Sex comedy
Encyclopedia
Sex comedy is a term for comedy movies with sexual content usually referring to those made in the United Kingdom
in the mid 1970s. They may range from comic pornographic films like the Confessions series to relatively innocent comedies that include jokes about sex and other sexual related humour, like the Carry On
films.
, made in 1969 by Tony Tenser
. He specialised in producing exploitation film
s and founded his own production company Tigon British Film Productions
in 1966
. In the movie, he leaves his wife and kids to go off on a business trip and has an affair with a young girl played by Sally Geeson
There apparently are two versions of the film, one being an uncensored version (105 minutes versus the cut 98 minute version), which shows nudity from Sally Geeson; this version was released in continental Europe.
Percy
was directed by Ralph Thomas
and starred Hywel Bennett
, Denholm Elliott
, Elke Sommer
, and Britt Ekland
. The film was followed by a sequel, Percy's Progress
. The film is about a successful penis
transplant
. An innocent and shy young man (Bennett) whose penis is mutilated in an accident and has to be amputated wakes up after an operation to find out that it has been replaced by a womanizer's, which is very large. The rest of the movie is about its new owner following in his predecessor's footsteps and meeting all the women who are able to recognize it.
To move with the times, the Carry On
series added nudity
to its saucy seaside postcard innuendo
. Series producer Peter Rogers
saw the George Segal
movie Loving
and added his two favourite words to the title, making Carry On Loving
the twentieth in the series. Starring "countess of cleavage" Imogen Hassall
, the story of a dating agency service is still very innocent stuff. It was followed by Carry On Girls
, based around a Miss World
-style beauty contest
. Next in the series was Carry On Dick
, with more risque
humour and Sid James
and Barbara Windsor
's on- and off-screen lovemaking.
. The films in the Confessions series—Confessions of a Window Cleaner
, Confessions of a Driving Instructor
, Confessions of a Pop Performer
, and Confessions from a Holiday Camp
—concern the erotic adventures of Timothy Lea and are based on the novels of Christopher Wood
, writing as Timothy Lea.
Soon came Adventures of..., directed by Stanley Long
, including Adventures of a Taxi Driver
, starring sitcom star Barry Evans. Long began his career as a photographer before producing striptease shorts (or "glamour home movies", as they were sometimes known), for the 8 mm market. Beginning in the late fifties, Long's feature film career would span the entire history of the British sex film, and as such exemplifies its differing trends and attitudes. His work ranges from coy nudist films (Nudist Memories 1959), to moralizing documentary (The Wife Swappers, 1969) to a more relaxed attitude to permissive material (Naughty, 1971) to out and out comedies at the end of the 1970s. He did not like sex scenes and was dismissive of pornography
, saying it didn't turn him on and he turned his back when such scenes were being filmed.
, starring Judy Geeson
, Patrick Mower
, and Diane Langton
, in which an experimental mixed-sex anti-aircraft battery in wartime is enjoying making love not war! However, the arrival of the new Captain S. Melly brings an end to their cosy life and causes terror in the ranks....
In Carry On Emmannuelle
, the beautiful Emmannuelle Prevert just cannot get her own husband into bed.
A spoof of Emmanuelle
, the film revolves around the eponymous heroine (Suzanne Danielle
) and her unsuccessful attempts to make love to her husband, Emile (Kenneth Williams
), a French ambassador. Emile grants Emmannuelle permission to sleep with anyone she likes, and her promiscuity turns her into a celebrity and a frequent talk show guest. Meanwhile, Theodore Valentine is besotted by her and wants them to get married. But Emmannuelle is obsessed with arousing her husband's sexual desire at almost any cost. This was the last of the original Carry Ons and the spirit of the carry on is only just visible. Avoid unless you can not help it.
His next movie, Take an Easy Ride, purports to be a public information film
warning of the dangers of hitchhiking
but is actually sexploitation
film showing young girls being sexually assaulted and murdered (although Rowles says he had to add those scenes on request of the movie's distributor).
