Saturday, 21 December 2013

Retro review: Can I Do It... 'Til I Need Glasses? (1977) sketch sex comedy - with Robin Williams

As promised (or threatened) in my previous review, I sat down and checked out the sequel to If You Don't Stop It... You'll Go Blind, made by the same team, although this one was directed solely by I. Robert Levy.
Like the earlier film, this is a non-stop barrage of increasingly lame gags - mostly of a sexual nature - which invariably fail to raise so much as a smile let alone a titter.
Among the "jokes" on offer here are a variation on the one used in the first film, only with a naked woman, locked out of her apartment, holding a pair of shoes over her embarrassment. The punchline this time coming from a drunk passing in the hallway "At a boy, shorty! Give her everything you've got" Believe me, it's downhill from here.
One of the plus-points of the first film was the appearance of a couple of genre faces (namely Russ Meyer alumni Patrick Wright and Uschi Digard and Vixen's Garth Pillsbury). Well, Wright is back in several sections and Uschi has a blink-and-you'll-miss-her cameo riding an elephant in the opening credits (there are several moments in this title montage which don't appear later on), but the main selling point (certainly when the film got a rushed re-release following the success of Mork and Mindy) is the appearance of Robin Williams. He's in two sketches here, neither any good, but then as I indicated earlier, the whole film is a mirth-free zone. Also apparently here is porn legend Ron Jeremy, but I certainly couldn't spot him.
The best gag (and it's a stretch to find one, believe me) is set in an nudist colony, with a male bringing his female friends a drink each; "help yourself to a donuts".
The final, lengthier section is a rip off of Woody Allen's ejaculation spoof from Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex *But Were Afraid To Ask (1972). Woody did it so much better, naturally.
Not that you'll come across this too easily (although it is out on DVD in the US) but it's one to avoid.
2 out of 10 (purely for the skin on display!)


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