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What's Up, Doc?
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What's Up, Doc? (1972)

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User Rating: 7.4/10 (5,257 votes)
Photos (see all 17 | slideshow)

Overview

Director:
Peter Bogdanovich
Writers:
Peter Bogdanovich (story)
Buck Henry (screenplay) ...
more
Release Date:
10 March 1972 (USA) more
Genre:
Comedy | Romance more
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... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Love | Suitcase | Prehistoric | Mix Up | Wild Girl more
Awards:
Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 1 win more
User Comments:
Peerless contemporary looney-tune, a self-appointed comic valentine to the 30s served up in expert fashion by Peter Bogdanovich. more

Cast

 (Cast overview, first billed only)
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Additional Details

Runtime:
94 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono
MOVIEmeter: ?
V 2% since last week why?

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
A male stuntman was used to double for Barbra Streisand in the long shots of her riding the bicycle. During one hairpin turn, he fell off and broke his ankle. more
Goofs:
Continuity: When the cars chase the three wheeled bike, they drive from a hill with a STOP-sign. On the right we can see some parked cars (Chevrolet Corvair, Ford, Pinto and a Rover). In the next shot, when the Cadillac limo passes, the three cars are disappeared and changed in a 1971 Chevrolet Vega coupe, Chevrolet Caprice coupe, Triumph GT-6. more
Quotes:
Jewel Thief: [to Harry] You little fink! more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in "Ellen: What's Up, Ex-Doc? (#3.10)" (1995) more
Soundtrack:
You're the Top more

FAQ

How does it end?
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22 out of 24 people found the following comment useful:-
Peerless contemporary looney-tune, a self-appointed comic valentine to the 30s served up in expert fashion by Peter Bogdanovich., 2 October 2001
9/10
Author: gary brumburgh (gbrumburgh@pacbell.net) from Los Angeles, California

Finally, a zany, riotous slapstick comedy that lives up to what it purports to be...a zany, riotous slapstick comedy! Silly, simple and superficial, with no lowbrow, leering takes or hidden moral messages lurking, `What's Up, Doc?' is pure, unadulterated fun. Bugs Bunny should be proud.

Saluting its classic screwball predecessors, this innocent send-up has all the joy, style and panache one could ask for, hitting its broad targets about 90% of the time. Director Peter Bogdanovich, (who also wrote the story and co-produced) was at his zenith when he made this in 1972. Thirty years later, I've yet to see anything comparable top it.

Ryan O'Neal and Barbra Streisand recycle the wacky `Bringing Up Baby' characters created most famously by Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, then Hollywood's reigning king and queen of elegant farce. The madcap plot and situations may have been altered and updated, and the approach itself may be less than chic, but the results are still the same: non-stop hilarity.

Proving before her she had a nose for comedy (she was a hoot in `The Owl and the Pussycat'), Streisand outdoes herself here. She wisely (and generously) defers to the director and, in return, churns out her most engaging performance yet as a wacky, accident-prone, highly determined gal who creates utter chaos out of confusion while striving to win the guy. She proves once and for all she is a funny, FUNNY girl, her quicksilver timing a joy to behold. And, as a bonus, she sings!

Matching Streisand schtick for schtick, O'Neal is the perfect deadpan foil as the hapless but oh-so-handsome cluck she sets her unyielding sights on. His milquetoast musicologist, who has substituted rocks for brains and is about as exciting as plankton, is wonderfully maudlin -- a textbook performance in sad-sack comedy. Bogdanovich apparently brings out the best in O'Neal (`Paper Moon') who was often vilified for his lack of cinematic presence.

Madeline Kahn, in her film debut, is side-splitting as O'Neal's prodding, adenoidal, anal-retentive fiancee. Stealing scene after scene, she offers the most consistently funny character since Jean Hagen's Lina Lamont in `Singin' in the Rain,' and that's saying something. The late Ms. Kahn a sublime farceur who could probably draw laughs from a well, would never again be put to such good use as she was under the early 70s tutelage of both Bogdanovich and Mel Brooks. And how could a slapstick comedy be complete without the comicbook villainy of snooty Kenneth Mars and Austin Pendleton's inept, rumpled genius?

Be sure also to catch a number of familiar TV faces strewn about in minor roles: Mabel (`Bewitched') Albertson, John (`Magnum P.I.') Hillerman, Sorrell (`Dukes of Hazard') Booke, Graham (`Fame') Jarvis, John (`Soap') Byner, and Randy (`Davis Rules') Quaid. Best of all, however, is diminutive Liam Dunn, hilarious in the climactic courtroom scene, as a cranky, pill-popping judge.

The film receives a tremendous boost from other key creative hands, notably the fast and furious scriptwriter and the colorful production designer. Each help to amplify what's happening onscreen.

In a time of uncertainly and skittishness, `What's Up, Doc' is a refreshing reminder that laughter is still the best medicine. Th...Th...That's all, folks!

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Favorite scene or joke? baskets
Is this the first film to use the famous quotation...? se7en7777
Streisand and Jennifer Aniston? jdoughty
One of my favorite comedies!!! romli490
the song on the piano Montmartre
How old were Howard and Judy supposed to be? shelton_k
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