Blu-ray Review What's New Pussycat? Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

What's New Pussycat? Blu-ray Review

A sex comedy written early in his career by Woody Allen might seem to have tantalizing possibilities, but they aren’t for the most part achieved in Clive Donner’s What’s New Pussycat? Part farce and part romantic comedy, the film really doesn’t offer up heaping spoonfuls of either though there are a few choice moments, and the ladies chosen to co-star with the film’s male triumvirate (Peter O’Toole, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen) are all at the height of their sexual allure.

Studio: MGM

Distributed By: Kino Lorber

Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC

Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1

Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HDMA

Subtitles: English SDH

Rating: Not Rated

Run Time: 1 Hr. 48 Min.

Package Includes: Blu-ray

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Disc Type: BD25 (single layer)

Region: A

Release Date: 08/26/2014

MSRP: $29.95

The Production Rating: 2.5/5

Parisian fashion magazine editor Michael James (Peter O'Toole) has a charming and eager-to-marry girl friend Carole (Romy Schneider), but he’s convinced he’s got more wild oats to sow before he sets up house with one woman. His psychiatrist Dr. Fritz Fassbender (Peter Sellers) doesn’t offer much help married to the forceful Anna (Edra Gale) who’s always watching to make sure no other woman claims her husband. When Michael tells Carole he’s not ready to settle down, they both embark on new flirtations: she with stripper’s assistant Victor (Woody Allen) and Michael with a trio of easily seduced ladies: suicide-prone Liz (Paula Prentiss), socialite Renée (Capucine), and skydiver Rita (Ursula Andress). Convincing them he’s really smitten with Carole won’t be an easy task.This was Woody Allen’s first film as a screenwriter and actor, and it’s no fluke that his scenes alone, with Romy Schneider, and with Peter Sellers play the best since he’s intimately familiar with the person who’s going to be delivering his comedy lines and performing his comedy business. The continual seductions Michael initiates with these alluring (and oftentimes kooky) women wear out their freshness long before the end of the film, and a balcony scene involving him and other cast members doesn’t nearly realize its potential comic richness. Instead, Allen finds himself needing to resort to two preposterous slapstick situations to wrap up the movie: some door-slamming farcical fun as all the main characters end up at the Chateau Chantelle and a subsequent go-cart chase scene with enough destruction to make one think director Clive Donner might have taken some lessons in comic mayhem staging from Blake Edwards.Peter O’Toole may not have been a natural with this kind of comic farce (he went from this into William Wyler’s romantic comedy How to Steal a Million, a much better fit), but he’s as pretty as any of his female co-stars (they all admit as much during the film) even if he isn’t always up to the comedy mark. Peter Sellers has even weaker material to work with and doesn’t impress despite obviously working very hard to pull off another nutty characterization with an Austrian accent which doesn’t come near matching his Parisian Clouseau from the Pink Panther films. Romy Schneider is adorable throughout, and Capucine and Paula Prentiss both have never looked any more beautiful than here even in the pop art 1960s fashions that really date the movie. Richard Burton and Ursula Andress drop by (in her case literally falling out of the sky into Michael’s car) with Allen even referencing Andress as a favorite of James Bond’s (and this was right before he got involved in this film’s producer Charles K. Feldman’s Bondian orgy film Casino Royale).

Video Rating: 4/5 3D Rating: NA

The film has been framed at 1.66:1 and is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. Much of the film especially the first half features outstanding sharpness and great color with rich hues and pleasing and believable skin tones. But black levels aren’t always at their deepest possible levels, and sharpness wanes somewhat in the transfer’s second half. Contrast has been consistently applied. The film has been divided into 8 chapters.

Audio Rating: 3.5/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono sound mix is a bit anemic. Volume levels are a bit low with some dialogue occasionally not registering without an assist from the volume control. Fidelity of the Burt Bacharach music also doesn’t show off any remarkable high or low ends. Tom Jones’ rendition of the Oscar-nominated title song is aces even with a less than superb aural treatment, and while there are no age-related artifacts to mar the listening experience, the ADR work is obvious in several instances.

Special Features Rating: 1/5

Theatrical Trailer (2:54, HD)

Overall Rating: 3/5

What’s New Pussycat? is more famous for its music and its introduction to movies of Woody Allen than it is for the only occasionally funny farcical antics of its star-studded cast. At any rate, the girls and their male co-star are beautiful, and the Blu-ray release does offer above average picture and sound for the film’s fans.

Reviewed By: Matt Hough

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Thanks for the review, Matt!

This is the US censored version not the Uncensored International Version. It is believed the vault that the International version was stored was cleaned out to the dump during the Cannon-Pathe debacle involving MGM. A disgruntled VP has been blamed as the culprit. Much else went too including outtakes of films, alternate versions and magnetic multi-track soundtrack stems.

I believe some sections are confused and go nowhere and a promised "naughty" bit doesn't happen along the way.

This information, long known to me, has been noted in another review this week.

I have ordered the Blu Ray, regardless.

moviepas said:

This is the US censored version not the Uncensored International Version. It is believed the vault that the International version was stored was cleaned out to the dump during the Cannon-Pathe debacle involving MGM. A disgruntled VP has been blamed as the culprit. Much else went too including outtakes of films, alternate versions and magnetic multi-track soundtrack stems.I believe some sections are confused and go nowhere and a promised "naughty" bit doesn't happen along the way.This information, long known to me, has been noted in another review this week.I have ordered the Blu Ray, regardless.

Click to expand...

Wonder if anyone taped this version off of television, and if it had the UA Hexagon?

Since comedy is subjective, opinions often vary wildly on comedy films. I can't stand W.C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy or the Three Stooges. But I love Bob Hope, Abbott & Costello and Buster Keaton. The Court Jester and It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World tickle my funny bone but The Producers and Dr. Strangelove leave me stone faced.

All this is a roundabout way of saying I think What's New Pussycat? is one of the funniest movies I've seen.

When I saw this in a theater, I suddenly wanted some fried chicken. What led to that was one of Peter Sellers' lines: " I like thighs. Do you like thighs?"Did I misinterpret its meaning?