Tuesday, July 7, 2009

What's New Pussycat, 4 stars

You can just tell that Woody Allen wanted the lead role in this film for himself. It is a blessing for the audience that he did not get it. Allen wrote this sex farce himself and makes his film debut in it, but the lead goes to the great Peter Sellers. Allen should probably sue Sellers for copyright infringement for so successfully impersonating the Allen persona that has been the linchpin of Allen's film career since "Annie Hall".

Sellers is a therapist whose patient (Peter O'Toole) is constantly beset by women wanting to sleep with him. Why this is a problem is never fully explained. O'Toole acquits himself ably here, in the first role I've seen him in that requires humor. Sellers and O'Toole eventually wind up at a country chateau with their respective women, and a slapstick farce of the highest order occurs. Of course Ursula Andress shows up in a bikini. Of course there will be bizarre, brightly-colored mid-60s decor everywhere. Of course there will be a scene resembling a bumper-car ride (it is Woody Allen, after all).

The plot of the film takes a backseat to slapstick, wordplay, and an overall tone resembling an early Marx Brothers film plopped down into the swinging '60s. Bosley Crowther, a man completely in tune with films of this period, said that it is as though "the characters were all disturbed children engaged in violent, sex-tinged water-play". To me this was a reason to like the film; I will let you decide for yourself.

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