If you love sparkling, rapid-fire conversation and insane slapstick, go rent this now. No, really, stop reading and get to the rental store. Go!

Minor spoilers

Once upon a time there was a plaid overnight case... in fact, there were several plaid overnight cases, all very alike from the outside, but with vastly different contents. Their owners all happened to be in the same hotel in San Francisco at the same time, with disastrous results.

This simple premise forms the storyline of one of the funniest screwball comedies ever made, What's Up Doc? starring Ryan O'Neal, Barbra Streisand and Madeline Kahn (in her first major film role!). O'Neal plays Dr. Howard Bannister, a mousy Midwestern musicologist with a passion for igneous rocks; he and his high-strung, take-charge fiancée Eunice Burns (Kahn) are visiting San Francisco in an attempt to win a music research grant from Mr. Larrabee (Austin Pendleton).

In the hotel drugstore, Howard meets an odd, yet friendly and attractive young woman, Judy (Streisand), who appears to be a walking jinx—things always seem to go wrong around her. She takes a liking to Howard—whom she decides to call Steve instead—and immediately his life starts to go out of whack. Add to the mix a wealthy eccentric with a penchant for carrying her jewels everywhere, a pursued CIA agent with top-secret documents, several mobsters, and a peculiar Eastern European man named Hugh who drops his H's ("I am 'ugh!" "You are me?" "No, I am 'ugh!" "Stop saying that, make him stop saying that!") and you have a surprisingly engaging movie.

This is possibly one of the last successful screwball comedies, once so popular in the late thirties and early forties; its greatest charm comes from its rapid-fire banter. The jokes come so fast that you're almost afraid to laugh in case you miss the next one, and the cast keeps up with the timing perfectly. With so many identical overnight bags, there's quite a lot of room for physical humor and slapstick as well.

Madeline Kahn is a great scene-stealer; her brittle, nasal, screeching characterization of Eunice leaves you wondering what Howard ever saw in her in the first place. And don't pass this movie up just because you hate Barbra Streisand—yes, she does sing a few numbers, but they're kept to a minimum, and she gives a surprisingly engaging performance. Mind you, this is coming from someone who ordinarily can't stomach Queen Barbra in any form.

A bit of useless and interesting trivia—the opening song, "You're the Top," and all the incidental music in the film (with the exception of "As Time Goes By") were written by Cole Porter.

I rarely assign ANY movie five stars, but What's Up Doc? is one of my absolute favorites and I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone looking for a good comedy.

All material displayed on this website is © 2001-2010 by S. B. Houghton, writing under the alias "The Pirate King." All rights reserved.
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