Films like Dreams of Thirteen, The Younger the Better, Geilermanns Töchter - Wenn Mädchen mündig werden, and Come Play With Me played in Soho
and elsewhere, but with the arrival of the Margaret Thatcher
government in 1979 the Eady Levy
was abolished, killing off the genre.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in the mid 1970s. They may range from comic pornographic films like the Confessions series to relatively innocent comedies that include jokes about sex and other sexual related humour, like the Carry On
Carry On films
The Carry On films are a series of low-budget British comedy films, directed by Gerald Thomas and produced by Peter Rogers. They are an energetic mix of parody, farce, slapstick and double entendres....
films.
Origins
The precursor to British sex comedies was Norman Wisdom's last starring role, What's Good for the GooseWhat's Good for the Goose
What's Good For The Goose is a 1969 British comedy film, and was Norman Wisdom's last starring role in a film. It was written and directed by Menahem Golan. In the movie he leaves his wife and kids to go off on a business trip and he has an affair with a young woman played by Sally Geeson...
, made in 1969 by Tony Tenser
Tony Tenser
Tony Tenser was an English-born film producer of Lithuanian-Jewish descent. He specialised in producing Exploitation film movies and founded his own production company Tigon British Film Productions in 1966, which also made more mainstream films such as Witchfinder General and other horror films...
. He specialised in producing exploitation film
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
s and founded his own production company Tigon British Film Productions
Tigon British Film Productions
Tigon British Film Productions or Tigon was a film production and distribution company founded by Tony Tenser in 1966. It is most famous for its horror films, particularly Witchfinder General and Blood on Satan's Claw...
in 1966
1966 in film
The year 1966 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Animation legend Walter Disney, well known for his creation of Mickey Mouse, died in 15 December 1966 of acute circulatory collapse following a diagnosis of, and surgery for, lung cancer...
. In the movie, he leaves his wife and kids to go off on a business trip and has an affair with a young girl played by Sally Geeson
Sally Geeson
Sally Louise Geeson is a British actress with a career mostly on television in the 1970s. Her most famous role was as Sid James' daughter, Sally, in Bless This House. The series was one of the first in colour in the UK; indeed the first seven episodes of Series One were in black and white...
There apparently are two versions of the film, one being an uncensored version (105 minutes versus the cut 98 minute version), which shows nudity from Sally Geeson; this version was released in continental Europe.
Percy
Percy (1971 film)
Percy is a British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas starring Hywel Bennett, Denholm Elliott, Elke Sommer and Britt Ekland.Percy , an innocent and shy young man, is hit by a nude man falling from a high-rise building while carrying a chandelier...
was directed by Ralph Thomas
Ralph Thomas
Ralph Thomas was an English film director, born in Hull. He is perhaps best known for directing the Doctor series of films....
and starred Hywel Bennett
Hywel Bennett
Hywel Thomas Bennett is a Welsh film and television actor. Bennett is best known for his recurring title role as James Shelley in the television sitcom Shelley from 1979 to 1984 and its sequel The Return of Shelley from 1988 to 1992....
, Denholm Elliott
Denholm Elliott
Denholm Mitchell Elliott, CBE was an English film, television and theatre actor with over 120 film and television credits...
, Elke Sommer
Elke Sommer
Elke Sommer , born Baroness Elke Schletz, is a German actress, entertainer and artist.-Career:Sommer was born in Berlin to a Lutheran minister and his wife...
, and Britt Ekland
Britt Ekland
Britt-Marie Ekland is a Swedish actress and singer, and a long time resident of the United Kingdom. She is best known for her roles as a Bond girl in The Man with the Golden Gun, and in the British cult horror film The Wicker Man, as well as her marriage to actor Peter Sellers, and her...
