Review of What's New Pussycat? (1965) by Chris V — 21 Jul 2008

A frantic but unamusing comedy that nevertheless puts to waste a great deal of genuine talent. Peter O'Toole looks drunk throughout most of this (and not just because his part calls for it), Peter Sellers is so far over the top that it's easy to forget there was ever a top to go over, and Woody Allen (who, despite this being his first screenplay, is already very Woody Allen-esque) has a series of scenes that are superfluous and seem spliced in from another movie altogether.

By the time you get to the film's final scenes, which involve a twenty-person stampede through a French chateau followed by a farcical go-kart chase (no, I am not kidding), you realize there is just no way this is ever going to rescue itself from its abject silliness.

There may be some clever ideas on display here and there, but this is really just a ridiculous mess.