Papa en a deux

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.

Marty Feldman was a likable and gifted comedian, but that doesn't mean he couldn't star in some lousy films. Take this terrible comedy for example: the bizarre, sometimes cute fantasy sequences are its only saving grace. This only goes to prove that if you want to turn chaos into comedy, you have to be really good at it (like the Marx Brothers were); otherwise, you'll end up being merely chaotic. (*1/2 )

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.

I remember seeing this for the first time when I was about 7. Children In Need was on BBC 1 (or maybe Comic Relief) and I was allowed to sleep downstairs to watch the whole event. Anyway, I found this on the other channel at about 2.30am, and I was totally blown away by it. Not least the funky theme tune, the cartoons, those eyes, Julie Ege etc. Anyway, a couple of years later I got it on VHS...surprise surprise, the cut I'd seen on ITV had been trimmed significantly. The bit with the hot dog vendor, the fantasy sequence where Teddy imagines a fight sequence with the vicar had both been cut, with maybe some other bits. I've seen this film more than any other film, and have collected as much stuff to do with it as I can; 4 posters, lobby cards, and approximately 60 black and white stills. If anyone has anything else related to this film, please get in touch. A few things bother me though; how did Shelley Berman get involved?Why is Alan Bennett uncredited? Shelley Berman turned up in Friends a few years back, and his character's name was Kaplan, as in this film. Was Kaplan his own persona, or was this a nod to the film? Does the US cut differ any from the UK?

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.