What’s Up, Doc? (1972, Peter Bogdanovich)

There’s a scene early on in What’s Up, Doc? where Dr. Howard Bannister (Ryan O’Neal), in town with the hopes of winning a grant for his musicology theory, goes to a shop and begins testing rocks for their tonal quality. Too bad Dr. Bannister wasn’t on this film’s crew, or else it might not have ended up so tone-deaf. It’s an homage to the old screwball comedies, attempting to bring the genre into the modern world of the 1970’s. It fails, as these films often do. There’s something about the magical aura of the screwballs of the 1930’s and 40’s that simply can’t be captured and bottled up; you had to be there. A couple years ago, George Clooney copied the exact mannerisms and timing of the great screwballs in Leatherheads, but it felt strangely inert. What Peter Bogdanovich does in What’s Up, Doc? is much worse still.