MovieChat Forums > They All Laughed (1982) Discussion > Ritter/Camp and O'Neal/Kahn

Ritter/Camp and O'Neal/Kahn

posted 17 years ago by Dr_Keating
1 reply | jump to latest

First let me just say I LOVE this movie, saw it for the first time last month and it's a marvelous motion picture.

That said, did anyone else, while they were watching this, get the weird sensation when they watching John Ritter and Colleen Camp's interaction (Who I think steal the movie, btw) that Bogdanovich pretty obviously ripped their relationship and the way they behave with each other from that of Ryan O'Neal and Madeline Kahn in "What's Up Doc?" (an equally great film). Even though O'Neal and Kahn were married in "What's Up Doc?" and Ritter and Camp aren't in "They All Laughed", you still get that "incredibly shrill, constantly nagging, drive a man crazy if they weren't somewhat dead inside" thing going on. And coincidentally, O'Neal's character's name in "What's Up Doc?" is "Harold", which is the name of Camp's cat in "They All Laughed". And when Camp talks to her cat, she sounds like Madeline Kahn.

"Mein Fuhrer, I Can Walk" -- Dr. Strangelove

[–] econ201mark 11 years ago

I definitely see some similarity in the character interactions. However, Christy in They All Laughed is a considerably more sympathetic and likable character than Eunice in What's Up Doc (and a lot less clueless). I always have felt that some of the way Christy behaved was because John Russo (Ben Gazzara) was, as she delicately put it, "a *beep* to her more often than not.

By the way, Ryan O'Neal's character in What's Up Doc is named Howard. And it's been a little while since I watched the film, but I think Christy's pet is a dog, not a cat.