Well I simply can't resist to join what at a glance seems to be a very affectionate army of fans of this film - which is not only in my top three favourites of all time, but most definitely the funniest hour and a half ever registered on celluloid. I first saw it in 1974 - I was nine - and instantly fell under the spell. Frisco never looked prettier, flairs were fluttering, volkswagen beetles were zooming around, the muzak coming out of lifts and hotel lobbies is just as I remember it, the hair was only beginning to get big, but the aspirins were already huge...in the midst of all this, Streisand delivers like a sniper and actually looks sexy and desirable, O'Neal does his bespectacled Iowa music professor with all the dizziness of sex on legs that he was, and the cast generally glide through two separate crescendos of stupid situations, fuelled by dialogue in break neck speed, each more hilarious than the previous, all inexorably slipping into general uproar and mayhem at every turn.
But it's due to Madeline Kahn's ability to send one into hysterics with as much as opening her mouth that the film is a screwball comedy masterpiece, far superior than "Bringing Up Baby" to which it's nauseatingly compared to. The relish with which she bites into the character of Eunice Burns, in a role made for her down to the last breath in the script - is spectacular, as is its result on screen. In my mind it only compares to Jean Hagen's Lina Lamont effort in "Singin' In The Rain" - the only other single funniest female episode on screen.
Other than that, one liners, with which this stuff is packed to the rafters are still in circulation today - kept alive by enthusiast fans of seemingly all generations. This is a true comedy classic that hasn't lost any of it's breeziness, funk, sexiness and freshness with years. Dumb, twisted and invigorating all at once it's a true gem. Watch it and feel your I.Q. drop, and get hooked by all means. Or miss at your own peril.
In fact, I think I might just watch it again - now.
10/10, full on. :-)
But it's due to Madeline Kahn's ability to send one into hysterics with as much as opening her mouth that the film is a screwball comedy masterpiece, far superior than "Bringing Up Baby" to which it's nauseatingly compared to. The relish with which she bites into the character of Eunice Burns, in a role made for her down to the last breath in the script - is spectacular, as is its result on screen. In my mind it only compares to Jean Hagen's Lina Lamont effort in "Singin' In The Rain" - the only other single funniest female episode on screen.
Other than that, one liners, with which this stuff is packed to the rafters are still in circulation today - kept alive by enthusiast fans of seemingly all generations. This is a true comedy classic that hasn't lost any of it's breeziness, funk, sexiness and freshness with years. Dumb, twisted and invigorating all at once it's a true gem. Watch it and feel your I.Q. drop, and get hooked by all means. Or miss at your own peril.
In fact, I think I might just watch it again - now.
10/10, full on. :-)