. The film was followed by a sequel, Percy's Progress
Percy's Progress
Percy's Progress is a 1974 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas. It was written by Sid Colin, Harry H. Corbett and Ian Le Frenais. It was released in the United States under the title It's Not the Size That Counts...
. The film is about a successful penis
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
transplant
Penis transplantation
Penis transplantation is a surgical transplant procedure in which a penis is transplanted to a patient. The penis may be an allograft from a human donor, or it may be grown artificially, though the latter is untested in humans...
. An innocent and shy young man (Bennett) whose penis is mutilated in an accident and has to be amputated wakes up after an operation to find out that it has been replaced by a womanizer's, which is very large. The rest of the movie is about its new owner following in his predecessor's footsteps and meeting all the women who are able to recognize it.
To move with the times, the Carry On
Carry On films
The Carry On films are a series of low-budget British comedy films, directed by Gerald Thomas and produced by Peter Rogers. They are an energetic mix of parody, farce, slapstick and double entendres....
series added nudity
Nudity
Nudity is the state of wearing no clothing. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic. The amount of clothing worn depends on functional considerations and social considerations...
to its saucy seaside postcard innuendo
Innuendo
An innuendo is a baseless invention of thoughts or ideas. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging , that works obliquely by allusion...
. Series producer Peter Rogers
Peter Rogers
Peter Rogers was a British film producer.Rogers began his career as a journalist for his local paper before graduating to scriptwriting religious informational films...
saw the George Segal
George Segal
George Segal is an American film, stage and television actor.-Early life:George Segal, Jr. was born in 1934 Great Neck, Long Island, New York, the son of Fannie Blanche and George Segal, Sr. He was educated at George School, a private Quaker preparatory boarding school near Newtown, Bucks County,...
movie Loving
Loving (film)
Loving is an American motion picture released by Columbia Pictures. It was directed by Irvin Kershner, famous for directing the second movie in the Star Wars trilogy The Empire Strikes Back and based on the novel Brooks Wilson Ltd. by author J. M. Ryan.It starred George Segal and Eva Marie Saint...
and added his two favourite words to the title, making Carry On Loving
Carry On Loving
Carry On Loving is the twentieth Carry On film, and was released in 1970. It features series regulars Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Hattie Jacques, Terry Scott and Bernard Bresslaw alongside newcomers Richard O'Callaghan and Jacki Piper . Carry On Loving featured...
the twentieth in the series. Starring "countess of cleavage" Imogen Hassall
Imogen Hassall
Imogen Hassall was an English actress who appeared in 33 films during the 1960s and 1970s.- Early life :...
, the story of a dating agency service is still very innocent stuff. It was followed by Carry On Girls
Carry On Girls
Carry On Girls is the 25th Carry On film, released in Britain in 1973. The film is notable for being the first not to feature either Kenneth Williams or Charles Hawtrey. Williams was appearing in a West End play, My Fat Friend. Hawtrey had been dropped from the series the year before...
, based around a Miss World
Miss World
The Miss World pageant is the oldest surviving major international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951...
-style beauty contest
Beauty contest
A beauty pageant or beauty contest, is a competition that mainly focuses on the physical beauty of its contestants, although such contests often incorporate personality, talent, and answers to judges' questions as judged criteria...
. Next in the series was Carry On Dick
Carry On Dick
Carry On Dick was the 26th Carry On film. It was released in 1974 and marked the end of an era for the series. It featured the last appearances of Sid James and Hattie Jacques although both would make a further appearance in the Carry On Laughing TV series...
, with more risque
Risqué
Risqué is the third studio album by American R&B band Chic, released on Atlantic Records in 1979, the same year that Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers wrote and produced Sister Sledge's massively successful We Are Family....
humour and Sid James
Sid James
Sid James was an English-based South African actor and comedian. He made his name as Tony Hancock's co-star in Hancock's Half Hour and also starred in the popular Carry On films. He was known for his trademark "dirty laugh" and lascivious persona...
and Barbara Windsor
Barbara Windsor
Barbara Ann Windsor, MBE , better known by her stage name Barbara Windsor, is an English actress. Her best known roles are in the Carry On films and as Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders....
