Woody Allen gets started: "What’s New Pussycat" (1965)

Woody Allen’s filming acting debut occurred on the set of What’s New Pussycat? You’ve got to start somewhere and Woody Allen found his opportunity with Charles K. Feldman, the ultimate Hollywood insider of the mid-Sixties. Woody Allen and Charles K. Feldman were strange bedfellows and their relationship grew from the power of Woody’s standup act.  

Allen Konigsberg began writing jokes professionally as a high school student and even coined the stage name Woody Allen at that early point in his career. Allen, supported by managers Charles Joffe and Jack Rollins, learned the art of standup comedy on the nightclub stages and his fame grew exponentially.

Woody’s standup act was inspired by the intensely political work of Mort Sahl but Woody’s strongest inclination was to talk about himself. His small stature and bookish appearance added credulity to his comedy persona. Woody’s jokes, a seemingly spontaneous outpouring of his deepest fears and wildest fantasies, departed brilliantly from the rhythms of the Borscht Belt comedians preceding him. Woody Allen’s appearance on the Jack Paar Show in 1964 signified he had arrived, a performer possessed with a sparkling talent.

Feldman, a former talent agent with an A+ list of stars including John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe, was firmly settled in the deal-making ethos of Hollywood. Though less experienced as a producer, Charlie created the “package deal,” a practice of putting together a story, stars, and director and bringing them as a package to a film company.

Warren Beatty was staying at Feldman’s house in the early sixties and Charlie Feldman had an acting role in mind for his friend and temporary houseguest. The role, a playboy blessed with irresistible charm and looks, came from a literary property “Lot’s Wife” owned by Feldman. Beatty felt the lead role was being diminished in Woody Allen’s screenplay. He did provide a title for the movie with his characteristic phrase for answering phone calls from women friends: “What’s new pussycat?” Feldman overheard Beatty’s greeting and the phrase became the film’s memorable title. Peter O’Toole took over the playboy role.

Check out the Woody Allen standup anthology and you can hear a bit  about meeting Charles Feldman in 1965 nightclub. Feldman was encouraged by actress Shirley MacLaine to check out Woody’s act at the Blue Angel nightclub. The routine, entitled the “European Trip,” includes the following from Woody:

“Mr. Feldman the producer just adored me on sight. He thought I was attractive and sensual and good-looking and just made for motion pictures. He’s a little short man with red hair and glasses.”

Woody, of course, twisted reality for comic use. Charles K. Feldman actually cut a dark-haired, debonair figure and did not resemble Woody Allen in the slightest. Take note of Woody’s barely concealed happiness doing the standup bit. And why not…? Woody sensed a new career as filmmaker looming on the horizon.

Woody created the schlemiel persona and Charles K. Feldman understood the seeds of a film story in the ruminations of a brainy, rumpled, underdog, a guy totally dependent on regular visits to his Freudian therapist to continue functioning in an erratic and hostile world.

The film opens with the Peter Sellers character, Dr. Fritz Fassbender, having a knockdown fight with his huge wife. The bout culminates with Fassbender/Sellers popping open of a switchblade knife. A ring at the front door signals the arrival of a new patient, Michael James, played by Peter O’Toole. Michael James explains his recurring problem, being incredibly attractive and irresistible to women. And, this happens as he is “handsome when the light hits him in a certain way.” Fassbender barely tolerates Michael’s tedious recollections of sexual conquest and encourages him to attend one of his group analysis sessions.

Woody Allen, as Victor, contrasts his own character’s hapless existence as a dresser at a striptease club to Peter O’Toole’s Don Juan lifestyle. Here’s a great exchange between Woody and Peter O’Toole:

Victor/Woody:

I work backstage at the Crazy Horse strip-tease. Helping the girls dress and undress.

Michael/Peter O’Toole:

Nice job.

Victor/Woody:

Twenty francs a week.

Michael/Peter O’Toole:

Not much money.

Victor/Woody:

It’s all I can afford.

Bosley Crowther, the all-important film critic for the New York Times, eviscerated the movie and the screenwriter:

WOODY ALLEN, the nightclub comedian, is formally charged with the minor offense of having written what is alleged to be the screenplay of "What's New Pussycat?" But Mr. Allen can deny it, if he wants to, and he is bound to be believed. He can simply state that no one in his right mind could have written this excuse for a script. 

Woody Allen’s confidence as an actor seems bolstered by the end of this very first scene but Crowther saw little that was praiseworthy

Mr. Allen is too studiously a kook. In his acting and his script (if he did write it) are too many imitative tricks. A better title for the achievement might be What's New, Copycat?”

Crowther may have been correct about the failings of What’s New Pussycat? but his rebuke of the film but proves less than prescient on the subject of Woody Allen.

To be continued...