Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (film)

Last updated
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex*
(*But Were Afraid to Ask)
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Woody Allen
Screenplay byWoody Allen
Based on Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)
by David Reuben
Produced by Charles H. Joffe
Starring
Cinematography David M. Walsh
Edited byEric Albertson
Music by Mundell Lowe
Production
companies
Distributed by United Artists
Release date
  • August 6, 1972 (1972-08-06)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited States
Languages
  • English
  • Italian
Budget$2 million
Box office$18 million [1]

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) is a 1972 American sex comedy anthology film directed by Woody Allen. It consists of a series of short sequences loosely inspired by David Reuben's 1969 book of the same name.

Contents

The film was an early success for Woody Allen, grossing over $18 million in North America alone against a $2 million budget, making it the 10th highest-grossing film of 1972.

Film structure

The credits at the start and close of the film are played over a backdrop of a large mass of white rabbits, to the tune of "Let's Misbehave" by Cole Porter.

The film consists of seven vignettes, as follows:

  1. Do Aphrodisiacs Work?
    A court jester gives a love potion to the Queen but is foiled by her chastity belt. There are references to Shakespeare's Hamlet throughout.
  2. What Is Sodomy?
    Dr. Ross falls in love with the partner of an Armenian patient, a sheep.
  3. Why Do Some Women Have Trouble Reaching an Orgasm?
    Allen's homage to Italian film-making in general and Casanova 70 , Michelangelo Antonioni, and Federico Fellini in particular, about Gina, a woman who can only reach orgasm in public.
  4. Are Transvestites Homosexuals?
    Sam Musgrave, a middle-aged married man, experiments with women's clothes.
  5. What Are Sex Perverts?
    A parody of the television game show What's My Line? called What's My Perversion?, filmed in B&W kinescope-style and hosted by Jack Barry. The four panelists who attempt to guess the contestant's perversion are Regis Philbin, Robert Q. Lewis, Pamela Mason, and Toni Holt. After they fail to guess that the contestant's perversion is "Likes to expose himself on subways," a second segment of the show is presented, in which a selected viewer (in this case a rabbi) gets to act out his bondage and humiliation fantasy while his wife eats pork.
  6. Are the Findings of Doctors and Clinics Who Do Sexual Research and Experiments Accurate?
    Victor, a sex researcher, and Helen Lacey, a journalist, visit a Dr. Bernardo, a researcher who formerly worked with Masters and Johnson but now has his own laboratory complete with a lab assistant named Igor. After they see a series of bizarre sexual experiments underway at the lab and realize that Bernardo is insane, they escape before Helen becomes the subject of another of his experiments. The segment culminates with a scene in which the countryside is terrorized by a giant runaway breast created by the researcher. The first part of this segment is a parody of Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster (1955), and especially, The Unearthly (1957), which also stars John Carradine. The second part parodies many of the "Giant" monster movies of the 1950s.
  7. What Happens During Ejaculation?
    The NASA-like mission control center in a man's brain is seen, as he gets involved in a sexual clinch with an NYU graduate (knowledge that she is a graduate of NYU assures coital success). As he achieves orgasm, the soldier-like, white-uniformed sperm are dispatched paratrooper-style into the great unknown.

Cast

Soundtrack

Critical response

The film holds an 89% "Fresh" rating of on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 19 reviews. [3]

An August 1972 review by Time said that many of the film's ideas "sound good on paper" but that the "skits wind down rather than take off from the ideas"; the film includes "some broad, funny send-ups of other movies ( Fantastic Voyage , La notte ), and its fair share of memorably wacky lines" but that "overall it is just Woody marking time and being merely a little funnier". [4]

The Time Out Film Guide noted that some of the film's sketches are "dross, but the parodies of Antonioni (all angst and alienation of a wife who can achieve orgasm only in public places) and of TV panel games ('What's My Perversion?') are brilliantly accurate and very funny. Best of all is the sci-fi parody entitled What Happens During Ejaculation?" [5]

In 2004, Christopher Null, founder of filmcritic.com, called it a "minor classic and Woody Allen's most absurd film ever". [6]

Censorship

The film was banned in Ireland on March 20, 1973. [7] A cut version was passed in 1979 and released theatrically in 1980, removing both a bestiality reference ("the greatest lay I ever had", referring to a sheep) and a man having sex with a loaf of rye bread. The ban on the uncut version was eventually lifted. [8] [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woody Allen</span> American filmmaker, actor, and comedian (born 1935)

Heywood Allen is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many accolades, including the most nominations (16) for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He has won four Academy Awards, ten BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Grammy Award, as well as nominations for a Emmy Award and a Tony Award. Allen was awarded an Honorary Golden Lion in 1995, the BAFTA Fellowship in 1997, an Honorary Palme d'Or in 2002, and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2014. Two of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

A nocturnal emission, also known as a wet dream, sex dream, or sleep orgasm, is a spontaneous orgasm during sleep that includes ejaculation for a male, or vaginal lubrication and/or an orgasm for a female.

