film

Starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal, 1972's What’s Up, Doc? is a nigh-on perfect revival of the screwball comedy genre that proliferated in the Thirties and Forties. In a San Francisco whirl of mistaken identities, stolen luggage and romantic confusion, O’Neal plays Howard Bannister, a nervous musicologist arriving for a conference with his fiancée, Judy Maxwell (Streisand), a relentlessly curious free spirit. Their hotel is also occupied by three other guests carrying identical plaid overnight bags, one containing top-secret government documents, another valuable jewels and another Howard’s clothes, which sets off an escalating chain of misunderstandings.

Bogdanovich lovingly borrows from the great original screwball comedies, particularly Howard Hawks’ Bringing Up Baby, while updating it with contemporary comic energy. The dialogue is fast, the physical comedy increasingly elaborate and the climactic car chase through the city memorably anarchic. Streisand’s exuberant performance is unsurprisingly the brightest light in a film full of mischievous spark.