To me, this movie is perfection.

Just perfect...

Absolutely Fantastic

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

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.

After reading all of the reviews, I've come to the conclusion that people who enjoy movies, and apparently have a clue, enjoyed this movie for what it was. The people who talk smack about it, well, they all thought they were going to see some x-rated f*** flick, and were bummed that it didn't have any penetration or money shots in it. People ragged because it was X rated and say that was why it failed. I think it had more to do with the way it was distributed. Midnight Cowboy was originally X too, and it did quite well. Then there was Boogie Nights, which wasn't X rated, but dealt with the same subject on a broader scale--the porn industry. Did people go to see that, thinking that they were going to see a bunch of mainstream stars in a f*** flick? No.And look at who is in this movie--Dreyfus, Bob Hoskins, Veronica Cartwright and Jessica Harper! Geeze, how could anyone be thinking they were going to go see smut, then be disappointed because it turned out not to be... actually so disappointed, that 25 years later, all they can still remember about the movie is how disappointed they were when they went to see it when they were a kid that there was no money shot or semen-covered faces, that they blunder their way onto this site and give a lame review, because their libido was let down by art yet one more time. See this movie--but don't expect Deep Throat.

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!!!!