In the list of great comedies, director Peter Bogdanovich’s 1972 “What’s Up Doc?” stands out for several reasons. A knowledgeable and devoted film history expert, Bogdanovich made the film as a tribute to 1930s and 1940s romantic, screwball comedies, especially “Bringing Up Baby” and the Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny cartoons, hence the title. As this film shows with numerous, embedded nods to great cinematic comedians, he honors the great Buster Keaton (he so admired Keaton that he made a documentary on him in 2018), Roscoe Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and the Three Stooges, all getting homages here.
In addition, with fast-paced delivery of witty repartee, outlandish situations, physical antics, eccentricity, and flat out playfulness, Bogdanovich admirably celebrates as he replicates legendary screwball comedies and their stars, notably Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, Katharine Hepburn, and Irene Dunne, among many others. To embed musical acknowledgements, Judy (Barbra Streisand) sings the introductory lines to “Casablanca’s” “As Time Goes By” plus portions of Cole Porter’s “You’re the Top” and “I Get a Kick Out of You,” both from “Anything Goes” (1936).
There are more references, with perhaps the one most quoted being a line from “Love Story” (1970), O’Neal’s rejoinder spoofing his own triumph. Even the San Francisco location was chosen specifically to parody the iconic chase in the 1968 “Bullitt,” including the hubcaps bouncing off the careening car. More boldly, though the production had no permit to drive down the concrete steps in Alta Plaza Park, they did so anyway, leaving scars still visible today. Of course, none of this and so many other in-jokes would matter were the film not hilarious, which it is.
The zany, inventive plot pairs Barbra Streisand as a wacky Judy Maxwell with a buttoned-up Ryan O’Neal as Dr. Howard Bannister, representing the Ames, Iowa, Conservatory of Music. In San Francisco to compete for a research grant, Howard is accompanied by subdued fiancée Eunice Burns (Madeline Kahn). Howard appears a bit distracted before he meets the disruptive Judy Maxwell who will devote her life to confusing and embarrassing him. The mix-up of four identical, plaid overnight bags, each with irreplaceable valuables, catapults the confusion into deliriously wonderful conflicts and pursuits. Howard’s bag contains his igneous “tambula” rocks. A government whistle blower arrives with his stolen, top-secret papers in his plaid bag. Wealthy Mrs. Van Hoskins’ carries her excessive jewelry collection in hers, and Judy’s bag is full of clothing and a large dictionary. Anarchy reigns as the boundaries of social decorum are demolished.
Very loosely based on Heman Raucher’s novel “A Glimpse of Tiger,” Bogdanovich focused on reimagining director Howard Hawks’ 1938 “Bringing Up Baby,” that uproarious screwball comedy starring Katharine Hepburn as Susan Vance and Cary Grant as paleontologist David Huxley. In the wilds searching for Baby, a purportedly tame leopard, and Huxley’s lost intercostal clavicle, Susan and David, like Howard and Judy in “What’s Up Doc,” clash as a free-spirited (albeit illogical) woman pursues her target male, despite his being accompanied by his fiancée. Relating the twists and turns or describing the inspired but decidedly anarchic events in no way substitutes for the sheer pleasure of laughing nonstop at the verbal and nonverbal escapades. There is no substitute for surrendering to this wonderfully hilarious experience.
Grossing $66 million in the U.S. and Canada against a $4 million budget (the mind-boggling, final chase costing one-fourth the total budget), the third highest grossing feature of 1972 (after “The Godfather” and “The Poseidon Adventure”), “What’s Up Doc?” won the Writers Guild Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen award for Buck Henry, David Newman, and Robert Benton. As all the awards testify, it qualifies as a thoroughly enjoyable, escapist 94 minutes. And as the cliché goes, they don’t make them like this any more, or at least not enough of them. This showing/wedding/anniversary party is free to the public. “What’s Up Doc” screens at Webster University’s Winifred Moore auditorium one night only, Sunday, December 7, at 7:00 p.m. For more information, visit the film series website.
And let us not forget hilarious supporting performance by Austin Pendleton and Kenneth Mars.