Every Home Should Have One

Not known as much now as it was when it was released, this feature written by Marty Feldman from Herbert Kretzmer (yes, the one who wrote lyrics for the hit musical Les Miserables) has its very thin premise a breakfast cereal that will seriously spice up your sex life; porridge, in fact.

Cue some cringe-inducing commercials for said product and a number of fantasies in which Marty Feldman's character places himself - from being in romantic clinches with eligible ladies to a superhero fight with the local vicar, a pious type who ogles the ladies just as much as everyone else. And the real fight between the ad man and the vicar towards the end is a lot of laugh-out-loud fun.

Marty Feldman does dominate this film, such was his personality and rather weird looks. However, there is sterling support from Judy Cornwell (Marty's girlfriend), Dinsdale Landen (the vicar), Frances de La Tour (a secretary), and Penelope Keith (a Swedish lesbian), amongst others.

Director Jim Clark went on to the equally dubious but not quite as funny 'Rentadick' before returning to acting; in 'Every Home Should Have One' he shows some flair in setting up the quirky and unusual, while sending up a range of genres. Of its type, this film is a real find, and a guilty pleasure - if you like this kind of thing!

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.

This still remains in my memory as one of the funniest films ever. In that respect, it was very much ahead of it's time, certainly for 1970. A number of current and future stars were cast very cleverly (who could imagine Penelope Keith, for example, as a German lesbian, and a former mud-wrestler to boot??!!). This film poked fun at almost every aspect of the Establishment, and that is not a bad thing - but very brave at the time, I would suggest. An absolute classic, in my view.

Marty was one of the great talents of his generation.I was a fan particularly of his writing on Round The Horne. However he didn't seem to have great success when it came to films in the UK.There are some funny sequences in this film,but as a whole it is wanting.He didn't try again here for 7 years.Incidentally it is curious that this film has a low rating but 14 out of 20 reviewers have rated this 7 or above.

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 )