WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT? [1965 / 2019] [EUREKA! Entertainment] [Blu-ray] [UK Release] Definitive Screwball Comedy starring Peter Sellers, Peter O’Toole and Woody Allen!
It’s tough being the cat’s meow! A zany blend of slapstick gags and madcap comedy, ‘WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT?’ starring Peter Sellers, Peter O’Toole and Woody Allen in his acting and screenwriting debut, is the wildest, wackiest film to emerge from the swinging ’60s.
Michael James [Peter O’Toole] is a mademoiselle magnet. His demented psychiatrist Dr. Fritz Fassbender [Peter Sellers] and sex-starved friend Victor Shakapopulis [Woody Allen] would kill for this problem, but his would-be fiancé Carole Werner [Romy Schneider] might just kill him. Undergoing therapy, Michael James tries to reform, but it won’t be easy with sex kittens like Ursula Andress, Paula Prentiss and Capucine on his tail!
Wonderfully directed by Clive Donner [‘The Caretaker’] and featuring the hit title song written by Burt Bacharach and performed by Tom Jones, EUREKA! Entertainment present ‘WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT?’ on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1966 Academy Awards®: Nominated: Best Music for an Original Song for Burt Bacharach (music) and Hal David (lyrics) for the song "What's New, Pussycat?" 1966 Laurel Awards: Nominated: Golden Laurel Award for Comedy Performance for a Male for Peter Sellers [4th place]. Nominated: Golden Laurel Award for Song for Burt Bacharach and Hal David for the song "What's New, Pussycat?" [4th place]. 1966 Writers Guild of America: Nominated: WGA Award (Screen) for Best Written American Comedy for Woody Allen.
FILM FACT No.2: The movie poster was painted by Frank Frazetta, and the animated title sequence was directed by Richard Williams. Richard Burton has a cameo appearance as a man at the bar in a strip club. The scene in which the lovelorn Dr. Fritz Fassbender [Peter Sellers] plans to commit suicide before Victor Shakapopulis [Woody Allen] intrudes to save him pays tribute to the 1931 Charlie Chaplin film ‘City Lights’ (in which the Little Tramp intervenes to save a dipsomaniacal millionaire bent on self-destruction).
Cast: Peter Sellers, Peter O'Toole, Romy Schneider, Capucine, Paula Prentiss, Woody Allen, Ursula Andress, Eddra Gale, Katrin Schaake, Eléonore Hirt, Jean Parédès, Jacques Balutin, Jess Hahn, Howard Vernon, Michel Subor, Sabine Sun, Nicole Karen, Jacqueline Fogt, Daniel Emilfork, Tanya Lopert, Barbara Sommers, Robert Rollis, Annette Poivre, Richard Saint-Bris, Marion Conrad, Maggie Wright, Jean-Yves Autrey (uncredited), Rosemary Blake (uncredited), Richard Burton (uncredited), Georges Douking (uncredited), Colin Drake (uncredited), Louis Falavigna (uncredited), Gordon Felio (uncredited), Françoise Hardy (uncredited), Louise Lasser (uncredited), René Lesartesse (uncredited), Edouard F. Médard (uncredited), Nadine Papin (uncredited), Gilbert Servien (uncredited), Norbert Terry (uncredited), Pascal Wolf (uncredited) and Jean-Pierre Zola (uncredited)
Director: Clive Donner
Producers: Charles K. Feldman, John C. Shepridge, John Dark (uncredited), Richard Sylbert and Warren Beatty (uncredited)
Screenplay: Woody Allen (original screenplay)
Composer: Burt Bacharach (composed music)
Cinematography: Jean Badal (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audio: English: Uncompressed 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 108 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: M-G-M / United Artists / EUREKA! Entertainment
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT?’ [1965] is a film that is probably best-known for two things: the fantastic Tom Jones theme song that of course was sung by Jones but written by Burt Bacharach, and being the first screenplay from Woody Allen. It’s very stupid, but that’s the point. It’s also one of the few films Woody Allen has written for someone else, and unsurprisingly he was unhappy with the final result.
