Oh! Calcutta! (1972) User Reviews

A fun bit of groundbreaking history

[emdoub · 6/10 · 19 August 2005]

First the film, then the stage production: Okay - this was filmed long before anyone had a home video system - it was back when videotape was a fairly new phenomenon, the player/recorders were far too expensive to be considered for home use, and electronic manipulation of the images was sparkly and new. There are some annoying transition special effects, some cute double-exposure shots, a scene that takes place in a forest glade instead of on-stage, and a scene that's not shown at all - you see a long cut of the outside of a building while you hear what's happening on stage - presumably because of simulated intercourse, though that's apparently not an issue later in the play.

Side note to cinematographers who film plays - just show the audience what they'd see if they were watching the stage production. That's what they expect - it won't disappoint them. A split screen is okay if it's not overdone - but don't cut to the audience during anything but closed-curtain time, don't show closeups of a couple of actors when the whole ensemble is on-stage and moving, and please, please, don't show a line of Celtic dancers from the waist up, ignoring the footwork.

There - had to get that off my chest. Sorry.

Most of the camera-work here is actually pretty good - the annoying parts happened in editing, and the incomprehensible decision to take the one scene away from the stage and put it elsewhere - I'd rather have seen what the actual audience saw.

The stage production - a series of dance numbers and skits about sex - the pain of it, the joy of it, the general absurdity of how it's dealt with in our society. There's some pathos, lots of comedy, some dirty gleeful joy, and some of it falls flat - but some will hit you where you live. By 2005 standards, it's really pretty tame - by 1972 standards in the USA, it was outrageous and shocking. Much of the reason that it's pretty tame now is that it dared to be shocking in 1972 - those who enjoy sexual freedom today owe the folks who dared to do this then. Some of the songs were interesting, but the music was largely forgettable - not everyone has a hit every time out.

As social history, it's interesting. As entertainment, it's spotty, but very fun in parts - well worth an evening. It was really much more fun than I'd expected.

A Timepiece

[zoombazee · 6 February 2004]

I rented this for the same reason people went to see it when it was filmed: I'd heard about the sex & nudity and I was curious. I got a lot more than that; it's a time capsule.

The video was made from a closed-circuit TV recording at a live theater performance. I can only assume it's a fairly honest reproduction of the real thing. It's a few nude dance numbers along with quite a few skits. The skits are comedic, nearly all involve nudity, and are all about sex in one way or another. Topics range from masturbation to swinging to kinky toys and more. They're at least as amusing as, and only slightly more sophisticated than, your basic Benny Hill Show. On face value alone it was worth the $1 rental (as long as you're not one who takes his theater experience too seriously).

Its real value comes from its representation of the sexual revolution. It's hard to imagine that it had problems with obscenity laws considering what's available from a wide variety of sources today. It was controversial simply because people talked freely about sex and were naked. When the actors were naked, they neither hid nor flaunted it; they simply were, and appeared happy to be so. They cheerfully acted out skits that portrayed sex as neither serious nor dirty but just plain silly and fun. Compared to the modern business of sex, this is a breath of fresh air which made me long for a simpler time that I barely remember (and may not have ever actually existed).

The same day I saw this was the Janet Jackson/SuperBowl brouhaha, later described as "a perfect opportunity to both sell sex and condemn it." Oh! Calcutta! does neither. The closing number has the cast stripping to nude and dancing gleefully to a song whose chorus is "I don't care what you say / I'll do it anyway / Because it's mine!" That's the sexual revolution in a nutshell; for us to deny ourselves the pleasure our bodies bring us is to remove a large part of the joy of living. But today it's just one more thing for sale.

Cast member and choreographer Margo Sappington has gone on to become a somewhat influential figure in the world of dance.

Terrible, terrible play, filmed poorly

[cherold · 2/10 · 2 February 2011]

After the musical Hair combined a little nudity with a lot of witty, tuneful songs, Oh Calcutta came along and combined a lot of nudity with a number of remarkably dull sketches.

For the most part, these sketches appear to have a humorous intent, yet none of them come close to be really funny, although one short sketch about masturbating is mildly amusing. And at the end the actors put words in the mouths of the audience, and some of those lines are actually pretty good.

My first inclination was to stop watching altogether, but when I looked up the play in Wikipedia I saw that the sketches had been written by a number of famous people, including Jules Pfeiffer and Sam Shepard. So what I did was, I would watch the first few minutes of a sketch, fast forward when I got bored, check out a little of the sketch later on to see if it got better, which it never did, and go to the next sketch.

There are also a couple of naked dance numbers, which, like everything else, aren't especially good. And there are a few songs, co-written by the guy who created P.D.Q. Bach, that are really cheesy and bland.

In terms of the filming of the play, the beginning is awful. You see the audience (clearly not a real audience but actors chosen to look like an uptight crowd) and then backstage footage of the actors. Then there's some annoying video effects when the play starts. After that the director settles down for the most part and just lets the play unfold, but since it's a bad play, that's little comfort.

Why was Oh Calcutta one of the longest running Broadway plays? I've got to assume it's all the naked people. I think at the time it just seemed daring to go watch naked people grope each other on stage and talk about masturbation and wife swapping. It was transgressive and revolutionary. Unfortunately, it was also really bad.

It's so annoying that there's video of the original Oh Calcutta but none, so far as I can tell, of the original Hair. All we have is that horrible movie made in the seventies in which they took the name and a few of the songs and created something new and much worse. How is that fair?

