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

Typical dry and senseless Woody allen humor!

This is a film that will leave a lasting impression on the viewer, but not because of it's clever writing, content and filming. It will be because of some of the most low based and stupid humor on film. There are some funny moments, but they are so few that you wonder why you even spent time watching it. This film does not show the best of Woody Allen, in fact, almost just the opposite. May 8, 2008

Woody in and out of control

"Sex" comes during a difficult transition in Woody Allen's film career. He was veering towards laughs with more substance ("Love and Death", "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan") while trying to break away from the more traditional guffaws ("Take The Money and Run", "Bananas"). He was logically growing into the role of a serious filmmaker.
But "Everything You Always Wanted.." shows Allen's frustrations at translating jokes. Some jokes---such as a man trying to have sexual relations with a giant loaf of rye bread---are funny when said, but take the joke too far when dramatized, undermining the natural humor.
On the other hand...You've got to admire a comic mind which can conjure up such wild goings-on in this film: doctors drift into love affairs with sheep, monstrous mammaries rampage the countryside, and even Woody himself gives a tip-of-the-hat to his comic idol Bob Hope as a cowardly jester (what else would you expect from Woody?).
Although EYAWTKAS stumbles on some poorly-translated jokes, it's a lot of fun! November 20, 2007

An uneven collection of sketches mixing superb comedy with a dated feel

In the late 1960s one Dr David Reuben released a book entitled EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX *BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK. Woody Allen's 1972 "movie adaptation" uses the questions of Dr Reuben's question-and-answer format as the titles for 7 comedic sketches all on sexual themes. This was Allen's third conventional film, and his growing importance in Hollywood is evident from the film's all-star cast.

The opening "Do Aphrodisiacs Work?", set in medieval times, has Woody Allen as a court jester who seeks to seduce the queen. Most of the humour here consists of anachronism: the jester's jokes are too bad for even a borscht belt comedian, and the dialogue consists of Elizabethian stylings mixed with sexual terminology and crude slang from the present.

The following sketch, "What is Sodomy?", is for many viewers the very best. A New York City general practitioner (Gene Wilder) is visited by an Armenian shepherd () who begs the doctor to restore the magic to relationship of him and a cherished sheep. What ensues, with the doctor descending ever deeper into madness, is made hilarious by Wilder's committed performance and the dialogue is immensely quotable. Another high point of the film is "Why Do Some Women Have Trouble Reaching an Orgasm?". Shot in black and white and with an Italian dialogue, the segment is Allen's hommage to the cool ambience of Antonioni and Fellini. Allen plays a suave, sunglasses-wearing film director who cannot manage to satisfy his wife, played by Louise Lasser, until they begin having risky sex in public places. The fun comes not only in the challenges the man must face in making his wife happy, but also in Allen's ridiculous accent while speaking Italian.

In "Are Transvestites Homosexuals?", Lou Jacobi plays a man who sneaks upstairs while at a dinner party in order to wear his hostess' clothes, and subsequently gets himself deeper and deeper in trouble. It's humorous enough, but one wonders if this segment were stronger when the film was first released. Judging from its high frequency in big Hollywood films of the 1960s and early 1970s, crossdressing must have once been a much funnier concept in that era. The following "What Are Sex Perverts?" is a parody of the game show What's My Line? where a panel of minor celebrities try to guess the perversion of a contestant, who wins $5 for every wrong guess. This is quite funny, but far too brief, as the concept could have been stretched out a bit more.

"Are the Findings of Doctors and Clinics Who Do Sexual Research and Experiments Accurate?" is a Frankenstein parody where Allen and Heather MacRae play recently acquainted sex researchers who meet a great sexologist (John Carradine), only to discover that he's a diabolical madman. The first half of this segment is pretty funny, as Allen and MacRae make their way through the doctor's castle of horrors. But the second half, when the pair seeks to defeat a giant breast ravaging the countryside, is some of the lamest humour I've seen in some time.

