Woody Allen’s first acting role: What’s New Pussycat (1965)-- part 2

What’s New Pussycat? (1965) fails the test of time according to the Rotten Tomatoes website. The film earns a Tomatometer reading of 31% and Audience Score of 56%. The movie deserves more credit than it receives if only for paving the way for Woody Allen’s transition from standup comedian to auteur filmmaker.

Woody’s first day on the set….

Woody Allen, a young man of 29 years, actually celebrated his 29^th birthday on Dec. 1, 1964, his very first day of film acting. In a strange coincidence, the scene involved Victor enjoying a self-catered, solo birthday party/picnic dinner on the banks of the Seine River. Dr. Fassbender, the Peter Seller’s character, disrupts the dinner. Fassbender, about to commit suicide by self-immolation, plans to ceremonially wrap himself in the Norwegian flag, followed by floating off in the dinghy consumed in flames. This scene caused the film to be banned in Norway. Fassbender strains to hear Woody Allen’s first spoken line in movies:

Woody: “Do you have any salt?”

Dr. Fassbender asks him to repeat the question.

Woody repeats the line. Fassbender answers, he has gathered matches, kerosene, a flag, and a boat, “but I ain’t got no salt.”

Diane Jacobs, in a 1982 Woody Allen biography, noted Woody’s persona was one of the strengths of the film; the schlemiel Woody cultivated so carefully in his standup act also worked well for the camera:

“Whatever their shortcomings, Allen’s sixties scripts are a solid beginning. Even at their most pedestrian they possess the component Preston Sturges described as essential to comic writing—the two as opposed to the one-liner, the comic dialog. But what they conspicuously lack is the structure to forge that dialogue into a cohesive narrative and thematic statement. 6

What’s New Pussycat? opens with the Dr. Fritz Fassbender, the Peter Sellers psychiatrist character,   in the midst of a knockdown fight with his huge Teutonic wife. Fassbender’s wife, an embodiment of the clichéd fat lady who sings at the end of the opera, even dons a war helmet with protruding horns by film’s end. The couple’s combat culminates with Fassbender 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, a fashion editor, explains his recurring problem, he’s incredibly attractive and irresistible to women. Fassbender barely tolerates Michael’s tedious recollections of sexual conquest and encourages him to attend one of his group analysis sessions.

Readers of the Rotten Tomatoes website listed the best line in the movie as Fritz Fassbender’s response to his wife’s question, “Is she prettier than me?”  

Dr. Fritz Fassbender: Is she prettier than you? I'm prettier than you!

After having observed Clive Donner direct What’s New Pussycat? Allen felt confident enough to direct his first two films. Those two films, Take the Money and Run (1969) and Bananas (1971), are re-workings of his stand-up material and play like a series of jokes translated to film episodes.

The filming of Play It Again, Sam (1972) 1969 Broadway play, marked a significant uptick on Woody Allen’s cinematic journey. Woody hired Herbert Ross to direct Play It Again Sam. Herbert Ross provided Lesson #2 -- How To Be a Film Director-- for Woody’s quest. Allen was progressing on two fronts:  

(1) transforming the schlemiel character by having him get advice from a fictitious Humphrey Bogart

(2) getting director lessons at the shoulder of Herbert Ross

According to one critic, Woody never did learn to direct films. A scribe for a Chicago publication had interesting observations about What’s New Pussycat?...  Please note, the comment below came years after the film had left theaters and moved into the film archives to late night television viewing and the DVD format:

Clive Donner's stylish direction harmonizes well with Woody Allen's inspired screenplay to yield an elegant entertainment (1965), proving once again that Allen is a better scenarist than a director. Peter O'Toole is surprisingly effective in his first screen comedy, and Allen is much more subdued and effective as a performer under someone else's direction. A charming Parisian bedroom farce with fine support from Paula Prentiss and Peter Sellers.        108 min.

By Don Druker

Chicago Reader

Woody Allen sought, and fought mightily, to work from both sides of the camera and offer a more nuanced version of his worldview. He has created an remarkable oeuvre, an amazing output of one film per year since 1969, ever since establishing credibility as a director.

---

6 Diane Jacobs, …but we need the eggs, The Magic of Woody Allen (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982) 36.

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...