WHAT'S UP, DOC? [1972 / 2010] [Blu-ray] [USA Release]
The Screwball Classic Crazy Comedy! The Way They Used To Make Them!
‘WHAT'S UP, DOC?’ is joyously recaptures the bubbly style of 1930s screwball comedies – and firmly establishes Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal as a romantic duo uniquely endearing in screen history. Included are a daffy luggage mix-up plot, dippy dialogue exchanges, a marvellous example of the art of hotel-room demolition and one of the funniest chase sequences ever, all over San Francisco. Dexterously written with a surefooted sense of the ridiculous by Buck Henry, David Newman and Robert Benton, directed by Peter Bogdanovich with giddy affection and cast with awesomely hilarious players [including film-debuting Madeline Kahn]. ‘WHAT'S UP, DOC?’ is no idle question. Among comedy movies, it’s the top.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1973 Golden Globes: Nomination: Most Promising Female Newcomer for Madeline Kahn. 1973 Writers Guild of America: Win: Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen for Buck Henry, David Newman and Robert Benton.
FILM FACT No.2: The opening and ending scenes were filmed at the San Francisco International Airport in the South Terminal, which is 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 film 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 film ‘Bullitt.’ Peter Bogdanovich claims the rousing chase sequence accounted for one-fourth of the film's $4 million budget. The classic "plate glass" scene, in which Ryan O'Neal and Barbra Streisand are pedalling 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 final scene on board a TWA Boeing 707 shows Peter O'Neal looking out of the right-hand window showing the Marina District and the Embarcadero Freeway, which is now demolished.
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Austin Pendleton, Michael Murphy, Philip Roth, Sorrell Booke, Stefan Gierasch, Mabel Albertson, Liam Dunn, John Hillerman, George Morfogen, Graham Jarvis, Randy Quaid, M. Emmet Walsh, Kevin O'Neal, Eleanor Zee, Paul Condylis, Fred Scheiwiller, Carl Saxe, Jack Perkins, Paul B. Kipilman, Gil Perkins, Christa Lang, Stan Ross, Peter Paul Eastman, Eric Brotherson, Elaine Partnow, George Burrafato, Jerry Summers, Mark Thompson, Don Bexley, Leonard Lookabaugh, Candice Bennett, Sean Morgan, Patricia O'Neal, Joe Alfasa, Chuck Holison, Tom Anfinsen (uncredited), Jack Berle (uncredited), Nick Borgani (uncredited), John Byner (uncredited), George Holmes (uncredited), Shep Houghton (uncredited), Kenner G. Kemp (uncredited), Ron Kinwald (uncredited), Bruce McBroom (uncredited), William Niven (uncredited), Monty O'Grady (uncredited), Murray Pollack (uncredited), Tony Regan (uncredited), Leoda Richards (uncredited), Bill Riddle (uncredited), Hank Robinson (uncredited), Cosmo Sardo (uncredited), Norman Stevans (uncredited), Arthur Tovey (uncredited), John Vick (uncredited) and Erick Vinther (uncredited)
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Producers: Paul Lewis and Peter Bogdanovich
Screenplay: Buck Henry (screenplay), David Newman (screenplay), Robert Benton (screenplay) and Peter Bogdanovich (story)
Composer: Artie Butler (uncredited)
Cinematography: László Kovács, A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English: 1.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
French: 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono
Spanish [Castilian]: 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono
Spanish [Latin]: 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono
German: 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English SDH, French and Spanish
Running Time: 94 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Warner Home Video
Andrew's Blu-ray Review: From the title, all the way to the very end scene, ‘WHAT'S UP, DOC?’ never ever hides the fact that at its core it's just a live action “Looney Toons” episode. The film, starring a very young Barbra Streisand, harkens back to the screwball farces of yesteryear, where characters dash around after something, while running into each other again and again in increasingly bizarre situations.
The setup: four different guests converge on the same hotel, all traveling with the same plaid carrying case. Dr. Howard Bannister [Ryan O'Neal] has come for a musicology conference; his plaid bag is full of prehistoric rocks. Judy Maxwell [Barbra Streisand] is a con-woman who prises her way into situations in order to get stuff for free. Her bag contains women's underwear. A rich old lady checks into the hotel, her bag is full of precious gems. Finally, a man who is about to reveal top secret evidence about the government checks in, his bag is full of sensitive government documents.
It's true that you can sit there and wonder how exactly all these people have the same peculiar bag, and it may take you forever to try and figure out which bag is where as they start switching around. Maybe that bag was all the rage back then, who knows. All we have to know is that the bags are MacGuffins that switch hands from one player to another. As the mix ups continue, the situations become increasingly strange, leading up to a hilarious scene where Judy hangs from the building ledge in only a towel as Dr. Howard Bannister accidentally begins burning down his hotel. There's not much to get when it comes to farces. You just have to sit back and enjoy what they throw at you. Some farces rely far too heavily on situational humour and not enough on pure character interaction, but that is where ‘WHAT'S UP, DOC?’ really succeeds.
The chemistry between the fun-loving Barbra Streisand and the uptight Ryan O'Neal is perfect. Barbra Streisand delivers her lines at a lightning fast pace, it are almost hard to keep up with her she's talking so fast. The banter between the characters is reminiscent of the back-and-forth performed by Abbot and Costello when they did their "Who's On First" routine. That's what makes 'What's Up, Doc?' such a fun little comedy film. Director Peter Bogdanovich previous film includes 'The Last Picture Show,' has not only put together a film with numerous comical situations, but he's also able to maintain a sense of underlying cleverness in the dialogue.
