The Film Experience

by Cláudio Alves

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