By Richard Winters
My Rating: 10 out of 10
4-Word Review: Four bag mix-up.
Judy (Barbra Streisand) is a college dropout who plays con games to get what she wants. She spots stuffy college professor Howard (Ryan O’Neal) in a hotel lobby and immediately sets her sights on getting with him romantically despite the fact that he’s already engaged to Eunice (Madeline Kahn) a very controlling, hyper proper woman. Things further escalate when both Judy’s and Howard’s overnight bags, which are similar, get mixed-up with two other bags at the hotel, one that has expensive jewelry and another with top secret government information.
The genesis for this project started with the novel ‘A Glimpse of Tiger’ by Herman Raucher that dealt with a conman named Luther (Elliot Gould), who is secretly from a rich family and only pretends to be poor and who takes in a teenage runaway named Janice (Kim Darby) whom he teaches on how to commit petty crimes. Elliot Gould, Streisand’s ex, bought the rights to the book and tried to turn it into a movie, but his unruly behavior, he later stated that he was only trying to ‘stay in character’, alienated everyone on the set and had the production shut down after only 4-days of shooting. In an effort to save the project Warner Brothers handed the reins over to Peter Bogdanovich who had been actively seeking something that he could do with Streisand. He decided to turn the conman into a female and then having the male being the square that she traps into her schemes. The rest of the tiger script he nixed as it had a very dark ending and instead converted if over to a screwball comedy similar to Bringing Up Baby, which was a film he had enjoyed growing up.
The result is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest comedies every made. There are certainly a lot of funny movies out there, but very few hit their punch lines as consistently as this one. Even the best ones will have some misfired gags, or lulls, but here absolutely everything works. It comes together like a lyrical orchestra at a breakneck speed that never lets up. Even the most minor characters here, some who may just have one brief scene, still get an amusing moment. It’s about as well crafted as you can get while still remaining fresh and hip at the same time.
Streisand is a major asset. Her critics have sometimes complained that she takes herself too seriously, so it’s nice having her in a comedic role where she’s being playfully ditzy and professing obscure facts in a fast cadence. Part of what makes the movie seem so with the times despite borrowing from an old comedy formula is having her character be the one that aggressively chases after the guy. Most if not all movies up to that point always had the female being the one waiting for the guy to notice her and never daring to make the first move. Here though it’s the lady who essentially takes charge and this coupled with her streetwise survival tactics was a nice way to usher in the feminist era and could even be considered ground-breaking.
O’Neal is perfectly cast. I have complained about his acting in my other reviews and even he stated himself in an interview with Piers Morgan that he felt he had only ‘modest talent’ and had just ‘gotten lucky’ for most of his career. Here though I would consider this his best role. The character fits into his real-life personality that tended to be subdued and matter of fact and this plays off well comically with Streisand’s hyper presence. He’s also, let’s face it, quite good looking, so it would make sense why he’s stand out in a crowd to Judy and why she immediately goes after him, which is the movie’s all-important inciting incident.
Madeline Kahn is brilliant in support and in many ways the funniest person in the movie. Why O’Neal would want to be engaged to someone who’s so incredibly uptight, bossy, controlling, and just all around unsexy is a legitimately good question, but with that said she’s still the perfect fiancée from hell that could never be topped. It’s fun too seeing Mabel Alberston in her final film appearance before she had to retire due to Alzheimer’s. She was best known for her TV roles where she played intrusive mother in-laws here though she plays against type as a rich socialite who’s even seen in segment wearing hot pants despite being at the advanced age of 70. Liam Dunn is excellent as well as an elderly judge who tries to make sense of all the chaos at the end. While he looked to be at least 75 he was actually, shockingly only 54.
If there was anything critical to say about the movie, and they’re very minor complaints, it would be the firemen who come in to put out the hotel fire, which was meant to resemble the bumbling keystone cops that I felt was pouring on the pratfall humor too much and not needed. There’s also the scene where FBI agent played by Phil Roth is able to get into a hotel room that wasn’t locked, but there’s no explanation for why a room that had been cleaned and not occupied would be open. There’s the same logic loophole for how Streisand gets into O’Neal’s room. The first time is because he accidentally leaves it open, but how she gets in there the second time when he’s away, is not made clear.
I also didn’t care for the title. It’s connected too much to Bugs Bunny cartoons and doesn’t come off as original. Yes, Judy does use this line when she first meets Howard inside the pharmacy and there is a snippet of a Warner Brother’s cartoon at the very end while they’re on a plane, but it really doesn’t have anything to do with the main story. A good title should clue the viewer into what the main plot is about. Even something as simple as ‘The Four Bags’ or ‘Howard and Judy’ would’ve been better.
My Rating: 10 out of 10
Released: March 9, 1972
Runtime: 1 Hour 34 Minutes
Rated G
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Studio: Warner Brothers
Available: DVD, Blu-ray, Amazon Video, Tubi, YouTube
Scopophilia 