Watching all of Woody Allen's films in order: What's New Pussycat? (1965)

Then I watched What’s New Pussycat for the first time this afternoon (at home, on dvd) which will be an almost unique occurrence as I gaze at all of Woody Allen’s films (so far) in order. After the Hitchcock project, I was keen to tackle a director whose work I’m already very familiar with but have largely not seen in its correct release schedule. The general perception is that Woody has lost his touch or at the very least the quality has oscillated and I’m keen to see to what extent that’s a new phenomena or whether every film is a classic up until the late 90s when its commonly suggested that his best work was done. Because I have seen most these films before, the format for this content will be a section like this one describing when I first had occasion then a short analysis. Usually that will be more anecdotal than this.

Now A noble failure, What’s New Pussycat is of most interest for the glimpses it offers of what’s to come. Woody would later use this as the reason he refused to be a writer for hire and for only directing his own material (something he kept to with the exception of the theatre adaptations) and you can see why. In places, the script crackles, and some of the bedroom farce between O’Toole and his various paramours throws forward to similar moments in Allen’s films with Diane Keaton. But there’s an ever present impression that the material is supposed to be lending itself to the zany directing style of Bananas, but Richard Donner is trying to wedge it into an upmarket British sex comedy format.

An explanation is offered up by the wikipedia:

"The film was planned to star Warren Beatty – the title was Beatty's way of answering the telephone. However Woody Allen, who had been hired by producer Charles K. Feldman to write the script, began relegating Beatty's character to a secondary role, increasing his own character at Beatty's expense. This led to tension between Beatty and the studio, especially as the screenplay Allen was delivering was considered funnier than the original idea. Eventually, Beatty was forced off his own project by the little-known Allen. Because of their feud, Allen and Beatty never worked together again. Coincidentally, both had long and significant relationships with the same woman, Diane Keaton, at different times."

The best moments are those in which Woody himself is on-screen working the material; there’s a subtlety to his slapstick – he’s splendid during a tussle with a goliath over a volume of Shelley's poetry in a bookshop – in contrast to Peter Sellars’s mugging (his heart just doesn’t seem in it). Though Peter O’Toole brings an element of the broken leading man to his role, it’s the actresses who come out best, ironic considering the thinness of their roles. Apart from the strippers we have little or no idea how they contribute to society – with Paula Prentiss particularly perky as the suicidal Liz. But mostly this is a curio; at least it ends well with a go-cart chase which would have been the ideal choice if the film had ever been licensed as an 8-bit computer game.

But let's be honest, the best thing to come out of the film was Burt Bacharach's theme song: