Almost There: Madeline Kahn in "What's Up, Doc?"
Monday, April 6, 2020 at 2:52PM 
There's a generalized belief that the Oscars are allergic to comedy. While that's not completely accurate, there's a kernel of truth in the statement. The Academy tends to prefer weighty dramas that signal their importance instead of light comedy. Considering the inherent subjectivity of humor and the way people tend to rile against any comedic Oscar champion (Birdman, The Artist, Shakespeare in Love, etc.), it's easy to understand why so few funny pictures get the most desired golden statuettes in Hollywood. Even this very series has been guilty of overlooking great comedic performances and focusing mostly on heavyweight drama, preferring tears to guffaws.
Well, it's time to change that and there's no better way to do it than by examining the hilarity of one of cinema's funniest women in one of New Hollywood's greatest farces. We're talking about the inimitable Madeline Kahn in What's Up, Doc?…
The late 60s and 70s saw a revolution in American cinema, as a New Hollywood rose from the ashes of the defunct studio system and the ideas of the European vanguards infiltrated the mainstream. For the first time in the chronology of the American movie industry, the new generation of filmmakers were also cinephiles, rich in historical knowledge and theoretical study. Their movies indulged in references and the self-aware reworking of long-lasting tropes, cinema about cinema. Amid these New Hollywood wunderkinder, Peter Bogdanovich was one of the most adept at post-modernist experimentation and, after the success of 1971's The Last Picture Show, he had the clout to do pretty much anything he wanted.
Before he ran out of the industry's goodwill, Bogdanovich directed What's Up, Doc?, a '72 resurrection of the screwball comedy of yore. Taking most of its cues from Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby, the film grows its humor out of a sense of utter anarchy not seen in American cinemas since the 40s, telling the story of a straight-laced scientist whose life is upended by the actions of a zany woman. She's Barbra Streisand and he's Ryan O'Neal, a match made in comedy heaven, sexy and hilarious, capable of modernizing the cartoonish excess of screwball acting without showing any signs of effort. They are brilliant, as is the entire cast of this miraculous picture. Among the supporting actors, one shines brighter than any other, however.
It's Madeline Kahn in her first screen role – Eunice Burns, the priggish counterpoint to Barbra Streisand's best Bugs Bunny impression, also known as Judy Maxwell. Shrill, brave and dangerously unbalanced, Eunice is the fiancé of O'Neal's Howard Burns, though she's not a woman looking for love. On the contrary, Eunice's looking for something far more important, something stronger – trust.
Unfortunately for her, trust is hard to come by in the universe of this picture, where wacky misconceptions and misdirection are a constant of life. Lucky for us, watching Eunice suffer through this insanity is a priceless spectacle of endless entertainment.
While the script and direction help, the miracle of Eunice owes a lot to Kahn's pitch-perfect characterization and comic instincts. Part of her success comes from the fact that Eunice isn't any saner than Judy, she just suffers from a different breed of movie madness. Kahn may look strict, her wig as stiff as her quilted housecoat, but there's a fury hiding behind the mask of propriety. Frustrate her enough and Eunice explodes, something that the actress keeps in mind even in the most peaceful of scenes. That's why her somersaulting temperament never comes off as unnatural. It feels like an organic reaction that Kahn plays to its natural extremes.
Madeline Kahn thus takes Eunice's plight seriously but delivers it with great timing. Even when her squeaky hollering is downplayed and we get to see Eunice legitimately scared for her life, Kahn makes it hilarious with her body language. There are few sights funnier than this irritated woman walking away from a macabre surprise or the way she brandishes a gun in the air and immediately drops it when it fires. In summation, What's Up, Doc? is a laugh-fest of the highest caliber and Madeline Kahn is a goddess of comedy delivering a portrait of tragic anxiety turned to farce.
So grand are her talents that, in the following years, the Academy bestowed two well-deserved nods on the actress. If not for category fraud, she might even have won the '73 Supporting Actress trophy for her beguiling work in Peter Bogdanovich's follow-up project, Paper Moon. Two Oscar nominations for the first three years of one's career in movies is no small achievement, but we think she might have come close to three. After all, because of her following nods, we can be assured the Academy liked her and she was also the only cast member of What's Up, Doc? to get a Globe nomination, for "Most Promising Newcomer". She certainly would have been a deserving nominee.
What's Up, Doc? is available on The Criterion Channel. Don't miss this chance to enjoy the comedic mastery of Madeline Kahn.
Previously in this series
- Bette Davis in Of Human Bondage (1934)
- Lana Turner in The Bad and the Beautiful (1955)
- Donald Sutherland in Ordinary People (1980)
- John Lone in The Last Emperoror (1987)
- Alfre Woodard in Passion Fish (1992)
- Renée Zellweger in Jerry Maguire (1996)
- Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi in Crouching Tiger (2000)
- Ben Affleck in Hollywoodland (2006)
- Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road (2008)
- Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
- Rachel Weiz in The Deep Blue Sea (2012)
- Marion Cotillard in Rust & Bone (2012)
- Emma Thompson in Saving Mr Banks (2013)
- Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers (2019)
Reader Comments (32)
Absolutely overlooked. A terrific debut! I also love her years later in her theatrical swan song “Judy Berlin”.
Brilliant performance Robbed in Paper Moon One of the greats I got to see her on Broadway in On The Twentieth Century...comic timing like no one else and a fabulous singing voice
This film is WONDERFUL. Every now and then, the image of Madeline Kahn getting dragged out of the ballroom, her zig zagging heels scuffing up the floor, comes into my head and I just start laughing out of nowhere.
Also, "banister, as in 'sliding down the'" pops into my head basically every time I hear that word.
Madeline Kahn is one of the greatest comedic actresses of all time. Particularly loved her in Young Frankenstein. So, so many memorable performances.
A stunning turn by Madeline and really established the greatness she so often brought to the silver screen. Easily my choice in 72 for supporting but I can’t knock the final list of women in her category because it’s quite a good list as discussed previously in the 72 smack down.
I often imagine what she’d be doing nowadays had she lived and I like to believe she’d be winning emmys for some turn on a successful comedy series.
She is an absolute delight here. How did the HFPA not shower this in Comedy/Musical noms that year?
The film is wonderful, one of my absolute favorites ever since I first saw it on tv as a child. And there are several performances in it that are just so so so good (Liam Dunn and Austin Pendleton as well as those in larger roles).
But Kahn in this - to me hers is one of the best performances on film, ever. Brilliant work.
Amazing film, and Madeline is wonderful in it (possibly her best movie performance ever?)
Get rid of Gerladine from the line up and put Maddy in there,much better already.
brandz: I love her in Young Frankenstein SO much. The train scene is one of the greatest comedy scenes of all-time.
I think it's an Oscar miracle that she got the two nominations she did. So few actresses get in on their comedy alone (only Joan Cusack comes to mind as an equivalent example.)
markgordonuk -- Geraldine's the nominee I'd trade for Madeline Kahn too. It would have been a line-up for the ages then.
"I am not A Eunice Burns....I am THE Eunice Burns!!"
Impeccable delivery and she makes this crazy off-putting woman somehow if not endearing at least someone you can feel for when she ends up in precarious situations.
She's note perfect from the first scene but that holds true for every single performer in this joyful exercise. Even the smallest roles are played expertly, Mabel Albertson and Sorrell Booke are there only little comedy show as the uber rich Mrs. Van Hoskins and the man pursuing her. Babs has never been so loose and funny on screen.
How it didn't earn multiple nominations is just hard to understand.
I miss Madeline Kahn, she is so hilarious.
joel6 -- Barbra deserved an Oscar nomination too, though the 1972 line-up is pretty great already. Regarding the lack of nods for the movie overall, it's especially galling considering how much the Academy loved the two Bogdanovich films that bookend What's Up Doc - The Last Picture Show & Paper Moon.
