What's New Pussycat?

What's New Pussycat? is a 1965 French-American comedy film directed by Clive Donner, written by Woody Allen in his first produced screenplay, and starring Allen, Peter Sellers, Peter O'Toole, Romy Schneider, Capucine, Paula Prentiss, and Ursula Andress.

The Oscar-nominated title song by Burt Bacharach (music) and Hal David (lyrics) was sung by Tom Jones. The movie poster was painted by Frank Frazetta, and the animated title sequence was directed by Richard Williams.

Plot
Notorious womanizer Michael James (Peter O'Toole) wants to be faithful to his fiancée Carole Werner (Romy Schneider), but every woman he meets seems to fall in love with him, including neurotic exotic dancer Liz Bien (Paula Prentiss) and parachutist Rita (Ursula Andress) who accidentally lands in his car. His psychoanalyst, Dr. Fritz Fassbender (Peter Sellers), cannot help, since he is stalking patient Renée Lefebvre (Capucine), who in turn longs for Michael. Carole, meanwhile, decides to make Michael jealous by flirting with his nervous wreck of a friend, Victor Shakapopulis (Woody Allen).

A catastrophe appears on the horizon when all the characters check into a quaint hideaway hotel in the French countryside for the weekend, unaware of each other's presence. Michael tries to fend off Renée's advances by steering Fassbender her way, but Fassbender's wife Anna is determined to keep him to herself. By the time Michael finally is able to meet Carole's parents and agree to settle down, he and Fassbender both catch the eye of yet another young woman, creating the distinct possibility of the whole thing happening all over again.

Cast

 * Peter Sellers as Dr. Fritz Fassbender
 * Peter O'Toole as Michael James
 * Romy Schneider as Carole Werner
 * Capucine as Renée Lefebvre
 * Paula Prentiss as Liz Bien
 * Woody Allen as Victor Shakapopulis
 * Ursula Andress as Rita, the parachutist
 * Michel Subor as Philippe
 * Edra Gale as Dr. Fassbender's wife, Anna
 * Katrin Schaake as Jacqueline
 * Eléonore Hirt as Carole's mother, Mrs. Sylvia Werner
 * Jean Parédès as Marcel, Renée's husband
 * Jacques Balutin as Etienne
 * Jess Hahn as Mr. Werner, Carole's father
 * Howard Vernon as Doctor
 * Françoise Hardy as Mayor's assistant
 * Sabine Sun as Nurse
 * Nicole Karen as Tempest
 * Jacqueline Fogt as Charlotte
 * Daniel Emilfork as Gas Station Man
 * Tanya Lopert as Miss Lewis

Cast notes

 * Richard Burton has a cameo appearance as a man at the bar in a strip club.

Production
Warren Beatty wanted to make a comedy film about male sex addiction and hoped Charles Feldman would produce it. The title What's New Pussycat? was taken from Beatty's phone salutation when speaking to his female friends. Beatty desired a role for his then girlfriend, the actress Leslie Caron, but Feldman wanted a different actress.

Beatty and Feldman sought a joke writer and, after seeing him perform in a New York club, Feldman offered Woody Allen $30,000. Allen accepted provided he could also appear in the film. As Allen worked on the script, his first screenplay, Beatty noticed that Allen's role was continually growing at the expense of his own.

Eventually, Beatty threatened to quit the production to stop this erosion, but the actor's status in Hollywood at that time had declined so severely that Feldman decided to let him leave and gave the part to Peter O'Toole. Beatty later said "I diva'ed my way out of the movie. I walked off of What's New, Pussycat? thinking they couldn't do it without me. I was wrong". According to Beatty, a new screenwriter was brought in and Allen's role was pared back to a minor character.

Groucho Marx was to have played Dr. Fassbender, but at O'Toole's insistence he was replaced by Peter Sellers. O'Toole, Sellers and director Clive Donner all made changes to the script, straining their relationship with Allen. Tension was also generated by Sellers' demanding top billing, but O'Toole described the atmosphere as stimulating.

Second unit director Richard Talmadge is credited with creating the karting sequence. The film was shot in and around Paris between October 1964 and January 1965 and released in New York on 22 June 1965. It opened in Paris in January 1966 as Quoi de neuf, Pussycat? The total box office take was $18,820,000.

In addition to the title theme, songs featured were "Here I Am" by Dionne Warwick and "My Little Red Book" performed by Manfred Mann.

Homage
The scene in which the lovelorn Dr. Fritz plans to commit suicide before Victor intrudes to save him pays tribute to the 1931 Charlie Chaplin film City Lights (in which the Little Tramp intervenes to save a dipsomaniacal millionaire bent on self-destruction).

Reception
The film received mixed reviews. Bosley Crowther in The New York Times gave the film a negative review. He criticised the script, the directing and the acting and described the film as "the most outrageously cluttered and campy, noisy and neurotic display of what is evidently intended as way-out slapstick". He praised the scenery and title song. On the other hand, Andrew Sarris in The Village Voice wrote: "I have now seen What's New Pussycat? four times, and each time I find new nuances in the direction, the writing, the playing, and, above all, the music. This is one movie that is not what it seems at first glance. It has been attacked for tastelessness, and yet I have never seen a more tasteful sex comedy."

Awards
In 1965, Burt Bacharach and Hal David were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song for the title song. Woody Allen was nominated for a WGA Award for "Best Written Screen Comedy" in 1966.

DVD
What's New Pussycat? was released to DVD by MGM Home Video on June 7, 2005, as a Region 1 widescreen DVD, on May 22, 2007, as part of The Peter Sellers Collection (film number two in a 4-disc set) and to Blu-ray by Kino Lorber on August 26, 2014, as a Region 1 widescreen Blu-ray.