ubiquit2s

I first saw this film alone. The following night I took my friends, and that weekend I named my band after it. In Cambridge in 1977, this film became a small cult. The allusions to silent days were intriguing to a burgeoning film buff, with Clark Gable, that kid from Pathe, forever trying to get through the door, junkie reminiscences of Wally Reid, and many more nods and in-jokes that I would undoubtedly smile at now from knowledge, not ignorance.

The performances were, as I recall, uniformly good, with Dreyfus - whom I had only seen previously in American Graffiti - a revelation. This was also the first big screen role I can remember from Bob Hoskins, and after her small but memorable role in Love and Death, Jessica Harper brought just the right degree of irritating sexiness to Cathy Cake.

Annoyingly, despite the limitations of scale, and the occasional staginess, I don't think John Byrum has ever made a better film!

Saturday night, at a loose end, I watched 'The Sweetest Thing' with my wife. We laughed, we enjoyed a few fine examples of female rudery - such a pleasant change from men's routine post-modern sexist humour. The female leads were easy on the eye and had distinctive and complementary characters. There were a few longueurs, a few full-on moments of hilarity, but nothing that could have possibly sparked off the gallons vitriol that so many reviewers seem to have poured so eagerly on a harmless piece of comedy fluff.

And then I did a rough count of men compared to women, who hated the film. It's no surprise that most of the haters were men. No surprise at all. It's that old double standard - women can be objects of desire, objects of abuse, but let be in control, let them utter a few criticisms - joking or serious of masculinity, and the precious threatened male of the species starts to froth at the mouth!

Are we men so threatened by a couple of penis jokes - taken to ludicrous extremes, possibly because men think of their penises in ludicrous terms - are we so offended to see on screen what many women, my wife assures me, discuss freely in private - that we are blind to how ridiculous the over-the top criticism of this movie must appear to anyone who hasn't seen the film?

With all the ultra violence, generally perpetrated against women, that pollutes our screens, what is it with this unpretentious, fairly forgettable little film that gets men's dander up?

I give up. Watch your murders, watch your rapes, delight in the torture and suffering of mankind, and leave the likes of me to enjoy a silly romantic sex comedy in the manner that the makers no doubt intended.

7 out of 10 - well worth the hire charge.