EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK

EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK (1972). Director: Woody Allen. 

Woody Allen took some questions from the book of the same name and filmed several segments supposedly relating to these questions. "Do aphrodisiacs work?" is a very funny medieval sketch where Allen winds up with his hand locked in the chastity belt of his horny married queen (an excellent Lynn Redgrave). "What is Sodomy?" actually looks at bestiality as Gene Wilder plays a doctor who falls in love with a sheep. It's a bit yucky, like anything pertaining to the subject, but it has its moments. 

"Why do some women have trouble reaching orgasm?" is a spoof of Italian movies with Allen discovering that his wife (Louise Lasser) only gets turned on in public places. "Are transvestites homosexual?" presents Lou Jacobi (who's terrific) as a husband who gets caught wearing the clothing of his hostess at a dinner party. "What are sex perverts?" first has a homoerotic hair tonic ad, and then presents an episode of the TV show What's My Perversion? an erotic take on What's My Line? "Are Sex Research Findings Accurate?" has John Carradine letting loose a giant breast upon the world in a spoof of monster movies. In "What happens during ejaculation?" Woody plays a nervous sperm who doesn't really like the idea of being thrust out into the big wide womb. This is probably the most inventive segment. Everything You Always Wanted to Know is certainly not for all tastes but it has its share of laughs and holds the attention. You'll probably learn no more about sex than you did from the book. 

Verdict: Watch out for giant boobs! ***.

SLITHER (1973)

SLITHER (1973). Director: Howard Zieff.

Dick Kanipsia (James Caan) is fresh out of prison and goes home with his jail buddy, Harry Moss (Richard B. Shull), who is promptly murdered. This leads Dick to go on a hunt for the man who knows where Moss left some considerable cash, leading him to Barry (Peter Boyle) and his wife, Mary, (Louise Lasser), who team up with him to find the man with the money. Added to the mix is Kitty (Sally Kellerman), a crazy lady who holds up a diner not long after she first meets Dick. But who is in that sinister black van that keeps following the quartet ... ? I have a feeling that Slither was originally meant to be a serious crime drama that was turned instead into a half-serious light-hearted quasi-caper movie without the caper. There's a touch of whimsy (not to mention immorality) to the movie, and it holds your attention, but it never really amounts to much. Caan [Games] is excellent, however, playing in just the right note; Boyle [Outland], Lasser, and Alan Garfield as a lawyer are also good, but Kellerman was still in that weird, off-putting mode she was in early in her career. There are a couple of laughs and some suspense of a minor kind. An ugly moment occurs when Kitty refers to a black character as "some dumb spade," an unnecessary slur even given the craziness of her character. Surely Kellerman, one of the stars of the movie, had enough clout at the time to insist on a change?

Verdict: Rather pointless when all is said and done. **1/2.