Every Home Should Have One

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Every Home Should Have One
Every Home Should Have One.jpg
Directed by Jim Clark
Screenplay by Marty Feldman
Barry Took
Denis Norden
Story by Herbert Kretzmer
Milton Shulman
Produced by Ned Sherrin
StarringMarty Feldman
Judy Cornwell
Shelley Berman
Cinematography Ken Hodges
Edited byRalph Sheldon
Music by John Cameron
Color process Eastmancolor
Production
companies
Example Productions Ltd
British Lion Films Ltd
Distributed byBritish Lion Films Ltd
Release date
  • 5 March 1970 (1970-03-05)(London)
Running time
94 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
Language English

Every Home Should Have One (U.S. title: Think Dirty [1] ) is a 1970 British comedy film directed by Jim Clark and starring Marty Feldman. [2] [3] The screenplay was by Marty Feldman, Barry Took and Denis Norden, based on a story by Herbert Kretzmer and Milton Shulman.

Contents

The film ridicules the then ongoing campaign organised by Mary Whitehouse against gratuitous sex in British entertainment and advertising.

Plot

An advertising man is assigned by his boss to come up with a sexy new image for Mrs McLaughlin's Frozen Porridge. While his wife runs a clean-up-TV campaign organized by the local vicar, he has an affair with the au-pair girl. [4]

The overall concept is that adverts play out before their lives connecting to the products to hand.

The various porridge advertising campaigns get more and more extreme: the most relevant being the Goldilocks and the Three Bears campaign. This leads to a secondary campaign to search for "Miss Goldilocks".

Cast

Production

The film's titles and animated sequences were provided by Richard Williams. [4]

The film was produced at Shepperton Studios in England. [5]

Music

The film theme song, "Every Home Should Have One", was written by John Cameron, Caryl Brahms, and Ned Sherrin, arranged by Alan Tew, produced by Jackie Rand, and sung by Millicent Martin. [4] The song was released as a single to promote the film. [6] [7]

Reception

Box office

The film was one of the most popular movies in 1970 at the British box office. [8] However according to Sidney Gilliat who was on the board at British Lion, the film lost money. [9]

Critical

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This feature debut by Jim Clark ... is a strictly hit-and-miss affair which reveals, once again, the dangers of trying to be fashionably contemporary and satirical at the same time. Most of the cast ... are encouraged to punch away at everything in sight, which results in a good deal of unfunny mugging." [10]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "This dismal comedy ... boasts a top-notch comic cast. But their efforts are totally overshadowed by a shambolic, leering performance from Feldman, making his second screen appearance, as a mad advertising executive who devises a series of steamy commercials for a brand of frozen porridge." [11]

Leslie Halliwell said: "Tiresomely frenetic star comedy with the emphasis on smut. " [12]

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References

  1. "Think Dirty (1970) - Jim Clark - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie.
  2. "Every Home Should Have One". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  3. "Every Home Should Have One – review - cast and crew, movie star rating and where to watch film on TV and online". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 10 August 2017. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 "BFI | Film & TV Database | EVERY HOME SHOULD HAVE ONE (1970)". Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. 16 April 2009. Archived from the original on 25 March 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
  5. "Shepperton Studios". BFI. Archived from the original on 6 May 2016.
  6. "Millicent Martin - Every Home Should Have One" via www.45cat.com.
  7. "Millicent Martin, Every Home Should Have One". Discogs. Retrieved 25 April 2024.
  8. Harper, Sue (2011). British Film Culture in the 1970s: The Boundaries of Pleasure: The Boundaries of Pleasure. Edinburgh University Press. p. 269. ISBN   9780748654260.
  9. Fowler, Roy; Haines, Taffy (15 May 1990). "Interview with Sidney Gilliat" (PDF). British Entertainment History Project. p. 189.
  10. "Every Home Should Have One". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 37 (432): 72. 1 January 1970 via ProQuest.
  11. Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 296. ISBN   9780992936440.
  12. Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 323. ISBN   0586088946.