What’s New Pussycat **** (1965, Peter Sellers, Peter O’Toole, Romy Schneider, Capucine, Ursula Andress, Paula Prentiss, Woody Allen) – Classic Movie Review 3891

Director Clive Donner’s 1965 comedy film is the quintessence of stylish, wacky Sixties nonsense. It is Woody Allen’s first film both as an actor and a writer, and stars Peter O’Toole as Michael James, an infamously compulsive ladies’ man, who consults crazy psychiatrist / psychoanalyst Dr Fritz Fassbender (Peter Sellers) about his love troubles.

Allen plays O’Toole’s bumbling buddy, Victor Skakapopulis, and there is a delightful cornucopia of Sixties lovely ladies – Capucine (playing Renée, a character with her own real last name Lefebvre), Romy Schneider (as Carole), Ursula Andress (as Rita) and Paula Prentiss (as Liz).

Also there is some really bizarre stuff, including the Sellers character trying to commit suicide by setting himself alight wrapped in the Norwegian flag. With that idea in mind, it is not perhaps surprising that the movie is uneven, but it is mostly deliciously silly, and often genuinely funny, even hilarious, in places and revving on a full tank of Swinging Sixties zaniness.

The catchy music score is by Burt Bacharach, who wrote the infectiously silly hit title song with Hal David, sung by Tom Jones.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3891
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