Every Home Should Have One

Marty Feldman was an extremely funny and under appreciated comedian and this film is one of his funniest. You probably will remember Feldman from his Mel Brooks days in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and SILENT MOVIE. However, he also had two other worthwhile films to check out: THE LAST REMAKE OF BEAU GESTE (1977) and IN GOD WE TRU$T (1980). In Think Dirty, Feldman wrote the screenplay and stars to wonderful comic effect. Most of the funniest moments are sex-related and there is a brief nude scene with Julie Ege, but overall the film portrayed in a seemingly innocent tone. The basic idea of using a controversial topic (in this case sex) to sell a product is not an advertising novelty, but Feldman pulls it off with a good deal of funny moments, especially the day-dreaming sequences and the animated bits (by Richard Williams Studios of PINK PANTHER fame). I happen to disagree with Leonard Maltin's review of this film (and this is not uncommon). I would recommend this to any Monty Python fan or anyone who enjoys the Farrelly Brothers and Mel Brooks comedies today.

Not known as much now as it was when it was released, this feature written by Marty Feldman from Herbert Kretzmer (yes, the one who wrote lyrics for the hit musical Les Miserables) has its very thin premise a breakfast cereal that will seriously spice up your sex life; porridge, in fact.

Cue some cringe-inducing commercials for said product and a number of fantasies in which Marty Feldman's character places himself - from being in romantic clinches with eligible ladies to a superhero fight with the local vicar, a pious type who ogles the ladies just as much as everyone else. And the real fight between the ad man and the vicar towards the end is a lot of laugh-out-loud fun.

Marty Feldman does dominate this film, such was his personality and rather weird looks. However, there is sterling support from Judy Cornwell (Marty's girlfriend), Dinsdale Landen (the vicar), Frances de La Tour (a secretary), and Penelope Keith (a Swedish lesbian), amongst others.

Director Jim Clark went on to the equally dubious but not quite as funny 'Rentadick' before returning to acting; in 'Every Home Should Have One' he shows some flair in setting up the quirky and unusual, while sending up a range of genres. Of its type, this film is a real find, and a guilty pleasure - if you like this kind of thing!

Very 70's and very English. The Brits love their vicars. And the 70s loved the exploration of sex. Catchy theme song.

There's lots of Monty Python-esque tomfoolery as well. It's a weird films. Especially the sound. It has a dubbed quality to it, almost like it was made in Japan and dubbed in English. Only it's not.

Makes for weird viewing.

Not a lot of nudity despite the cover art and film concept.

The bottom line is this -- I really wanted to like this film. I'm a fan of English humor and Marty Feldman. But in the end, it's not really a good film. It will not deliver any belly laughs.

This is far better a film than I expected. I knew Marty Feldman would be good but I rather expected the usual British sex comedy ingredients of unfunny sequences with men (too old) falling over as they scramble towards very average looking girls (all the while squealing). Big surprise then, for this is an intelligent, inspired and inventive exercise, being very much of its time and all the better for it. The spoof TV adverts at the start threaten to overwhelm but thanks to Richard Williams' inspired animation all turns out very well and the picture is very representative of the time, with swirling graphics and sublimely surreal moments (tube of toothpaste car with dwarfs inside!). Good script with political and social satire and some funny lines. Julie Ege far, far better than one might have imagined and indeed there are more good looking girls in this than in all the rest of similar films of the period put together. There is a slightly over extended sequence towards the end in the TV props department but even here there is inventiveness and overall a very good effort that must surely have been as much fun to make as to watch.

Although a completely silly, absurd movie, Jim Clark's "Every Home Should Have One" (also called "Think Dirty") is also sort of a spoof of advertising and commercialism. Marty Feldman plays an ad exec hired to come up with a sexy way to advertise porridge. And when I say sexy, I don't mean it lightly! I mean, have you ever seen Julie Ege?!

I figure that, like "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice", this movie was basically capitalizing on cinema's new permissiveness. Even so, there is some REALLY funny stuff here. Some scenes made me absolutely crack up. Feldman was truly showing what he would later bring to Mel Brooks's movies.

Also starring Judy Cornwell, Patrick Cargill (the police chief in "Help!"), Jack Watson, Penelope Keith and Shelley Berman.