A witty naked satire of sexuality

[rlcsljo · 8/10 · 8 January 2000]

This move is a mostly funny mostly naked satire of sexuality of the times, circa 1970, that still holds up today.The bodies are perfect and most of the gags are right on the money.It was written by some of the best writers of this century and the acting is superb.The dance numbers are some of the most innovative ever choreographed and the people are naked--isn't that what your always wanted to see in a modern dance routine anyway!Be sure to check out the "Sex Clinic" sketch, it will leave you in stitches!

San Francisco Theater Production

[sactokat · 10/10 · 20 February 2006]

I saw the original stage version of Oh! Calcutta! when they performed in San Francisco in the early 1970s. We didn't know what to expect and were a little hesitant about going to a play that was often raided!

We paid a princely sum for our tickets - $35 and that wasn't for the first row! Our seats were second row-center and those rows were very narrow! You can imagine our surprise at being so close to the action! As soon as the production began, several people in the front row stood up and left the theater, which only made our seats that much better!

It was a great play! We loved it and laughed through most of it. The only tense part of the play was when we heard the sirens of emergency vehicles in the street outside of the theater! For a moment, we thought it was one of the raids! We held our ground and remained seated and were the richer for it!

See the movie and see a part of our sexual history! I know I will!

Revolutionary! Sign of freedom and changing times.

[tiggerhans · 10/10 · 6 September 2001]

I was 10, hiding under the dining table, while my parents thought I was asleep, I was watching Oh! Calcutta on the Dutch tv. It was an eyeopener for me, and though it caused a lot of upheaval in the media the next day, it showed that times where changing and that people no longer let there lives be ruled by others but made choices for themselves. In some ways, Oh! Calcutta was just fun. And the music was definately good. It is only a few years ago that it was first shown in Israel...a sign that in some countries of the world you are not as free as in others. Where gay marriage is normal in Holland, and gays are put to prison or to death in some other countries, sexual freedom is also not the same everywhere. Oh! Calcutta was a clear sign of the times, and still is a pleasure to watch.

Editor of this movie

[frank-864 · 27 November 2008]

Oh Calutta was edited at Teletape Studios in New York City. I was 28 years old when I edited this video. It was edited on 2 inch tape using the first electronic editing system called Editec. We spent many days and nights working on the piece. I remember my car was towed away twice during the edit sessions. The video was to be shown on closed circuit video projection to a number of theaters around the country but many had to cancel because of protests. A poor quality film was made from the video tape and shown in theaters along with "Fritz the Cat". I was surprised when I discovered the video had been made into a DVD. Where was the original tape all these years?

Without So Much As A Fig Leaf In Sight

[druid333-2 · 9/10 · 11 August 2009]

With the Broadway revival of Hair making waves,is the possibility of a revival of Oh! Calcutta! out of the question? This play opened hot on the heels of Hair in 1970 to an eager audience,clamoring for more on- stage nudity (and more they got). Like Hair, Oh! Calcutta! doesn't have so much of a standard plot,but a series of comic blackouts/sketches,dealing with sexual issues of the era. The individual stories were submitted by the likes of John Lennon,Kenneth Tynan,and others. Several sketches contain either partial,or full frontal nudity (both male & female),but not always. The musical score was composed by a ensemble that called itself 'The Open Window',that included Peter Schekele (of P.D.Q.Bach fame). This filmed play was shot on video tape during a live performance,and transferred to film, giving it a different visual texture, than if it had been shot on standard 35mm film stock. The cast of Oh! Calcutta! are made up of relative unknowns (at least for that time),but one cast member is Bill Macy,who would become famous for being a regular in the television series,'Maude' some years later. The show also includes a few song and dance numbers that actually don't seem just slotted in for the sake of padding the show/film out (including one nude ballet sequence that really works). Let the kids spend the night at Grandmother & Grandfather's house,unplug the phone,pour a drink (or two),pop this in your DVD (or VHS video)player & enjoy! Originally given an 'X' rating by the MPAA, this film contains wall to wall nudity,strong pervasive sexual content,and naughty language.

A long time ago in a galaxy called the 60's.

[SanDiego · 25 July 1999]

If you're into nostalgia for the 60's and 70's this film of the stage play is a good choice. Like a 60's commune or "house" you will find a make-shift family looking to explore their sexuality safely amongst those they can trust. The actors are naked much of the time and the play is about sex, however it is packaged with statements about choice, freedom, and trust. With these three virtues, nudity and sex lose their sense of taboo. In fact, I found the characters respecting each other more when they were undressed! The filmed audience seemed like explorers wondering what this was all about and walked away at the end of the show somehow a little relieved that it wasn't as pornographic as they had thought it would be. Not just clothes were removed in Oh! Calcutta, but taboos too.

In the early eighties I was in a revival-sequel called Calcutta Revisited! with a small experimental theater group. Looking back I believe most of the actors got involved because we wanted to see each other naked. We were all closet exhibitionists who wanted a chance to see what it was like to be nude on stage with strangers, family, and friends looking on. The audience was an equal mix of the avant garde art house crowd weened on female performance artists smearing peanut butter on their breasts, lesbians who heard about my passion filled kissing scenes with two other actresses, nerdy guys who read about the play in the weekly reader, and of course our friends, family members, co-workers from our day jobs, roomies, and neighbors. The audience walked away a little disappointed that it wasn't a bit more pornographic. Full frontal nudity was no longer enough even with the addition of the lesbian scenes.

So please rent Oh Calcutta! (if you can find it) and visit a period of our past that wasn't so bad.

Yuck. Sweaty naked people.

[SanDiego · 14 April 1999]

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.