Oh! Calcutta! (1972)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Jacques Levy

Writers:

Kenneth Tynan (deviser) and
Robert Benton (contributions)

Release Date:

June 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical

Tagline:

The World's Longest Running Erotic Stage Musical!

Plot:

Based on the controversial off-Broadway musical comedy revue, "Oh! Calcutta! is a series of musical numbers about sex and sexual mores...

Plot Keywords:

Sex | Controversial | Farce | Nudity | Masturbation Scene

Cast

Raina Barrett	...	Test Girl
Mark Dempsey	...	Alfred / Dr. Jaspers
Samantha Harper	...	Helen / Nurse
Patricia Hawkins	...	Jill
Bill Macy	...	Monte / Physican
Mitchell McGuire	...	Dick
Gary Rethmeier	...	Dale / Pearloyster
Margo Sappington	...	Cherie
Nancy Tribush	...	Jane / Sue Ellen / Dr. Bronson
George Welbes	...	Jack

Runtime:

100 min | UK:123 min (DVD version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:R | UK:18 | Norway:18 | USA:X (self applied)

Company:

Elkins Entertainment

Trivia:

The title is a pun on the French expression, "Oh, quel cul t'as!", meaning, "Oh, what a (cute) bum you have!"

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: During the final number, you can see the camera crew in the mirrors. Also, a crew member tries to run out of the shot as the camera pans around right after that.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Great New Wonderful (2005)

Yuck. Sweaty naked people.

Filmed record of the live stage play (complete with an upscale audience arriving confused and leaving bored). It begins behind the scenes just prior to curtain with the male and female actors in the dressing room completely naked applying body make-up to various body parts and discussing if they should invite relatives to the play which will feature scenes in which the entire cast is...naked. The play begins with the actors lined up across the stage slowly dancing...naked. What follows is a series of comedic musical sex skits (mostly unfunny) with many of the players...naked. After you see the actors cavort naked together the rest is anticlimatic and boring. Bill Macy of TV's "Maude" dangles his privates as if he were playing percussion instruments. If that's not enough to avoid this film I don't know what is. Raina Barrett and Samantha Harper are cute and nice to look at though. Nudity was a brave new world to off-Broadway and the actors were all pretty brave to risk exposure (sorry for the pun) to ridicule. It is obvious that the nude actors find support and comfort appearing in mass with the other nude actors. More than once we see them in a huddle. I saw a revival a few years back and that same uneasiness did not exist (the lead female was an ex-Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader and centerfold). Each of those actors were of the new breed which would be comfortable soloing nude on stage. The audience was expecting a strip show, and got it.

Oh Calcutta! can not be revived anymore than the sixties can. The pioneers of nude theater were pioneers but looking back there's really not much to see. Oh Calcutta! still exists, without the male actors, in strip joints across America.