Sex comedy
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Sex comedy is a vague term for comedies with sexual content. They may range from comic pornographic films to relatively innocent romantic comedies that include jokes about sex and other sexual related humor.
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[edit] Britain
'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 8mm 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. 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.
British sex comedy films became mainstream with the Carry On series especially in the 1970s Carry On England 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...
Carry On Emmanuelle the beautiful Emmannuelle Pervert just cannot get her own husband into bed. A spoof of Emmanuelle, the film revolves around the eponymous heroine and her unsuccessful attempts to make love to her husband Emile, a French ambassador. Emile grants Emmanuelle 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 Emmanuelle is obsessed with arousing her husband's sexual desire at almost any cost.
Other British sex comedy movies of the 1970s include 'Confessions of...' starring Robin Askwith such as Confessions of a Window Cleaner. Like the other films in the Confessions series; Confessions of a Driving Instructor, Confessions of a Pop Performer and Confessions from a Holiday Camp it concerns the erotic adventures of Timothy Lea and is based on the novels of Christopher Wood , writing as Timothy Lea.
[edit] Israel
The first sex comedy teen movie from Israel was Lemon Popsicle, a teen movie with schoolboys getting into various comedy japes with young girls. Eskimo Limon (Hebrew: אסקימו לימון) is a 1978 Israeli cult film directed by Boaz Davidson which led to a series of sequels.Eskimo Limon (English: "Going all the way", aka "Lemon Popsicle") was first released in February 11, 1978, starring Yftach Katzur (Benzi), Jonathan Segal (Momo), Zachi Noy(Yudale) and Anat Atzmon (Nili). The movie focuses on three high school kids and deals with their relationships with each other and of course girls. The film is a typical adolescence story. It contains the memorable scene of an older woman (played by Ophelia Shtruhl) enticing the three kids into have sex with her in sequence, and then earning the nickname "Stella HaMegameret" ("A-cumming Stella"). Anat Atzmon made a great appearance in this movie as Nili - an adolescent girl who falls pregnant.Eskimo Limon recreates a 50's teenagers life- including the clothes, music, behaviour, scenery and cars. The film was a great success all over the world and represented Israel at the 1978 Berlin Film Festival. When the main actors toured Japan, they were mobbed by fans.
In 1979 the first sequel Yotzim Kavua ("Going Steady") was released. Anat Atzmon did not take a part in this movie and there was an effort to find a new "Eskimo Limon girl". Like the original film, this film was about the same characters and included soft sex scenes.
Additional films in the series were produced, based on the three male actors. Among these was Sapiches, starring in addition to the regular cast Joseph Shiloach as Sgt. Shemesh - a stereotypical Persian Jew.
The fifth movie was directed by Dan Wolman, the seventh and eighth movies were directed by non-Israeli directors and were produced outside Israel. They became a success in Germany under the name Eis am Stiel.
1982 saw Davidson write and direct an American remake, The Last American Virgin, which didn't meet with nearly the same success as the original.
[edit] United States
In the United States, the term 'sex comedy' was sometimes used to describe the 1960s romantic comedy films starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson, such as Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back. These films were also known as 'battle of the sexes' comedies.
[edit] References
X-Rated - Adventures of an Exploitation Filmmaker by Simon Sheridan (Reynolds & Hearn books) August 2008
Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema by Simon Sheridan (third edition) (Reynolds & Hearn books) (2007)
