What's Up, Doc?

Four identical travel bags come together in a San Francisco hotel: one holds the musicologist Howard Bannister's rock collection, one a woman's jewels, one secret documents and one everything Judy Maxwell owns. Judy walks into Howard's life the moment she sees him, and his fiancee, his grant and his hotel room come apart in turn. It ends in a chase. Peter Bogdanovich directed. Barbra Streisand plays Judy and Ryan O'Neal plays Howard. The film began as something else. John Calley, head of production at Warner, asked Bogdanovich to direct a picture called Glimpse of Tiger with Streisand and O'Neal. Rather than use the existing script Bogdanovich proposed a screwball comedy from scratch: the woman wild, the man a musicologist. The chase left a permanent mark on San Francisco. Bogdanovich did not get the city's permission to drive cars down the concrete steps in Alta Plaza Park; the steps were badly damaged and the scars are still there. After that the city began requiring a scene-by-scene breakdown with every filming permit application. Two small details describe the method. The fender bender Judy causes crossing the street was thought of on the spot; with no stunt cars available, Bogdanovich had a crew member rent two cars with collision insurance, staged the wreck and returned them wrecked. Streisand's song was sung live rather than to playback, because Bogdanovich wanted it to sound natural as she came down off the piano. Who it is for: viewers who like classic screwball and fast dialogue. Who it is not for: anyone wanting realistic comedy. The film is deliberately imitating a thirties template and none of its characters is trying to be real.