Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask (1972)

The Worst Film Ever

Sadly Over-hyped

Boring

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Forever unwilling to go with the flow of conventional movie making, Woody Allen went to the "off limits" topic of sex with his 1972 feature Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask. Bringing together an all-star cast including Gene Wilder, Burt Reynolds, and Tony Randall, in a way only Woody Allen can, in a series of vignettes to explore the book by David Reuben of the same title. Seven separate episodes make one movie, and the only thing they all have in common is their subject matter and the fact that they were excerpts from Reuben's book.In the first episode, Woody Allen acts as a jester trying to seduce the queen in an effort to find out if aphrodisiacs work. The second segment delivers Gene Wilder as a medical doctor dealing with a man who brings the confession to him that he is in love with a sheep, only to fall in love with the same sheep. The third segment again features Allen, as a married man who is having trouble giving his wife an orgasm, unless they have intercourse in public. The fourth segment involves a married man, who is a cross dresser, at a dinner party who just can't stay out of his wife's dresses. The fifth segment involves a game show where people share their deepest sexual secrets with a panel of celebrities trying to guess what they are. The sixth episode features a team of scientists and a runaway breast. The final vignette features Allen, again, this time as a sperm to illustrate for the audience what happens during ejaculation. Each scene, of course, with the brilliant comedic writing of Allen is a joy to watch, no matter how guilty you feel watching it.This film reminds me why I love Woody Allen. Really, is there a better comedic writer than him? I was happy to see Gene Wilder's segment early on. It's tough to watch anthology movie just to see one actor, so his being early on was a nice treat. Even though I started out watching this only for Gene, you'll stick with it for Woody Allen. I love his brand of humor, just above the brow, and wish more comedies of today could be like this. Wilder's performance as an M.D. who falls in love and starts a relationship with a sheep shows his range as an actor. He was funny and serious when necessary and illustrates his comedic acting abilities! The most incredible part of his performance was the 24-second scene that showed his reaction to the man in his office confessing his love for a sheep. That reaction is something all actors should aspire to, and needs to be required viewing at film schools and the like. Watching Gene Wilder in a Woody Allen film is enough to make one nostalgic for what could have been if only the two had more pairings. Of course, the collaboration between Wilder and Mel Brooks was incredible, likewise was the joining of he and Richard Pryor, but I wish there had been more Allen/Wilder films. Maybe it's not too late, these two legends are still with us, and although Wilder is retired from acting, perhaps a great Allen script could be the one to bring him back. I'll hold out hope, while enjoying the film they did make.

ADAPTATIONS OF ANY literary work is usually a complex transition from the print medium to that of the screen. By necessity, moving an established work from one medium to another will, by necessity, inevitably leave many details out. Even worse, rewriting for purpose of adaptation often leads to the horrors of R-E-V-I-S-I-O-N!! WITH THE COMING of this Woody Allen film, only the title remains. Topics that were subject of chapters of American Physician, Dr. David Reuben, were transformed into a series of episodic vignettes patterned on and titled by the particular chapter subject matter. This format's visual realization results in what could best be described as series of disparate comedy shorts that only are bound together by their subject matter (S-E-X!!) and the film's writer/director/performer, Woody Allen.BEING ONE OF Mr. Allen's true fans of his earlier work, we rank this very high on the list of his movies. It may have even come at the period of time when he was at his cinematic best. It was then that he gave us titles such as: THDE SLEEPER, BSANANAS, TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN and LOVE AND DEATH. OUR FAVOURITE SEGMENTS are those which featured Gene Wilder, John Caradine and Woody (himself) as a para-trooping sperm cell.

Back in the days when the Victorian attitude towards sex was finally starting to loosen up a bit ie. the 1960s, the book Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid To Ask) sold in lorryloads. Hollywood being the greedy, acquisitive machine it still is, snapped up the film rights and then discovered that what was essentially a fairly serious self-help book, aimed at enlightening Joe Public about areas where he was interested but which simply hadn't ever been talked about until now, was essentially unfilmable.Enter Woody Allen. Operating at the top of his game (his initial game, that is, humorist par excellence), Allen plucks 7 of Dr Reuben's chapter headings and, for each of them, constructs an illustrative sketch.I say "illustrative", but of course they are no such thing. I have three images which remain indelibly imprinted on my brain from watching this film 40 years ago. One is a gigantic independent breast escaping majestically across the countryside, another is gene Wilder (in possibly the best performance of his career) falling in love, at first sight, with a sheep (and someone else's sheep, at that), and the last one is the chaos in Mission Control as the paratroop sperm jostle for position in order to make their one and only leap into action.It's insane. It's clever. It's very very funny.

Not really.Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) from 1972 isn't exactly an educational film about sex.No, it shows seven zany stories about sex and matters related to that.The first sequence, where Woody the court jester wants to make love to the queen, is funny.In the second, another funny one we see a doctor, played by the hilarious Gene Wilder, falling in love with a sheep.A sexual relationship between a man and a sheep is a taboo that Woody Allen wasn't afraid to use in this movie.Also, seeing Lou Jacobi in drag is, not really a taboo but funny all the same.What's My Perversion, hosted by Jack Barry with panelists such as Regis Philbin, could find a wide audience today.Let's mention a few other actors I haven't mentioned in this review.There's John Carradine playing Dr. Bernardo (in the one with the giant tit).Louise Lasser is Gina, who can reach orgasm only in public places.Anthony Quayle is The King while Lynn Redgrave plays The Queen.Tony Randall and Burt Reynolds are The Operator and Switchboard inside a man's brain.Sidney Lumet's father, Baruch Lumet, plays Rabbi Baumel with a perversion.The movie starts and ends with Cole Porter's "Let's Misbehave".The movie is based on Dr. David Reuben's book of the same name (1969), that I have been afraid to read.This movie is often hilarious, sometimes mildly amusing, but nevertheless classic Woody Allen.