's on- and off-screen lovemaking.
The Confessions series
The Confessions series consisted of four sex comedy films released during the 1970s starring Robin AskwithRobin Askwith
Robin Askwith , is an English film actor, most famous for his role as Timmy Lea in the Confessions... sex comedies.-Confessions...:...
. The films in the Confessions series—Confessions of a Window Cleaner
Confessions of a Window Cleaner
Confessions of a Window Cleaner is a 1974 British sex comedy film, directed by Val Guest.Like the other films in the Confessions series; Confessions of a Pop Performer, Confessions of a Driving Instructor and Confessions from a Holiday Camp, it concerns the erotic adventures of Timothy Lea, based...
, Confessions of a Driving Instructor
Confessions of a Driving Instructor
Confessions of a Driving Instructor is a 1976 British sex-farce film. This was the third instalment of the Confessions sequence on the erotic adventures of Timothy Lea, based on the novels published under the name by Christopher Wood.-Premise:...
, Confessions of a Pop Performer
Confessions of a Pop Performer
Confessions of a Pop Performer is a 1975 British sex-farce film. This second instalment continues the erotic adventures of Timothy Lea and is based on the novels written under the name by Christopher Wood. In this case, the original novel was called Confessions from the Pop Scene, but was later...
, and Confessions from a Holiday Camp
Confessions from a Holiday Camp
Confessions from a Holiday Camp is a 1977 British comedy film. It is the last film in the series which began with Confessions of a Window Cleaner.-Plot:...
—concern the erotic adventures of Timothy Lea and are based on the novels of Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood (writer)
Christopher Wood is an English screenwriter and novelist best known under the pseudonym 'Timothy Lea' for the Confessions series of novels and films. Under his own name, he adapted two James Bond novels for the screen: The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker .Wood has written many novels...
, writing as Timothy Lea.
Soon came Adventures of..., directed by Stanley Long
Stanley Long
Stanley Long , often known as Stanley A. Long, is a British Exploitation cinema and sexploitation filmmaker. He is a writer, cinematographer, editor, and eventually, producer/director of low-budget exploitation movies....
, including Adventures of a Taxi Driver
Adventures of a Taxi Driver
Adventures of a Taxi Driver is a 1976 British sex comedy film starring Barry Evans, Judy Geeson and Adrienne Posta. There were two sequels, Adventures of a Private Eye and Adventures of a Plumber's Mate.-Cast:* Barry Evans as Joe North...
, starring sitcom star Barry Evans. Long began his career as a photographer before producing striptease shorts (or "glamour home movies", as they were sometimes known), for the 8 mm market. Beginning in the late fifties, Long's feature film career would span the entire history of the British sex film, and as such exemplifies its differing trends and attitudes. His work ranges from coy nudist films (Nudist Memories 1959), to moralizing documentary (The Wife Swappers, 1969) to a more relaxed attitude to permissive material (Naughty, 1971) to out and out comedies at the end of the 1970s. He did not like sex scenes and was dismissive of pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
, saying it didn't turn him on and he turned his back when such scenes were being filmed.
Carry Ons become sexy
British sex comedy films became mainstream with the release in 1976 of Carry On EnglandCarry On England
Carry On England is the 28th Carry On film. It was released in 1976 and featured Carry On regulars Kenneth Connor, Jack Douglas, Joan Sims and Peter Butterworth. It was second and final Carry On film for Windsor Davies, Diane Langton, and Peter Jones, while Patrick Mower, Judy Geeson and Melvyn...
, starring Judy Geeson
Judy Geeson
Judith Amanda "Judy" Geeson is an English actor.-Early life:Geeson was born in Arundel, Sussex, England on 10 September 1948. She came from a middle class family; her father edited the National Coal Board magazine. Her sister, Sally Geeson, is also an actress and is known for her roles in British...
