What's New Pussycat?

For the Burt Bacharach and Hal David song, see What's New Pussycat? (song). For the Yukari Tamura album, see What's New, Pussycat? (album).
What's New Pussycat?

Theatrical release poster by Frank Frazetta
Directed by Clive Donner
Richard Talmadge (go-kart sequence)
Produced by Charles K. Feldman
Written by Woody Allen
Starring Peter Sellers
Peter O'Toole
Romy Schneider
Capucine
Paula Prentiss
Woody Allen
Ursula Andress
Music by Burt Bacharach
Hal David (lyrics)
Cinematography Jean Badal
Edited by Fergus McDonell
Production
company
Famartists Productions S.A.
Famous Artists Productions
Distributed by United Artists (1965,original) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (2005 and 2007, DVD) Kino Lorber (under license from MGM) (2014, Blu-Ray DVD)
Release dates
  • June 22, 1965 (1965-06-22)
Running time
 108 minutes
Country France
United States
Language English
Box office $18,820,000[1]

What's New Pussycat? is a 1965 American comedy film directed by Clive Donner, and stars Peter Sellers, Peter O'Toole, Romy Schneider, Capucine, Paula Prentiss and Ursula Andress. It is Woody Allen's film debut in his first produced script. The Academy Award-nominated title song by Burt Bacharach (music) and Hal David (lyrics) was sung by Tom Jones. The movie poster was painted by Frank Frazetta, and the animated title sequence was directed by Richard Williams.

Plot

Notorious womanizer Michael James (Peter O'Toole) wants to be faithful to his fiancée Carole Werner (Romy Schneider), but every woman he meets seems to fall in love with him, including neurotic exotic dancer Liz Bien (Paula Prentiss) and parachutist Rita (Ursula Andress) who accidentally lands in his car. His psychoanalyst, Dr. Fritz Fassbender (Peter Sellers), cannot help, since he's stalking patient Renée Lefebvre (Capucine) who in turn longs for Michael. Carole, meanwhile, decides to make Michael jealous by flirting with his nervous wreck of a friend, Victor Shakapopulis (Woody Allen).

A catastrophe appears on the horizon when all the characters check into a quaint hideaway hotel in the French countryside for the weekend, unaware of each other's presence. Michael tries to fend off Renee's advances by steering Fassbender her way, but Fassbender's wife Anna is determined to keep him to herself. By the time Michael finally is able to meet Carole's parents and agree to settle down, he and Fassbender both catch the eye of yet another young woman, creating the distinct possibility of the whole thing happening all over again.

Cast

Cast notes

Production

Warren Beatty wanted to make a comedy film about male sex addiction and hoped Charles Feldman would produce it. The title What's New Pussycat? was taken from Beatty's phone salutation when speaking to his female friends. Beatty desired a role for his then girlfriend, the actress Leslie Caron but Feldman wanted a different actress.[2] Beatty and Feldman sought a joke writer and, after seeing him perform in a New York club, Feldman offered Woody Allen $30,000. Allen accepted provided he could also appear in the film. As Allen worked on the script, his first screenplay, Beatty noticed that Allen's role was continually growing at the expense of his own.[3] Eventually, Beatty threatened to quit the production to stop this erosion, but the actor's status in Hollywood at that time had declined so severely that Feldman decided to let him leave and gave the part to Peter O'Toole. Beatty later said "I diva'ed my way out of the movie. I walked off of What's New, Pussycat? thinking they couldn't do it without me. I was wrong".[4] According to Beatty, a new screenwriter was brought in and Allen's role was pared back to a minor character.[4]

Groucho Marx was to have played Dr. Fassbender, but at O'Toole's insistence he was replaced by Peter Sellers. O'Toole, Sellers and director Clive Donner all made changes to the script, straining their relationship with Allen. Tension was also generated inter alia by Sellers' demanding top billing, but O'Toole described the atmosphere as stimulating.[5]

The film was shot in and around Paris between October 1964 and January 1965 and released in New York on 22 June 1965. It opened in Paris in January 1966 as Quoi de neuf, Pussycat?. The total box office take was $18,820,000.[1]

In addition to the title theme, songs featured were "Here I Am" by Dionne Warwick and "My Little Red Book" performed by Manfred Mann.

Reception

Bosley Crowther in The New York Times gave the film a poor review. He criticised the script, the directing and the acting and described the film as "the most outrageously cluttered and campy, noisy and neurotic display of what is evidently intended as way-out slapstick". He praised the scenery and title song.[6]

Awards

In 1965, Burt Bacharach and Hal David were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song for the title song. Woody Allen was nominated for a WGA Award for "Best Written Screen Comedy" in 1966.

DVD

What's New Pussycat? was released to DVD by MGM Home Video on June 7, 2005 as a Region 1 widescreen DVD, on May 22, 2007 as part of 'The Peter Sellers Collection' (film number two in a 4-disc set) and to Blu-ray DVD by Kino Lorber on August 26, 2014 as a Region 1 widescreen Blu-ray DVD.

References

  1. 1 2 "What's New Pussycat?, Box Office Information". The Numbers. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
  2. ↑ Warren Beatty: An oral history of the elusive icon’s six decades in Hollywood, Entertainment Weekly, November 22, 2016
  3. ↑ Peter Biskind (December 13, 2011). Easy Riders Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-And Rock 'N Roll Generation Save. Simon and Schuster. pp. 25–26. ISBN 978-1-4391-2661-5.
  4. 1 2 Mark Harris (2009). Scenes from a Revolution: The Birth of the New Hollywood. Canongate Books. pp. 86–. ISBN 978-1-84767-121-9.
  5. ↑ Robert Sellers (September 10, 2015). Peter O'Toole: The Definitive Biography. Pan Macmillan. pp. 109–. ISBN 978-0-283-07216-1.
  6. ↑ "The Screen: 'What's New Pussycat?':Wild Comedy Arrives at Two Theaters". June 23, 1965. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
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