Review of Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask (1972) by Sandy J — 18 Aug 2008

A father meets his daughter's fiance's parents and gets caught wearing the mother's Sunday clothes, erupting in a huge scandal. Gene Wilder has decadant fits of passion with an Armenian sheep in black garters and ends up losing his sanity in the process.

John Carradine is a Frankenstein-like sex doctor hellbent on having a female test subject gang-banged by twenty boy scouts. Woody Allen seduces Lynn Redgrave and Louise Lasser (in Italian), gets chased across the countryside by a mutant breast and plays the part of a neurotic sperm terrified that he's not meant for the egg.

The gist of Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex... is simple - seven vignettes, each about a different aspect of modern (for the time) sexuality as only Woody Allen can tell it. Some leaves much to be desired - the first, third and fifth tales.

Others are works of genius that leave you both horrified and holding your sides the whole time - skits two, four and six. The final one is a mix of both, well-cast (featuring Burt Reynolds and Tony Randall) and well-written, but leaving a funky taste in the mouth.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex... isn't one of Woody's best films, but it sure does help establish his knack for dialogue and entertaining stories.