Feelings | |
---|---|
Directed by | Gerry O'Hara |
Written by | James Stevens |
Produced by | Carol Vogel Jesse Vogel |
Starring | Kate O'Mara Paul Freeman Edward Judd |
Cinematography | Ken Hodges |
Edited by | Tony Lenny |
Music by | Pierre Dutour |
Production companies | Playpont Films Mara Company |
Distributed by | Miracle Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Feelings (also known as Whose Child Am I?, Test-tube Baby andWho's Harriet? ) is a 1974 British drama film directed by Gerry O'Hara and starring Kate O'Mara, Paul Freeman and Edward Judd. [1] [2] Its plot concerns a couple who are unable to conceive a baby and attempt artificial insemination.
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A jolly tone of ludicrous implausibility characterises this saga of the joys and hazards of artificial insemination – frequently undercut by an insidiously condescending attitude towards homosexuality and miscegenation in some ineptly appended subplots. Benson ponderously discusses the dangers of fatherless parenthood before half heartedly inseminating a lesbian; and Helen awkwardly proffers an abortion to a white dope-smoking hippy who has accidentally received the sperm of an 'African donor' ("Oh my God, that's wild!" exclaims the girl, who later philosophically decides to have the baby). The burden of James Stevens' script, which seems to have been culled from an awkwardly dispassionate Fifties sex manual, falls on the uneasy principals, Kate O'Mara and Paul Freeman, who between sessions of grim-faced copulation cope as best they can with such lines as, "Every time we make love I feel like some sort of sperm-disposal machine, not a woman"." [3]
Artificial insemination is the deliberate introduction of sperm into a female's cervix or uterine cavity for the purpose of achieving a pregnancy through in vivo fertilization by means other than sexual intercourse. It is a fertility treatment for humans, and is a common practice in animal breeding, including dairy cattle and pigs.
Kate O'Mara was an English film, stage and television actress, and writer. O'Mara made her stage debut in a 1963 production of The Merchant of Venice. Her other stage roles included Elvira in Blithe Spirit (1974), Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (1982), Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra (1982), Goneril in King Lear (1987), and Marlene Dietrich in Lunch with Marlene (2008).
Captain Clegg is a 1962 British adventure horror film directed by Peter Graham Scott and starring Peter Cushing, Yvonne Romain, Patrick Allen, and Oliver Reed. It produced by John Temple-Smith for Hammer Film Productions. It is loosely based on the Doctor Syn character created by Russell Thorndike.
Test Tube Babies, also known as Blessed Are They, Sins of Love and The Pill, is a 1948 American independent exploitation film directed by W. Merle Connell and produced by George Weiss. It is a narrative about artificial insemination with scenes of nudity and sexual promiscuity included. One scene shows the male lead character's sperm viewed through a microscope.
The Dog and the Diamonds is a 1953 British family drama film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Kathleen Harrison, George Coulouris, and Geoffrey Sumner. The screenplay was by Patricia Latham. It was produced by Peter Rogers and distributed by the Children's Film Foundation.
Tom Brown's Schooldays is a 1951 British drama film, directed by Gordon Parry, produced by Brian Desmond Hurst, and starring John Howard Davies, Robert Newton and James Hayter. It is based on the 1857 novel of the same name by Thomas Hughes.
Sperm donation is the provision by a man of his sperm with the intention that it be used in the artificial insemination or other "fertility treatment" of one or more women who are not his sexual partners in order that they may become pregnant by him. Where pregnancies go to full term, the sperm donor will be the biological father of every baby born from his donations. The man is known as a sperm donor and the sperm he provides is known as "donor sperm" because the intention is that the man will give up all legal rights to any child produced from his sperm, and will not be the legal father. Sperm donation may also be to known as "semen donation".
Doctor at Large is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas starring Dirk Bogarde, Muriel Pavlow, Donald Sinden, James Robertson Justice and Shirley Eaton. It is the third of the seven films in the Doctor series, and is based on the 1955 novel of the same title by Richard Gordon.
Religious response to assisted reproductive technology deals with the new challenges for traditional social and religious communities raised by modern assisted reproductive technology. Because many religious communities have strong opinions and religious legislation regarding marriage, sex and reproduction, modern fertility technology has forced religions to respond.
By Design is a 1982 Canadian comedy-drama film directed by Claude Jutra and starring Sara Botsford and Patty Duke. The film was produced by B.D.F. Productions, Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC), Fox Productions, and Seven Arts.
The Challenge, released as It Takes a Thief in the United States, is a 1960 British neo noir crime film directed by John Gilling and starring Jayne Mansfield and Anthony Quayle.
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A Question of Adultery is a 1958 British drama film directed by Don Chaffey and starring Julie London and Anthony Steel.
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Kim Casali was a New Zealand cartoonist who created the syndicated cartoon feature Love Is..., originally as love notes to her future husband, in the late 1960s.
What's Up Nurse! is a 1977 British sex comedy film directed and written by Derek Ford and starring Nicholas Field, Felicity Devonshire and John Le Mesurier.
Bertold Paul Wiesner (1901–1972) was an Austrian-born physiologist noted firstly for coining the term 'Psi' to denote parapsychological phenomena; secondly for his contribution to research into human fertility and the diagnosis of pregnancy; and thirdly for being the biological father to upwards of 600 offspring by anonymously donating sperm used by his wife the obstetrician Mary Barton to perform artificial insemination on women at her private practice in the Harley Street area of London.
Mary Barton was a British obstetrician who, in the 1930s, founded one of the first fertility clinics in England to offer donor insemination. Throughout her career, Barton studied infertility and conception. Her pioneering research and practice were inspired by experience as a medical missionary in India, where she saw the harsh treatment of childless women.
Echo of Barbara is a 1960 British crime film directed by Sidney Hayers, and starring Mervyn Johns and Maureen Connell. It was written by John Kruse based on the 1959 novel of the same title by Jonathan Burke.
The Limbo Line is a 1968 British spy thriller film directed by Samuel Gallu and starring Craig Stevens, Kate O'Mara and Eugene Deckers. It is based on the 1963 novel of the same title by Victor Canning. It was made as part of a 1960s boom in spy films in the wake of the success of the James Bond series.