What's Up, Doc?

With Howard Hawks's Bringing Up Baby (1938) as his blueprint, Peter Bogdanovich resurrected and payed homage to 1930s screwball comedy in What's Up, Doc? (1972). When wacky co-ed Judy Maxwell (Barbra Streisand, in the Katharine Hepburn part) spies nebbishy musicologist Howard Bannister (Ryan O'Neal ...more

Like many of his early films, director Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up Doc? is informed by a strong sense of the history of American cinema. Essentially a remake of Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby -- with an extensive, Buster Keaton-style chase scene planted in the middle -- Doc is an obvious homage to the madcap screwball comedies of the 1930s, updated for the swinging early 1970s. The end result is a hysterical success, thanks to its clever, energetic execution and charming lead performances ...more