It’s his birthday today.
I come from a family who can (and does) recite What’s Up, Doc? from beginning to end – “What happened to Fritz?” “There is only me. Franz.” “Oh, what a SHAME.” (My old friend Trav wrote up a tribute to Henry when Henry died in 2019.) My brother and I were indoctrinated into What’s Up Doc young, when our parents let us stay up late to see it. We have now passed it on to the next generation.
Here’s a story I love. It illuminates Buck Henry’s glinty-eyed genius. It comes from an interview with Peter Bogdanovich at the AFI back in the 70s. Bogdanovich had the idea for this kooky story, a spin on the screwball comedies of the 1930s, featuring a dizzy dame, an absent-minded professor, and a hot-to-trot old lady: these three characters all have identical bags. The bags get mixed up. Hijinx ensues.
Bogdanovich brought the script/treatment to Buck Henry for feedback. Buck Henry sat there and read it all the way through, Bogdanovich waiting patiently. Henry finished and thought a little bit. He did not say “Great job”. He did not say “It needs work, let me go through my notes.”
All he said was: “I think there needs to be one more bag.”
One more bag in play means one more level of confusion. Means more utter anarchy. If there were only three bags, the audience could easily keep track of each one. With four, you lose track. As a matter of fact, during filming Bogdanovich lost track at a couple different points. “I think we’ve lost one bag.”
To me, this small anecdote shows Buck Henry’s genius. He didn’t need weeks to come up with it. He read Bogdanovich’s first draft and he knew something wasn’t quite right.
“There needs to be one more bag.”
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