July 19, 2006
Gratuitous Llama Netflix Movie Blegging
What's Up, Doc? (1972)
I don't have much to say by way of review here except that I believe this is a very funny screwball comedy. This despite the fact that Barbra Streisand's adorable-spunky shtick always makes me wish I had a brick handy. Or perhaps two.
Instead, I wanted to mention something that caught my eye on the DVD. At the end of the movie, Ryan O'Neil and Streisand are flying out of San Francisco together and a cartoon comes on the plane's movie screen. In keeping with the name of the movie, it's that little Vaudeville routine that Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd do, ending with them singing "What's up, doc?" and dancing together. ( I'm sure if you've seen it, you know exactly what I'm talking about: "We weally mean it! What's.......Up.........Dooooooooooooc!!!")
Now granted it's been a while since I'd last seen this movie, but I seem to remember from previous viewings that the cartoon started at the point where Bugs sticks his carrot in the end of Fudd's shotgun, sets it off with a huge explosion and then spritzes Fudd with seltzer water, before they go into their song and dance combo. (While Bugs is doing all this to Elmer, he's singing, "Hey! Look out! Stop! You're gonna hurt someone/with that ol' shotgun! Hey, what's up, doc?") On the DVD, though, the cartoon starts with the duet itself, omitting the earlier violent bit and Bug's solo.
Am I just imagining things or was the DVD edited to take out the gun reference?
I don't think you're imagining. I remember the same passage in the cartoon...
Posted by: ChrisN at July 19, 2006 05:24 PMWho cares?
The questions is "What are you doing with Howard Banister's rocks?
Robbo, you know I respect your normally dead-on insight but you're being paranoid here.
I've seen that movie a hundred times if I've seen in once and in my memory they only ever showed that final "what's......up.....doooooooooooc!" part. I think maybe because you can faintly hear the rest of the song while Babs and Ryan have their final scene that if feels like they showed more.
I don't think Peter Bogdonovich would have put so much of it in that scene since clearly the "what's up doc" line (by a duo not unlike straight man Ryan O'Neal and Bugs-esque Barbra) was meant for simple emphasis as the movie wraps up.
Am I full of sh*t or what?
As someone who spent an embarrassing amount of time watching that particular movie, I can say with authority that the shotgun blast et al was heard in the background during closing dialog. The cartoon is actually shown at the point they're singing "What's... Up... Do-o-o-o-c?". BTW, was there some connection between What's Up Doc and Blazzing Saddles? I was struck by how many actors show up in both. Were they pulling from the same stable or something?
Posted by: Cautiously Pessimistic at July 20, 2006 12:28 PMOne of Mrs. Capitano's favs; she thinks Joe Lieberman sounds like Frederick Larrabee (Austin Pendleton).
Posted by: capitano at July 20, 2006 09:35 PM
Image courtesy of the lovely and talented 