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

Directed by Woody Allen. Starring Woody Allen, Gene Wilder, Lynn Redgrave, John Carradine, Lou Jacobi, Louise Lasser, Heather MacRae, Anthony Quayle, Tony Randall, Burt Reynolds, Titos Vandis, Jack Barry, Robert Walden. [R]

Woody’s silly series of sketches loosely based on questions raised by Dr. David Reuben’s same-named book—are transvestites homosexuals, do aphrodisiacs work, etc. With Wilder having a torrid affair with a sheep, Allen dressing up as a spermatozoon, and a colossal runaway breast terrorizing the countryside, restraint and good taste were clearly not a part of the writer/director’s agenda, but it’s the slapdash quality of the jokes that keeps this from rising above the level of absurd burlesque throwaway. Even the best of the segments tend to wind down toward the end instead of building to a head with a great switcheroo or punchline. Sneaks in a few slyly clever gags about Italian cinema, NYU, Hamlet, and the like, but mostly coasts on puerility. The final vignette, which resembles Fantastic Voyage inside a mission control room, is the best. Debut of Woody’s recurring Windsor Light Condensed credits typeface.

59/100