The action is fun and plentiful; culminating into a car chase that rivals some of the best performed even today, and this was made in 1972. Screwball comedies like this can be very entertaining if you're in the right mood. After seeing a subpar farce like the newly released 'Dinner for Schmucks' I was ready for a film that really knew what it was doing when it came to situational humour and this is it.
The supporting members of the ensemble cast are all wonderful. Austin Pendleton and Mabel Albertson, as well as the always-hilarious Madeline Kahn, is extremely funny in this film. Her reaction is priceless, when she arrives at the dining room, only to be humiliated when Howard says he doesn't know her. Waiters have to drag her out, over her loud, funny demonstrative protests are particular standouts. Another one of my favourite sequences of scenes takes place during a wild, wacky, and really well choreographed chase scene through the streets of San Francisco. From the glorious rendition of Cole Porter's, “You're The Top” over the opening credits, to the final “That's all folks.” This is a non-stop celebration of total silliness, but in a good and hilarious way. A timeless comedy classic that can be watched over and over again, and believe me I speak from experience. This film will cheer up anyone and improve anyone's mood. It is great entertainment meant for the entire family.
WHAT'S UP, DOC? MUSIC TRACK LIST
YOU’RE THE TOP (by Cole Porter) [Performed by Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal] (uncredited)
AS TIME GOES BY (uncredited) (Words and Music by Herman Hupfeld) [Performed by Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal]
SANTA LUCIA (uncredited) (Written by Teodoro Cottrau) [Performed by Peter Bogdanovich]
Blu-ray Image Quality – For a film from 1972, Warner Bros. really seems to have taken good care of ‘WHAT'S UP, DOC?’ and the film looks about as polished and perfect as it possibly could. Being an older catalogue title I wasn't expecting much, but this encoded 1080p image presentation is just short of amazing and you would expect a title of this old to be littered with source noise, but the entire image, as far as I could tell, was wiped clean of any distracting noise. A thin layer of grain persists throughout the whole film, but that just adds to its old cinematic charm. Sure soft shots run throughout, but the overall clarity of the picture is brilliant. Fine detail on textures like the plaid bag or Streisand's many outfits is outstanding. At one point Madeline Kahn is dragged from the conference with her heels scraping along the floor, leaving a long black line on the hardwood. It's striking how clear that line is while she's being pulled out of the room. One of the many times you may be wowed during this presentation.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Yes it's true that ‘WHAT'S UP, DOC?’ features a 1.0 DTS-HD Master Audio Mono sound presentation. Too bad it's only using one speaker the entire time. Yes, I understand that the recording methods of the time didn't allow for surround tracks and all that, but this is a movie that would have greatly benefited from future sound technology. As it is the 1.0 track does a commendable job. Granted its range is very limited, higher sounds like screams and crunching car metal against metal give off an almost high-pitched screech. Dialog though, is presented cleanly and clearly. Even though it's coming through the same channel as each and every sound effect and even though Barbra Streisand delivers her lines as fast as she can, each word is still audible. For being just a mono-track, Warner Home Video has done a great job restoring the sound so we can hear everyone talk and enjoy the symphony of sounds that happen when the action reaches top speed. Even though a track like this would never be used as demo-material to the casual movie watcher, finely tuned audiophile ears will find a lot to like in this simple yet effective audio presentation.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Audio Commentary by Director Peter Bogdanovich: Peter Bogdanovich lends his voice to this rather sombre audio commentary. Here we find out that Peter Bogdanovich is very knowledgeable about films and filmmaking, but his solo track isn't too lively and very sporadic. Still, fans of the film and of the director will want to listen to this as Peter Bogdanovich describes how the film came to be and how certain scenes were filmed, and he talks about the actors involved with the film and what it was like working with them. So all in all, this is a really fascinating audio commentary that reveals lots of behind-the-scene information about the filming, also about the main actors in the film and well worth a listen.
Scene-Specific Audio Commentary: Barbra Streisand lends herself to a scene-specific commentary that only totals about twelve minutes throughout the entire film. This audio commentary is far too short and too bland to provide and substance behind the film. Chiming in every now and then, Barbra Streisand finds herself just lightly narrating a few scenes. The only highlight I suppose is that now and again is where Barbra Streisand offers such scintillating insights as "Oh, my God!" several times. But in the end overall for this audio commentary is that it was hardly worth the time or effort.
Special Feature: Vintage Documentary: Screwball Comedies... Remember Them? [1972] [480i] [1.37:1] [9:00] Mostly just some behind-the-scenes footage of the cast and crew acting out scenes and such. I was slightly disappointed, since after seeing the name of this feature I was thinking we were going to get some type of history on screwball comedies and why we don't see them anymore. Contributors include: Peter Bogdanovich, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Ryan O'Neal and Barbra Streisand.
Theatrical Trailer [1972] [480i] [1.37:1] [4:00] The theatrical trailer is included, but it is npt the trailer we are used to seeing nowadays for film trailers. More like a sort of behind-the-scenes thing, with a narrator discussing what's happening, rather than a trailer full of quickly edited scenes from the film. Here you can see footage of the film that isn't cleaned up. Source noise is everywhere. Makes you appreciate the restoration of the film that much more.
Finally, ‘WHAT'S UP, DOC?’ shows us what we're missing in today's screwball comedies. It's a hilarious ride on the coattails of Barbra Streisand, who completely takes over the film in her own captivating way. Couple with this great film and a stellar 1080p image and an adequately restored mono-track audio presentation and you've got yourself a great catalogue title that is worth a hell of a recommendation, especially ever since I saw it originally in the cinema and has been a big all-time favourite film of mine, that is a laugh from the start of the film, to the eventual end of the film when the credits roll up the screen and I never tire of watching this brilliant screwball comedy, that again is missing from today’s comedy films. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
