Every one in a while you find a film of an actor that was made when they were starting out and wondered why it didn't get the attention it deserves. This is one. With a cast that includes almost newcomers Richard Drefus, Jessica Harper, Bob Hoskins and a grown up Veronica Cartwright, this film should have made more of a splash than it did. One of the first jobs outside school was as usher in a local multiplex back in the '70's and I remember this film because when it came out it went right to one of the smaller theatres that films were sent to after they had played the bigger theatres in the complex. No fanfare it just opened. I seem to recall it did OK business there but was gone in a couple of weeks. I think I saw it most nights I was there, or I would wander in on a break to catch a glimpse of a scene or two. When videos came out I got one and over the course of the years loaned and lost it. Then I searched EBay for one and finally got another copy. Within a couple of months I find a used DVD! It brings back a lot of memories of that theatre and working there. Seeing it now I realize again what I liked about it. It boarders on the fine line between comedy and drama and does it so delicately. After seeing it again, I also think it would make a great stage play. Now that it is out there in a more popular form, lets hope that more people see it.

I first saw this film alone. The following night I took my friends, and that weekend I named my band after it. In Cambridge in 1977, this film became a small cult. The allusions to silent days were intriguing to a burgeoning film buff, with Clark Gable, that kid from Pathe, forever trying to get through the door, junkie reminiscences of Wally Reid, and many more nods and in-jokes that I would undoubtedly smile at now from knowledge, not ignorance. The performances were, as I recall, uniformly good, with Dreyfus - whom I had only seen previously in American Graffiti - a revelation. This was also the first big screen role I can remember from Bob Hoskins, and after her small but memorable role in Love and Death, Jessica Harper brought just the right degree of irritating sexiness to Cathy Cake. Annoyingly, despite the limitations of scale, and the occasional staginess, I don't think John Byrum has ever made a better film!

I saw this at an art cinema way back in the early 80s. Back then Richard Dreyfuss was a big star and it was a shock to see him in an X-rated film. This film was dull dull dull.It takes place in one room where the characters talk endlessly about...something or other--I was so bored I can't remember. With the exception of Bob Hoskins and Dreyfuss everybody is nude at one time or another...but it's not even remotely erotic. The one sex scene is obviously being faked. The cast all try their hardest but they can't pull this across. Somehow this still carries an X rating! Don't be fooled--this is R rated material all the wayBoring and stupid--a must miss. Purportedly the British version runs a half hour longer!!!!

This films plot centers around the making of, probably one of the first, porn movies, Sadly when it was released it was pre-arthouse cinemas and pre-video, so it was lumped in with second rate soft porn flic houses around soho London. Consequently it died a lonely death. Around this time Art house cinemas were starting to emerge in University towns which is how I caught it late night in Edinburgh. I was just knocked out by it's sharp drama wrapped in a comedy that launched incredibly incisive comment. Bob Hoskins character as the wannabee hood getting irate when he discovers that Richard Dreyfuss's character, the has-been director, has removed the camera from the tripod, in shear enthusiasm, as he filmed the sexual act. 'How is that going to look!' 'It's not going to look, it's going to be looked at!' retorts Richard Dreyfuss character. The economy of the lines are brilliant! Yes this is a one room drama, which is a tall order for cinema and few have conquered it but this film does brilliantly.