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| Title: WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT? Year: 1965 Rating: ** |
Young standup-comedian Woody Allen got his cinematic kickstart writing the screenplay for what turned out to be a smash hit, especially in England where WHAT'S UP PUSSYCAT? was made and takes place, foreshadowing the womanizer sub-genre of ALFIE while setting up the kind of neurotic-guy jokes that Allen would become famous for...
Sadly, he has the smallest role here, as the geeky strike-out-king friend of central star Peter O'Toole... the latter who visually fits the role of a handsome fashion magazine editor that every woman in London's Swinging 60's falls for, but being an intense dramatic actor who ignited his fame in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, he's even more miscast for the fumbling-comedy template than the otherwise brilliant comedic actor who basically ruins the movie...
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| Peter Sellers and Peter O'Toole in WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT? |
After becoming a star as Inspector Clouseau in THE PINK PANTHER and A SHOT IN THE DARK before suffering a string of heart-attacks, Peter Sellers needed another substantial hit, which he got... but with a horribly fake-looking, longhair black wig playing O'Toole's sexually-frustrated psychologist, he takes away from what should have been Allen's sidekick/buddy role, literally competing with the scriptwriter by stealing not only his lines, but overall screen-time...
Instead of fleshing-out his patient's plight on the shrink's couch, Sellers constantly (and annoyingly) follows him around to where even O'Toole's story is impaired, leaving Allen as the only genuinely humorous character, at one point having an exchange with polar-opposite friend O'Toole that goes something like... Woody: "I have a new job dressing and undressing strippers at a nightclub." Peter: "How's the pay?" Woody: "Twenty pounds a week." Peter: "That isn't much." Woody. "It's all I had..."
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| Woody Allen in WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT? |
Overall there needed more likewise cleverly effective zingers... that we'd get with Woody Allen's own movies, which he swore to have complete control over after PUSSYCAT was taken away from him in both his own character and all the ones he created: Sellers basically improvises to the point of not seeming like part of the same movie as everyone else, and while Allen's ultimate goal was to parody the 1960's hedonistic lifestyle, the Peters (without the Allen touch) are awkwardly praising it...
But to gander at all these gorgeous starlets... ranging from faithful good girl Romy Schneider to sophisticated Capucine to panic-attacked (proto-Diane-Keaton) Paula Prentiss to sublime Ursula Andress... WHAT'S UP is extremely (and literally) bright on the eyes yet remains horrendously dull on all the remaining senses.
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From WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT?
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| Peter O'Toole in WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT? |
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| From WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT? |
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| Peter Sellers and Peter O'Toole in WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT? |
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| Peter O'Toole and Romy Schneider in WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT? |
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| Capucine in WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT? |
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| Paula Prentiss and Peter O'Toole in WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT? |
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| Romy Scheider in WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT? |
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Rosemary Blake & Peter O'Toole in WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT?
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| Rosemary Blake & Peter O'Toole in WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT? |
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| Rosemary Blake & Peter O'Toole in WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT? |
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