‘WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT?’ is classed today as a silly 60s sex farce romp that completely falls apart. It stars Peter O’Toole as Michael James, this babe magnet who, in typical Woody Allen fashion, goes to see a shrink, Dr. Fritz Fassbender, who is played by Peter Sellers in a ridiculous long-haired wig. Michael James is planning to marry his fiancée, Carole Werner [Romy Schneider], but all these women just keep throwing themselves at him and he doesn’t know what to do. He tries to reform himself, but it’s hard to do in the face of passes from the likes of Paula Prentiss and Ursula Andress. Allen plays Michael James’s friend Victor Shakapopulis [Woody Allen], who is his usual self-based character.
It’s all set in and around Paris, and then in the French countryside. The plot becomes increasingly silly as it goes along, with plenty of high-jinks culminating in a go-kart race. It‘s pretty funny, which is what you want from a farcical comedy with sight gags and slapstick. And while it’s not one of Woody Allen’s best scripts, it comes from before he decided to try to be Ingmar Bergman, it’s one of the “early funny ones.”
Peter O’Toole was a really under-rated comedic actor. Initially it was a Warren Beatty production, with Beatty getting it off the ground but then walking off the project before the production started. The soundtrack also includes the original version of Bacharach’s “My Little Red Book” that’s used in a very funny dance scene, and there’s a very amusing cameo by Françoise Hardy at the very end. It was directed by Clive Donner, and this is certainly a firm favourite film of mine.
Curiosity Piece: Peter O’Toole’s hard drinking was already starting to show on his face, so it’s difficult to imagine him as a lothario about town and Warren Beatty would have been better in that respect, if he could carry off the comedy. Peter Sellers is at his best, while the supporting cast is to die for – Romy Schneider, Capucine, Paula Prentiss and Ursula Andress all appear, while there’s a delightful uncredited cameo from Richard Burton in which he and Peter O’Toole’s had real-life buddy affection for each other was very apparent.
As many film fans will probably already be unaware, it reputedly comes from Warren Beatty and it was his opening line to his female acquaintances (presumably it got around the need for him to remember all their names). It was also Warren Beatty’s idea to make a film about a sex addicts and his therapist, but when Woody Allen came in to write the script and began penning a role for himself that was bigger than Warren Beatty’s own, he dropped out of the project.
Originally planned as a low-key black-and-white affair, it snowballed into a freewheeling star vehicle over which director Clive Donner was not always in total control. But most of all, the film ‘WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT?’ is a curiosity piece, a time capsule of the mid-Sixties that fans of its stars and era will enjoy, but sadly, modern audiences will probably not find the film so appealing, which is a shame.
WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT? MUSIC TRACK LIST
WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT? (1965) (Music by Burt Bacharach) (uncredited) (Lyrics by Hal David) (uncredited) [Sung by Tom Jones]
HERE I AM (1965) (Music by Burt Bacharach) (uncredited) (Lyrics by Hal David) (uncredited) [Sung by Dionne Warwick]
MY LITTLE RED BOOK (1965) (Onscreen as "Little Red Book") (Music by Burt Bacharach) (uncredited) (Lyrics by Hal David) (uncredited) [Played by Manfred Mann] [Sung by Paul Jones]
BOSTON CITY (uncredited) (Traditional) [Whistled and sung by Peter O'Toole]
DANCE MAMMA, DANCE PAPPA, DANCE (1965) (uncredited) (Music by Burt Bacharach) (Lyrics by Hal David)
Blu-ray Image Quality – EUREKA! Entertainment presents us the film ‘WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT?’ with a stunning 1080p Technicolor image and enhanced with a 1.66:1 aspect ratio, Much of the film especially the first half features outstanding sharpness and great colour with rich hues and very pleasing to view and believable skin tones. But black levels aren’t always at their deepest possible levels, and sharpness is fairly stable. Contrast has been consistently kept stable as well. Fine detail is consistently high, letting you enjoy the textures of Peter Sellers' red velvet suit and Peter O’Toole’s green velvet jacket or the design on Ursula Andress's cat suit. All in all EUREKA! Entertainment has done a really professional work on this film and looks really fresh and also looks like it was filmed for today’s modern audience and definitely gets a five star rating from me. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – EUREKA! Entertainment brings us the film ‘WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT?’ with one standard Uncompressed 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio experience and a definite upgrade from the previous inferior DVD release. Here the film is sounding much fuller than before, giving more oomph to the great Burt Bacharach songs throughout and the Burt Bacharach composed music really stands out throughout the film and really helped with the zany comedy scenes throughout the film. The audio is still centre-focused, with nothing in terms of dynamic mixing, but it's definitely got more oomph this time around. Dialogue is also really excellent and you can hear all the words spoken by the actors, which you cannot say for some of the modern films that have been released in the 21st century.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Uncompressed 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio
Audio Commentary by Film Critics Emma Westwood and Sally Christie: As the film starts, we are welcomed with, “Welcome Pussycats and you’re here for ‘WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT?’ audio commentary, starring Sally “Pussycat” Christie and Emma “Pussycat” Westwood who we are informed are both film commentators and historians, and here they inform us they are going to run through the film, from start to finish and also give us in-depth information about the film. First they comment on the a wonderful colourful film titles at the start of the film, which they inform us was done by Richard Williams, who also did ‘The Pink Panther’ film titles and another bonus information we are told is that Richard Williams is a voice actor, who also did Droop in the film ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit,’ as well as the film titles for that same film, but also did the film title sequences for the spoof tongue in cheek James Bond film ‘Casino Royale.’ The first scene in the film they comment about is the odd looking house, that we are also informed that it is in fact a villa, which is entitled the Castel Henriette in Sèvres, Hauts-de-Seine, France which was designed by Hector Guimard and built in 1899, but sadly was demolished in April 1969, which of course was five years after the film was released, which was such a shame, as they felt the building was so unique and different for its period, especially in the 1960s. When we get to chapter four, they point out a scene that they thought was quirky where Peter O’Toole walks past the caricatures of Zola, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin and Van Gogh, the notorious womanizer makes his way between the tables, that was filmed at La Closerie des Lilas est un café situé au no 171 Boulevard du Montparnasse, dans le quartier Notre-Dame-des-Champs du 6e arrondissement de Paris. Then the next scene they enjoyed viewing is when we see Peter O’Toole watches his friend Victor Shakapopulis [Woody Allen] distract his opponent Tempest (Nicole Karen) as he cheats at chess. La Closerie des Lilas at the intersection of Boulevard du Montparnasse, Boulevard de Port-Royal, Avenue de l'Observatoire and Rue Notre Dame des Champs. The scene with Peter Sellers on the floor having a tantrum, was wearing a red velvet suite which was replicated in the Austin Powers films, and of course we get to see also Peter O’Toole also wearing a green velvet jacket, and of course seeing up close his amazing blue eyes. They talk about the critics review at the time of the film’s release, and they slatted it, by saying the film was too messy, and compared it with the spoof James Bond film ‘Casino Royale,’ which they felt was a much better film, but I feel personally that ‘WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT?’ was of its time in the 1960s period of film releases and there other films released at the same time of that comedy genre, especially showing us the Swinging Sixties and the London scene. They talk about Warren Beatty who was offered the part of Peter O’Toole’s character, but because Warren Beatty wanted his latest girlfriend to appear in the film and was rejected by the executives, walked away from the film, but eventually was partially involved with the film as one of the (uncredited) producers. They talk about the actress Paula Prentiss, who has of course appeared in several films before this film, and especially appeared in a Howard Hawks film, ‘Man's Favorite Sport?’ [1964] which is a comedy film starring Rock Hudson, who is a fishing equipment salesman authors on the bestselling book on fishing, although he has never practiced fishing. But with the film ‘WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT?’ Paula Prentiss had at the time of this film, had a nervous breakdown, which of course is quite ironic, especially her character in the film, and at one point while filming, jumped off some scaffolding, which was part of the set and luckily a technician held her legs and saved her, and was hospitalised for quite some time, and on top of all that, was at a Paris Institution for some considerable time and eventually went back to America and was married to the actor and director Richard Benjamin, and they are still married and are now in their 80’s. They talk about Peter O’Toole and say when he eventually came out of acting school, he appeared in 73 roles in different plays on the stage over a period of three and a half years, which they both thought was incredible, but the reason for this was Peter O’Toole loved and adored the theatre and would sometimes work in a play for free, but sure made a lot of money when appearing in films. We find out that when Woody Allen wrote the screenplay, especially for the part for Peter Sellers, Woody Allen allowed the actor to improvise his character, as Woody Allen wanted the audiences to laugh out lot every time Peter Sellers is on the screen doing his silly antics, also his comedic acting and again his usual improvisation. When we get to chapter 9 where everyone is turning up at the Château Hotel, which is actually called Château de Chaumontel on Rue André Vassord, Chaumontel, Val-d'Oise in France and other locations used at this point in the film is Château de Chaumontel in the valley of L'Ysieux and also Château de Chaumontel on Rue André Vassord, Chaumontel and of course these building have been around a very long time and again they are all in France. The interiors of all the rooms of Château de Chaumontel on Rue André Vassord, Chaumontel, Val-d'Oise all each named after famous lovers. We find out that peter Sellers had an obsession with superstitious with specific colours, like green gave Peter Sellers strange vibrations and disturbed him, and would never wear red, and would not work with anyone also wearing green, and of course if you remember early on in the film, Peter Sellers was wearing a red velvet suit and Peter O’Toole was wearing a green velvet jacket, so how did Peter Sellers appear in that scene with colours that disturbed him, very strange? We also find out that Peter Seller’s worst colour is purple, which was working with an Italian Director, who said that Purple represents death; still Peter Sellers was full of anxieties, especially being a Virgo. When near the end of the film, we get to see Peter O’Toole finally getting married to his long suffering fiancé; we finally get to see the famous French singer Françoise Hardy, who is actually married to the other French singer Jacques Dutronc, but although legally they are still married, but now live separate lives, because Françoise Hardy lives in Paris and Jacques Dutronc lives in Corsica which is located on a mountainous Mediterranean island, which has been part of France since 1768, but retains a distinct Italian culture. At this point in time, we have now come to the end of the film and the end credits are rolling up the screen, which was also designed by Richard Williams, and they both hope we enjoyed their audio commentary, which I did personally, as there was definitely a lot of happy banter between the two young females, as they were like frothy coffee, but also had very happy go lucky enthusiasm for the film and also gave us lots of in-depth background information about the film, and they both say they really enjoyed watching the film again, as they observed lots of stuff they missed the first time they viewed the film, which was quite a long time ago, and that point they say, “That’s it from us and goodbye.”
Theatrical Trailer [1965] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:53] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT?’ Unfortunately, at the start of the trailer you get a few white speckles, but about 30 seconds into the trailer, you get to view the rest of the trailer with a good nice image.
BONUS: A beautiful 24 page featuring a new 2019 essay by Simon Ward entitled A PUSSYCAT AND A JEW WALK INTO A BAR: Traversing The Humour in ‘WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT?’ and we also get included a BIBILIOGRAPHY; VIEWING NOTES; SPECIAL NOTE and EUREKA! NOTES. Plus, also included is lots of wonderful rare colour and black-and-white publicity images from the film and of the stars who appear in the film.
Finally, ‘WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT?’ is certainly worth picking up if you’re an ardent fan of Woody Allen, comedy genius Peter Sellers or even professional stage actor Peter O’Toole, then this film is for you and of course features the brilliant song sung by the amazing Tom Jones who really belts out the title song at the start of the film. It also benefits from some great and memorable music, composed by the great Burt Bacharach and Hal David, plus there are also a couple of other songs by Manfred Mann and Dionne Warwick with credit titles designed by Richard Williams and the producers would go on to make a similar film, the James Bond spoof ‘Casino Royale’ a couple of years later with many of the same cast and production team and same overall look. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
