your charm on her"
"Love is never having to say your sorry"
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard"
(Of course, O'Neil starred in that movie two years earlier)
Absurd details. Like O'Neil's bow tie and his cummerbund are color coordinated to match the suitcases. Despite both characters coming from the mid-west, they both have deep golden Californian tans.
I'll also single out Madeline Kahn (in her first screen role?) She makes a perfect foil for both Streisand and O'Neil. That great kooky hairdo. Her bee stung lips. The scuff marks her heels leave when she is dragged from the ballroom, all the while slinging her purse at everyone in sight.
To be honest it's been a quite a while since I"ve seen a Steisand movie, but this definitely whets my whistle for more. She's funny and endearing. And when she starts to sing, you can't help thinking: Omigod, what a voice! But I can't help cringing, when I imagine someone starting out with Streisand's talent and face today. What with the prevailing nip and tuck culture of our time, the poor kid would be cut up to look like bulging Barbie doll faster than you could say "What's up, Doc?"
Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride
The set-up? Four identical suitcases arrive in San Francisco and end up staying at the same ritzy hotel; one of them is brimming with diamonds; another contains top secret documents and one of them is literally packed with rocks.
A deliciously low brow and rather dopey comedy. A great period piece when Barbara Streisand and Ryan O'Neil when they were at the tippy top of the Hollywood pile with impossibly youthful looking bit players like M Emmet Walsh, Randy Quaid, Austin Pendelton and Liam Dunn contributing to the mix. Everyone's got their hair. Plus a classic chase scene through the streets of San Francisco on a grocery store delivery bike.
There's a lot of seamless set-ups. When the spotter at the airport points out his man with top secret documents. The "tail" grabs a set of golf clubs to blend in as a tourist and begins following him, up and down (mostly up) the hilly streets. Streisand crosses a street causing multiple traffic accidents without nary a scratch to her person. She takes one look at look at bookish scholar from Ohio (O'Neil) in a hotel lobby, and enters his life like the proverbial bull in a china shop. When Kahn and O'Neil first appear together, it's obvious that she's merely managing his career; so the audience immediately accepts that Streisand could steal him away with not much fuss or bloodletting.
Lots of gags and funny lines:
"Must you stand so close?"
"I'm near-sighted"
"Use your charm on her"
"Love is never having to say your sorry"
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard"
(Of course, O'Neil starred in that movie two years earlier)
Absurd details. Like O'Neil's bow tie and his cummerbund are color coordinated to match the suitcases. Despite both characters coming from the mid-west, they both have deep golden Californian tans.
I'll also single out Madeline Kahn (in her first screen role?) She makes a perfect foil for both Streisand and O'Neil. That great kooky hairdo. Her bee stung lips. The scuff marks her heels leave when she is dragged from the ballroom, all the while slinging her purse at everyone in sight.
To be honest it's been a quite a while since I"ve seen a Steisand movie, but this definitely whets my whistle for more. She's funny and endearing. And when she starts to sing, you can't help thinking: Omigod, what a voice! But I can't help cringing, when I imagine someone starting out with Streisand's talent and face today. What with the prevailing nip and tuck culture of our time, the poor kid would be cut up to look like bulging Barbie doll faster than you could say "What's up, Doc?"