Heads-up, doc

I note that tonight's TCM lineup of "Trailblazing Women" includes What's Up, Doc? overnight at 2:45 AM. Barbra Streisand plays an homage to the Katharine Hepburn character in Bringing Up Baby, that being an obnoxious self-centered jerk who makes life difficult for a man. In this case, that man is a professor of musicology played by Ryan O'Neal. The plot hook for all of this is that the two of them, as well as two other people, wind up at a hotel all carrying identical-looking overnight bags. The bags get mixed up, and you can guess what happens next.

Even though Streisand is playing an irritating character, the movie still works, much for the same reasons Bringing Up Baby does; for that reason I highly recommend it. I can't stand Streisand's singing, but she certainly did have acting ability.

I'll admit I'm not really paying attention to who the "trailblazing women" have been for each of the movies in this year's lineup. Certainly some of them are going to be behind the scenes, since immediately preceding What's Up, Doc? is the 1935 version of Mutiny on the Bounty. An outstanding movie, but certainly not trailblazing for any of the women on the screen.