Rent What's Up, Doc? (1972)

3.8 of 5 from 136 ratings
1h 29min
Rent What's Up, Doc? Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental
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Synopsis:
"What's Up, Doc?" joyously recaptures the bubbly style of 1930s screwball comedies - and firmly establishes Barbra Streisand and Ryan 0'Neal as a romantic duo uniquely endearing in screen history. Included are a daffy luggage mix up plot, dippy dialogue exchanges, a marvelous example of the art of hotel-room demolition and one of the funniest chase sequences ever, all over San Francisco.
Actors:
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Directors:
Producers:
Peter Bogdanovich
Writers:
Buck Henry, David Newman
Studio:
Warner
Genres:
Classics, Comedy, Romance
Collections:
A Brief History of Archaeology on Screen: Part 2, All the Twos: 1972-2012, Award Winners, Remembering Ryan O'Neal, The Biggest Oscar Snubs: Part 1, A Brief History of Film..., The Instant Expert's Guide, The Instant Expert's Guide to Howard Hawks, The Instant Expert's Guide to Wes Anderson, Top 10 Films By Year, Top 10 Films of 1972, Top 10 Films of 1979, Top 10 Guest Houses On Film, Top 100 AFI Laughs, Top 100 AFI Passions, Top Films
BBFC:
Release Date:
25/08/2003
Run Time:
89 minutes
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono, French Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono, German Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono, Spanish Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono
Subtitles:
Arabic, Dutch, English, English Hard of Hearing, French, German, German Hard of Hearing, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen 1.85:1
Colour:
Colour
Bonus:
  • Commentary by Barbra Streisand (Scene Specific)
  • Feature-length Audio Commentary by Director Peter Bogdanovich
  • Featurette: Screwball Comedies...Remember Them?
  • Trailer

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Reviews (1) of What's Up, Doc?

Neo-Screwball. - What's Up, Doc? review by Steve

Spoiler Alert
15/01/2023

This is a tribute to that classic screwball set-up; the fast talking dame who creates chaos in order to get to know an attractive but naive stranger. So most obviously it borrows from Bringing Up Baby (1938). Only, in What's Up, Doc? Barbra Streisand has a supernatural capacity for causing accidents. Cars crash while she merely passes by.

In Bringing Up Baby, Cary Grant is a palaeoanthropologist with a dinosaur bone, and in this homage, Ryan O'Neal is a musicologist with suitcase of igneous rock... Various other desperate men pursue identical luggage... The film might not have amounted to more than well budgeted fan fiction, except it is full of clever and funny ideas and an obvious deep affection for the genre.

For instance, Streisand knows about a wide range of arcane subjects in great detail (including igneous rock) because we discover she has completed the first term at so many Universities before getting thrown out for causing pandemonium. The stars aren't the equal of the best screwball actors of the thirties, but they are still pretty good.

In the last third, the film steers closer to Looney Tunes than Bringing Up Baby with an extended car chase (including a huge pane of glass carried across a busy road). This isn't as enjoyable as the cute romcom of the earlier scenes. But there is a genuine frisson to be had from the nostalgia for the Hollywood golden age. And the love of the greatest comedies ever made.

1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.

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