Taglines: You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen everything.
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex movie storyline. Seven segments related to one another only in that they all purport to be based on sections of the book by David Reuben. The segments range from “Do Aphrodisiacs Work?” in which a court jester gives an aphrodisiac to the Queen and is, in the end, beheaded to “What Happens During Ejaculation?” in which we watch “control central” during a successful seduction.
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) is a 1972 American sex comedy film directed by Woody Allen. It consists of a series of short sequences loosely inspired by Dr. David Reuben’s 1969 book of the same name. The film was an early success for Allen, grossing over $18 million in North America alone against a $2 million budget, making it the 13th highest-grossing film of 1972.
Segments
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 segments, as follows:
Do Aphrodisiacs Work?
A court jester (Woody Allen) gives a love potion to the Queen (Lynn Redgrave) but is foiled by her chastity belt. There are references to Shakespeare’s Hamlet throughout.
What Is Sodomy?
Dr. Ross (Gene Wilder) falls in love with the partner of an Armenian patient, a sheep.
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 (Louise Lasser), a woman who can only reach orgasm in public.
Are Transvestites Homosexuals?
Sam Musgrave (Lou Jacobi), a middle-aged married man, experiments with women’s clothes.
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.
Are the Findings of Doctors and Clinics Who Do Sexual Research and Experiments Accurate?
Victor (Woody Allen), a sex researcher, and Helen Lacey (Heather MacRae), a journalist, visit a Dr. Bernardo (John Carradine), a researcher who formerly worked with Masters and Johnson but now has his own laboratory complete with a lab assistant named Igor (Ref Sanchez). 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, while the second part parodies The Blob.
What Happens During Ejaculation?
The NASA-like mission control center in a man’s brain (headed by Tony Randall and featuring Burt Reynolds as the switchboard operator) is seen, as he gets involved in a sexual clinch with an NYU graduate (Erin Fleming) (knowledge that she is a graduate of NYU assures coital success). As he achieves orgasm, the soldier-like, white-uniformed sperm (one of them played by bespectacled Allen, coached by another sperm played by Robert Walden) are dispatched paratrooper-style into the great unknown.
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (1972)
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, John Carradine, Lou Jacobi, Louise Lasser, Anthony Quayle, Tony Randall, Lynn Redgrave, Burt Reynolds, Gene Wilder, Jack Barry, Erin Fleming, Elaine Giftos
Screenplay by: Woody Allen
Production Design by: Dale Hennesy
Cinematography by: David M. Walsh
Film Editing by: Eric Albertson
Set Decoration by: Marvin March
Makeup Department: Paul Stanhope Jr.
Music by: Mundell Lowe
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: August 6, 1972
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