Coitus reservatus, also known as sexual continence, is a form of sexual intercourse in which a male does not attempt to ejaculate within his partner, avoiding the seminal emission. It is distinct from death-grip syndrome, wherein a male has no volition in his emissionless state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Facial (sexual act)</span> Sexual activity involving ejaculating on the face of another

A facial is a sexual activity in which a man ejaculates semen onto the face of one or more sexual partners. A facial is a form of non-penetrative sex, though it is generally performed after some other means of sexual stimulation, such as vaginal sex, anal sex, oral sex, manual sex or masturbation. Facials are regularly portrayed in pornographic films and videos, often as a way to close a scene.

<i>Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)</i> (book) Book by David Reuben

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* is a book by California psychiatrist David Reuben. It was one of the first sex manuals that entered mainstream culture in the 1960s, and had a profound effect on sex education and in liberalizing attitudes towards sex. It was "among the top 20 all-time best sellers of the 20th century in the United States".

A fake orgasm occurs when a person pretends to have an orgasm without actually experiencing one. It usually involves simulating or acting out behaviors typically associated with orgasm, such as body movements, vocal sounds, and sequences of intensification followed by apparent release. It can also include giving verbal indications that orgasm occurred.

Erin Leslie Fleming was a Canadian actress, best known as the companion and manager of comedian Groucho Marx during his final years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lou Jacobi</span> Canadian character actor (1913–2009)

Lou Jacobi was a Canadian character actor. Jacobi came to prominence for his role as Mr. Van Daan in the 1955 Broadway production of The Diary of Anne Frank which he reprised in the 1959 film version. He also acted in the films Irma la Douce (1963), Little Murders (1971), Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (1972), Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), The Lucky Star (1980), Arthur (1981), My Favorite Year (1982), and Avalon (1990).

"Let's Misbehave" is a song written by Cole Porter in 1927, originally intended for the female lead of his first major musical production, Paris. It was discarded before the Broadway opening in favor of "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love". However, the star of the Broadway production, Irene Bordoni, performed it for a phonograph recording which was labelled as being from the production of Paris.

Ref Sanchez was an American actor who appeared mostly in television shows in smaller acting parts. He worked as a fashion photographer in the 1950s through the 1970s.

<i>Cassandras Dream</i> 2007 film by Woody Allen

Cassandra's Dream is a 2007 crime thriller drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. Shot in England, the film is a co-production between the United States, France, and the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jay Robinson</span> American actor (1930–2013)

Jay Robinson was an American actor specializing in character roles. He achieved his greatest fame playing Emperor Caligula in the film The Robe (1953) and its sequel Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954), and years later portraying the boss of the character played by Warren Beatty in Shampoo (1975).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Reuben (author)</span> California psychiatrist and author

David R. Reuben is a psychiatrist, and author. He is most famous for his book Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* .

<i>Everything</i> (R. Stevie Moore album) 1984 compilation album by R. Stevie Moore

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About R. Stevie Moore But Were Afraid to Ask is the third official album by R. Stevie Moore, a double album compilation issued on vinyl in 1984 by New Rose Records of Paris, France. It was the first of four New Rose RSM albums to be released through the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heather MacRae</span> American actress (born 1946)

Heather MacRae is an American actress known for her role in the Woody Allen 1972 comedy Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* .

<i>Antz</i> (video game) 1999 video game

Antz is a video game developed by French studio Planet Interactive and released in 1999 by Infogrames for the Game Boy Color. It is based on the film with the same name.

Titos Vandis was a Greek actor.

John Leonard Strauss was an American television and film composer and music editor. Strauss co-wrote the theme song for the NBC television series, Car 54, Where Are You?, with Nat Hiken. He also won a Grammy Award for his work as the producer of the soundtrack for the 1984 film, Amadeus. He also frequently collaborated with director Woody Allen in his films, including Take the Money and Run in 1969 and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* in 1972.

David Martin Walsh is an American cinematographer. He worked with film directors including Woody Allen, Herbert Ross, and Arthur Hiller.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* may refer to:

References

  1. "Box Office Information for Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, But Were Afraid to Ask". Box Office Mojo . Archived from the original on January 28, 2012. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
  2. Harvey, Adam (2007). The Soundtracks of Woody Allen. US: Macfarland & Company,Inc. p. 62. ISBN   9780786429684.
  3. "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes . Archived from the original on December 24, 2011. Retrieved January 23, 2012.
  4. "Flailings and Failings". Time . August 21, 1972. Archived from the original on February 21, 2009. Retrieved June 8, 2007.
  5. "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, But Were Afraid to Ask movie review - Film - Time Out London". Archived from the original on 2005-03-01. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
  6. Film review Archived 2008-12-04 at the Wayback Machine by Christopher Null, founder of filmcritic.com
  7. "Films banned in Ireland". boards.ie. Archived from the original on 5 March 2018. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  8. "Censored! As a 1978 movie is banned, John Meagher looks at 70 years of cuts". The Irish Independent. The Irish Independent. 25 September 2010. Archived from the original on 5 March 2018. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  9. "Song Contest Tied". Melon Farmers Censorship Watch. The Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 4 March 2018. Retrieved 4 March 2018.