Review: What's New Pussycat?

What's New Pussycat

What a joyful chaotic disaster of a brilliant movie! A film that is probably best watched with a group of friends after you've had a few too many to drink - because the cast and crew were probably plastered while making it, What's New Pussycat makes no sense, is horribly misogynistic, and has just as many horrible jokes as it has winners.

Michael James (Peter O'Toole) has a problem. All women love him, and he simply cannot resist their advances. Ordinarily this would be a dream come true, except he wants to marry Carol (the adorable Romy Schneider) so he visits a shrink named Dr. Fritz Sigismund Fassbender (Peter Sellers with a bad haircut - please see the picture above) to cure him of his 'problems.' Of course, Dr. Fassbender, like most Peter Sellers characters, is bat crazy. The movie climaxes in a small little French hotel involving Michael James, Carol, Dr. Fassbender, Woody Allen, a nymphomaniac, an American dancer visiting France on a bongo scholarship, a Viking warrioress, a parachutest who knows James Bond, a jealous husband, police, a Frenchmen with a cherry bomb, and go-karts. If you think that sounds confusing, wait until you see it all in action, because then it is even more confusing!

The movie was pretty divisive when it came out. A lot people (mostly teenage boys) loved it and propelled it to box office glory. The Oscar nominated song by Tom Jones probably helped (most people today know the song, but not the movie that spawned it). Everybody else either found it either offensive or utterly confusing, or both. To me, that's part of the charm. There is such chaos in this movie. The cast clearly had a ball filming it, and that joy is contagious. The performances are uniformly terrific. Sellers is at his best as the Viennese therapist and Peter O'Toole shows he is as good at comedy as he is at drama. I have to be honest - even though Lawrence of Arabia is O'Toole's best performance, his greatest achievement, and my favorite movie, it is What's New Pussycat that totally turned me into an O'Toole fanatic. I have a feeling that in real life, he is just as much of a lovable rascal as he is in this film. And that guy would be a lot of fun to hang out with!

I can't recommend this movie to everyone. I love it, and many of my friends do, as well. If you don't take it too seriously, don't mind a plot that makes no sense, and love these actors, then I say check it out. 

BEST LINE: Too many to choose, but here's one amusing back and forth between O'Toole and his best friend, Victor, played by Woody Allen:

Michael: Did you find work?
Victor: I got a job at the strip joint. I help the models dress and undress.
Michael: Nice job?
Victor: 40 francs a week.
Michael: Not very much.
Victor: It's all I could afford.

TRIVIA: Like it or not, this movie is one of the most important in comedy history. The movie was originally supposed to star Warren Beatty. The script was by newcomer Woody Allen, who had never acted in or written a movie before. As the script progressed, Beatty got annoyed because he felt his character was getting overshadowed by all the other absurd characters. Whether he left the project or was forced out is unclear. But what is clear is that the studio chose Allen over Hollywood's golden boy Beatty. It doesn't end there. The filming of the movie was so crazy, scenes being rewritten the night before by the director or Sellers, actors ab-libbing right and left, that it is no wonder that the film makes no sense. Allen had no say in any of the changes and watched as his first script was mutilated beyond repair. Horrified, Allen swore never to write anything again unless he was able to direct it. And there you go - thanks to What's New Pussycat, Woody Allen began his long and often brilliant directorial career.

MVP AWARD: I think I have to award it to booze. I don't want to condone alcoholism, but I just have a feeling that everyone on set was drunk. I like to imagine that the night before filming a scene, O'Toole, Sellers and director Clive Donner stayed up all night, binging on hooch and rewriting the script. I have never seen such a chaotic, gin-soaked atmosphere captured so well on screen. Sober, the movie would have made more sense. If they had stuck with Allen's script, it would have probably been a better movie. But would it have been as memorable? I highly doubt it...