The Academy was so weird back then. I remember when Jack Lemmon won for "Save the Tiger", shutting out Brando in "Last Tango in Paris", Nicholson in "The Last Detail", Pacino in "Serpico" and Redford in "The Sting". I was only 20 but I was so disappointed.
Madeline Kahn has been a delight in so many things. I'm a Sondheim freak, and her brief performance in a staged concert of "Anyone Can Whistle" is just sublime (available on Spotify). Bernadette Peters is also featured, but Madeline holds her own.
One of the most perfect comedic performances on film.
I continue to love this series! Keep them coming!! (And somehow I've never seen "What's Up, Doc?" -- I'll fix that soon!)
I love to see a good comedy win Best Picture: IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, ANNIE HALL... People are annoyed about "Birdman," "The Artist," and "Shakespeare in Love" winning because they were mediocre to bad.
There's a person named Eunice?
Kahn was a great comic actress
Using my "firm, masculine handshake", I concur she and Barbra and the screenplay should have been Oscar nominees.
One of the funniest movies of all time.
Madeleine Kahn is the best.
I remember seeing this at the drive-in with my parents. I was three, so they probably figured I would sleep through it. Little did they know it would make me a lifelong actressexual.
It is just me or comedy hase been changed? It seems these days tries to be more verbal instead of physical.
I think that the belief that Oscars are allergic to comedy is totally accurated, that's the reason they never nominated Jim Carrey in his golden days and Robin Williams won for a serious rol.
Luckily Madeline Kahn belongs to the era of "silly" comedy, she is hilarious and that's why we love her so much
I love this movie. I was 9 when it was released and it was my first non-Disney film I saw in the theater. Madeleine Kahn is genius here. She found humor just by saying "Howard Banister!" She should have been Oscar nominated for this role and she died way too young.
I love this woman and this movie so much. Thank you.
She was 7th that year. I’m sure Marisa Berenson was 6th. Kahn was a one of a kind talent. It’s sad she never won an Oscar, I mean Tatum like Hutton deserved a win in lead, but instead unfairly won in Supporting. I can’t feel too bad because the academy of the time especially dismissed younger performers work and was should be award winning performances were, albeit with a caveat.
Stan our twice nominated in supporting for comedies goddesses Kahn and Cusack!!!
Madeline Kahn was a truly sublime creation in comedy. I have not seen What's Up, Doc yet but will do so. She was frighteningly good in Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles and Paper Moon.
Years later I found out that she can parlay her comedic gifts to singing, like that "(Not) Getting Married Today" performance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrRDrz53Q1E
Pure. Comic. Genius.
"Who is this person?" I am crying laughing just thinking about when she first meets Babs. Will be screening it tonight. She was robbed. What a screen debut; what genius. She is greatly missed.
As a musicologist, I must point out that Ryan O'Neal does not play a scientist! He plays a musicologist! We get so little representation in film!
Otherwise, though, yes. Love this film and her performance.
I adored Madeline Kahn. As to 1972, Geraldine is not the actress I would remove from the list. Her scene at the Police Station is masterful. I would remove Shelley Winters.
If you love her singing check out the Original Cast Recording of On the Twentieth Century, and her magnificent rendering of an Irving Berlin song here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVtT8it5E0U
Her vocals and facial expressions are incredible!
Madeline Kahn is easily one of the greatest comedic actresses of all time, one of our greatest actresses full stop.
I adore this performance, and the whole film of the course. What Kahn always nails is no matter how bombastic, how detestable or how over-the-top her characters are, you always feel for her. There is such pathos in her comedy, be it the fear you feel for Eunice when she goes to the wrong address or the sadness you feel for her un-lucky in love Trixie, Kahn is just a masterful actress.
One of the greatest film debuts ever.