Daily Dialogue — January 7, 2020

Dr. Fritz Fassbender: Miss Lefevre… every time she sees me, she screams, because every time I see her, I attack her.
Michael James: You must not attack her. You must woo her.

Dr. Fassbender tilts his head toward Michael.

Dr. Fritz Fassbender: Woo her?
Michael James: Woo her.
Together: [singing] Woooooo her.

— What’s New Pussycat (1965), original screenplay by Woody Allen.

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Drunk. Today’s suggestion by Neal Romanek.

Trivia: The film was originally created by Warren Beatty, who saw it as a comedy about male sex addiction and was going to star in it as Michael James. The film’s title “What’s new, pussycat?” was a line Beatty said to his girlfriends when talking to them on the telephone. However, production did not go the way Beatty wished: he wanted his then-girlfriend Leslie Caron to appear in the film, but Capucine was cast instead, and later he said that Woody Allen, whom he had hired to work on the film, was expanding his role in the film at the cost of Beatty’s role. Beatty left, and was replaced with Peter O’Toole.

Dialogue On Dialogue: If you don’t know the plot, here it is: “A playboy who refuses to give up his hedonistic lifestyle to settle down and marry his true love seeks help from a demented psychoanalyst who is having romantic problems of his own.” Michael James (Peter O’Toole) is the playboy. Dr. Fassbender (Peter Sellers) is the psychoanalyst. In this scene, they are rip-roaring drunk, superbly played by the actors.