The characters of the last segment, "What Happens During Ejaculation?", are personifications of the organs as a man goes on a date with a woman. The brain is depicted as a NASA mission control, with Tony Randall and Burt Reynolds struggling to coordinate bodily functions. They call down to the stomach (men carting off a newly-arrived load of fettucini), and the genitals (blue-collar joes working an enormous pump), as well as other places. Much here will make you chuckle, such as the captured "saboteur" of the man's sexual ambitions, his conscience, depicted as a priest in a Roman collar, and Allen's performance as a sperm cell terrified of making the leap into the unknown. All in all, however, I find this quite dated as well.

While my overall impressions is that EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX is quite dated, it's funny enough, and the portions with Allen as an Italian lover and Wilder as a befuddled doctor make it worth seeing at least once. September 11, 2007

One of Woody Allen's Funniest Films...

Before "Annie Hall," Woody Allen's comedy was very different. Rather than the mature quips that any Woody Allen fan is used to post-Annie Hall, most of the movies made before that are wacky, hilarious, and out-there bits that show (nowadays) Woody Allen's comedic range. "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex*But Were Afraid to Ask" is a series of vignettes with Allen "answering" (supposedly) real questions. Usually in an unconventional, yet hilarious, way. Here is a brief synopsis of each:

1. Do Aphrodisiacs Work-Starring Allen and Lynn Redgrave, this story takes place near the Renaissance Period. Allen plays The Fool, the king's comedian who fails to impress anybody with his humor. The reason for this is, likely, because The Fool is written as a modern man placed in ancient times. Desperately wanting to have relations with The Queen (Redgrave), he gets a potion from a sorcerer before meeting his untimely end.

2. What is Sodomy-Gene Wilder plays a doctor who is shocked to learn that an Armenian shepherd has had sex with one of his sheep. When the man brings the sheep in, the doctor finds himself falling in love and conducting an affair with a sheep. Sounds morbid, but is just used as a (slightly insane) metaphor.

3. Why Do Some Women Have Trouble Reaching an Orgasm-This vignette is in Italian (I think) and stars Allen as a Marcello Mastroianni-like Italian man who has recently married. Problem is, he can't give his wife an orgasm...Except in a public place.

4. Are Transvestites Gay-In this one, a man goes to his daughter's fiancées parents house for dinner with his wife. Once there, he goes to the bathroom but finds himself in the room of the parents trying on the mothers clothing. Everything is fine, until he is forced to flee out a window and finds his purse snatched outside.

5. What Are Sex Perverts-In black & white, this vignette is about a gameshow in which people come on and reveal their perversions. Watch for a young Regis Philbin (looking very different, but with the same unmistakable voice) as himself.

6. Are the Findings of Doctors, Who Do Sexual Research, Accurate-This stars Allen as a man traveling to see a world-famous sexual research doctor. Picking up a pretty blonde reporter along the way, he finds the man to be insane and attempting to use them for his experiments. Pretty soon, a giant killer breast is on the loose.

7. What Happens During Ejaculation-This stars Burt Reynolds and Woody Allen as some workers in a man's body, controlling what he does. Allen plays a sperm that is scared about being "sent out" into the world.

The film contains lots of metaphors, lots of double-entendres, and lots of hilarity. Despite it's subject matter, it's not graphic. There's no nudity or anything. The movie has a large cast and is easily one of the funniest films Woody Allen has ever done. Every vignette is good and none of them overstay their welcome (the film is only 88 minutes). The movie is so different from other Woody Allen material that it's possible that people who DON'T like Woody Allen might enjoy this movie. It's one of his finest.
GRADE: A- December 28, 2006

Singular Hiccup in an Otherwise Great Series of Comedies

From 1969's Take the Money & Run to well into the 80's, Allen created a series of comedies that established him as one of the preeminant writer/director/actor one-man-bands in the history of moviemaking. An argument can be made that Allen didn't really run out of gas until the mid nineties and the Soon-Yi & Mia Farrow public relations debacle trashed his image forever. The danger of filming a series of skits is, inevitably, some skits are going to be stronger than others. Thus, EYAWKASBWAA is a mixed bag with generally blah results. Allen starts the movie in fool's motley and ends dressed as a sperm. In between is some really funny stuff and some really tedious stuff. July 3, 2006

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