, Patrick Mower
Patrick Mower
Patrick Mower , whose original name was Patrick Archibald Shaw, is an English actor well known for his many television and occasional film roles, often as a detective or secret agent.-Life:...
, and Diane Langton
Diane Langton
Diane Langton is an English actress and singer.She has appeared in numerous TV shows like Only Fools and Horses, where she played Junie, an old girlfriend of Del Boy's, in the 1980s....
, in which an experimental mixed-sex anti-aircraft battery in wartime is enjoying making love not war! However, the arrival of the new Captain S. Melly brings an end to their cosy life and causes terror in the ranks....
In Carry On Emmannuelle
Carry On Emmannuelle
Carry On Emmannuelle is the 30th Carry On film, and was released in 1978. This was the last Carry On film to be made until Carry On Columbus in 1992. The film was to be the final Carry On for many regulars including Kenneth Williams , Kenneth Connor , Joan Sims and Peter Butterworth...
, the beautiful Emmannuelle Prevert just cannot get her own husband into bed.
A spoof of Emmanuelle
Emmanuelle
Emmanuelle is the lead character in a series of French softcore erotic movies based on a character created by Emmanuelle Arsan in the novel Emmanuelle...
, the film revolves around the eponymous heroine (Suzanne Danielle
Suzanne Danielle
Suzanne Danielle is an English film and television actress, the wife of the golfer Sam Torrance.Danielle is a stage name; while growing up she was Suzanne Morris.-Career:...
) and her unsuccessful attempts to make love to her husband, Emile (Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Charles Williams was an English comic actor and comedian. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the Carry On films, and appeared in numerous British television shows, and radio comedies with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne.-Life and career:Kenneth Charles Williams was born on 22 February...
), a French ambassador. Emile grants Emmannuelle permission to sleep with anyone she likes, and her promiscuity turns her into a celebrity and a frequent talk show guest. Meanwhile, Theodore Valentine is besotted by her and wants them to get married. But Emmannuelle is obsessed with arousing her husband's sexual desire at almost any cost. This was the last of the original Carry Ons and the spirit of the carry on is only just visible. Avoid unless you can not help it.
Sleaze and Sexploitation
The redoubtable producer/director Kenneth F. Rowles made a copycat cash-in with his The Ups and Downs of a HandymanThe Ups and Downs of a Handyman
The Ups and Downs of a Handyman is a 1975 British comedy film directed by John Sealey and starring Barry Stokes, Sue Lloyd and Bob Todd. After his wife inherits a cottage in the countryside, her husband takes up a job as the local handyman but soon becomes entangled with the women of the...
His next movie, Take an Easy Ride, purports to be a public information film
Public information film
Public Information Films are a series of government commissioned short films, shown during television advertising breaks in the UK. The US equivalent is the Public Service Announcement .-Subjects:...
warning of the dangers of hitchhiking
Hitchhiking
Hitchhiking is a means of transportation that is gained by asking people, usually strangers, for a ride in their automobile or other road vehicle to travel a distance that may either be short or long...
but is actually sexploitation
Sexploitation
Sexploitation, or "sex-exploitation", describes a class of independently produced, low-budget feature films generally associated with the 1960s and serving largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit sexual situations and gratuitous nudity. The genre is a subgenre of exploitation films...
film showing young girls being sexually assaulted and murdered (although Rowles says he had to add those scenes on request of the movie's distributor).
Films like Dreams of Thirteen, The Younger the Better, Geilermanns Töchter - Wenn Mädchen mündig werden, and Come Play With Me played in Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
and elsewhere, but with the arrival of the Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
government in 1979 the Eady Levy
Eady levy
The Eady Levy was a tax on box office receipts in the United Kingdom, intended to support the British film industry and named for Sir Wilfred Eady. It was established in 1957 and terminated in 1985.- Background :...
was abolished, killing off the genre.