Amazon.com Essentials:
Director Peter Bogdanovich
(The Last Picture
Show) tipped his hat to the classic screwball comedies of the
1930s, and especially the most glorious of them all, Howard Hawks'
Bringing Up
Baby. Barbra Streisand plays a charming flake who distracts a
self-absorbed musicologist (Ryan O'Neal). He's engaged to be married,
but soon Streisand's character has him chasing after stolen jewelry
and getting into one madcap fix after another. Bogdanovich, who is
also a film critic, understands the engine of the screwball genre, and
his loving revival of the form brings a smile, though it is not quite
consistently inspired or funny. There are plenty of great moments,
however, including a slap at O'Neal's own star-making vehicle,
Love Story.
--Tom Keogh
