Customer Reviews

Oh! Calcutta!

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Oh Calcutta is not well represented by this DVD, or the original VHS version either...(they are both identical). Let us first say that unlike other mentions of this show being a taped version of the Broadway show; not so. Some of it was taped at a television studio on the West Side of Manhattan, and the exteriors were taped in Connecticut at someones property. It was the same script as the Broadway show, but it included some actors who were not in the original Off-Broadway version, such as Alan Rachins, Bonnie Enton, Katie Drew Wilkenson and Leon Russom. Bill Macy never did the Broadway version but left the show while it was Off-Broadway. Levy asked him to do the taping and he agreed.

Oh Calcutta was never a great show. It was a musical review with various authors contributing sketches (some were rejected) that were picked over, pasted together, and even rewritten, by Jacques Levy, Margo Sappinton, the Open Window, and with significant(unrewarded)contributions and efforts by the original cast.

The taping was an awkward affair with the invited audience kept waiting for almost two hours before the taping began and each scene was done alone, with time taken between scenes for setting up the next one. There were only a few scenes done in front of that mostly bored audience while the rest of the scenes were taped later after the audience was excused. Some scenes were done in the middle of the night with exhausted actors and the crew working into the dawn hours. The audience reactions were recorded and sweetened in the final mix.

Now here is the kicker. The actors, who had contracts to be paid for any transfer of the original tape to another media, and who had a percentage of the profits, were never paid for those transfers or profits, including the motion picture profits. (they transferred it to film and distributed it internationally) Those profits were reported in trade papers as 7 million dollars! The reported cost of the taping? $400 thousand. How do I know? Because I was one of the actors.

Adding insult to injury they now have transferred it to DVD.

If you buy this DVD new, you are lining the pockets of the same people who cheated the actors.

For mature audiences only! This gem on video or DVD is a keeper. It is a product of the 1960's and early 70's where people started to question sexual mores and values, and it pokes fun at our beliefs, inhibitions and hang ups about the human body, nudity, and sexuality.

The video is based on the stage play of the same name. I have never seen the live play, so I cannot comment on how it compares to the live play, but I do know that it is a introspective about our attitudes on one of the most important of topics of human nature -- none of us would be here without it.

There is full frontal male and female nudity and simulated sex scenes.

It is basically a series of short skits dealing with various aspects of human sexuality including swinging and dating, being sexual naive, victorian repression, fantasies, sexual experiments. And there are also parts that simply celebrate our sensuousness, sensuality, sexuality, such as the beautiful nude ballet scene.

This is a classic of film.

The DVD is just made from the VHS video.

By the way, the title "Oh! Calcutta!" has nothing to do with Calcutta in India. It is a corruption of the French, "O quelle cul ta!" which means "What a nice rear end you have!"

There was a lot of new ground broken when "Oh! Calcutta!" opened off Broadway as the turbulent '60s rolled to a close. Half play, half musical, the production was notable for its brazen use of full nudity (male and female) on stage. Even today, three decades later (and more than 10 years since the long-running show closed its curtain for the last time in Manhattan), I still hear about the bold, innovative landmark in theater. Given the involvement of luminaries such as John Lennon, Sam Shepard, Jules Feiffer and Peter Schickele (a.k.a. PDQ Bach) in its composition, I was intrigued to see how the video of the original "Oh! Calcutta!" stood the test of time.

It doesn't.

I've seen a lot of creative things done combining nudity and dance, and much of it has been done quite well. And it's in that area that "Oh! Calcutta!" still shines. The choreography, credited to Margo Sappington, is excellent in many places.

But the comic skits which make up the bulk of the show are for the most part sophomoric. The writers and performers seem almost like pre-teens, giggling at the blatant sexuality and striving primarily to shock the audience. This isn't just stage nudity, you see -- the video is laced heavily with simulated sex, oral sex and gratuitous groping.

I could probably have been a lot more forgiving if the production had gotten off to a better start. However, after a successful opening scene, the second bit left a bitter taste in my mouth for the rest of the show.

The scene in question features nursery rhyme characters Jack and Jill in bright yellow schoolchild garb; it starts off as a mildly amusing farce about innocence in the face of "cocktail parties and orgy parties" and ends with a brutal rape. There's nothing to laugh about, nor is there any deep or meaningful point to be made. The scene attempts to shock, which it does successfully. But, given that most of the play is "funny stuff," rape is a tasteless, pointless plot device.

Nothing in the remaining span of the video redeems that fatal flaw. Sure, some of the skits are funny, and some are clever, but there isn't anything funny or clever enough. And some scenes -- for instance, a nervous husband and wife on their first night of spouse swapping, and a group of men who project sexual fantasies on a big screen and masturbate to the images -- are just plain crude.

Fortunately, "Oh! Calcutta!" still has some excellent dance numbers going for it. Unfortunately, the music itself is fairly lackluster throughout. All in all, there are better ways to spend two hours of your time, unless you're really desperate to see nude bodies on stage.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles editor

I was a child when this play came out, but always heard of Oh! Calcutta! Very surprised when I stumbled upon this DVD ( which according to another reviewer here who said he was in the show: the actors were not paid? Sorry Amazon, if that is true I can not buy this DVD)

Even by today's standards, and I am not a prude or anything, there were elements of this play that were raunchy and surprising but overall I really enjoyed it. ( rape scene-awful!!! scientists studying 2 people having sex-funny!) I can see where Saturday Night Live may have been influenced by this play. Several of the skits were really clever, such as the 5 singers sitting on stools, wearing formal wear singing about fantasies. I had to play that scene again, the music/singing was fantastic!

Now another reason I liked it and maybe others would not, is because I have a thing for early 70s music, style, history,aura...and if you want to go back in time and get a big sense of the era, this DVD will take you there, from the opening shot of the audience ( styles of clothes, their makeup , etc) to the semi psychedelic hippyish music and the scene of naked frolicing outdoors...it was a time warp!

Definatly worth renting but again, if what that other reviewer says is true, i can not endorse buying it. It was wrong not to pay the actors fairly.

I admit I haven't bought this DVD...yet. I did see the revue when it played at the Eden Theater in NY back in the '70s. What caught my eye in the Amazon description is that it lists (twice) John Lennon as an actor in it. I don't think so! He supposedly contributed a rough draft of one of the sketches...as did many other contributors. As I recall, in the Playbill at the time no one person was credited with any particular sketch, so it was always a matter of guessing...and futile guessing at that.

At the time, any nudity onstage was shocking and thus of course commercially viable. HAIR had its one scene where everyone (as I recall it) was under a blanket or something, stripping. Then they stood up and threw off the cover and a split second later the lights blacked out. The nude cast ran up the aisles and then the houselights came up for intermission. Joe Butler of The Lovin' Spoonful was in the cast when I saw the show and he ran up the aisle to my right. This recollection has nothing to do with OH! CALCUTTA, but I thought I'd throw it in anyway.

Getting back to OH! CALCUTTA, in this age of frequent nudity (though never enough!), I don't suppose the "shock value" of this piece is anything more than quaint. And the price of this is rather prohibitive. But it would be fun to see it again.

Yes, this has nudity, but it is dull and a poor attempt to capture the Benny Hill flavor of comedy. You can watch this, but I think it is boring and tries too hard.

For mature audiences only! This gem on video or DVD is a keeper. It is a product of the 1960's and early 70's where people started to question sexual mores and values, and it pokes fun at our beliefs, inhibitions and hang ups about the human body, nudity, and sexuality.

The video is based on the stage play of the same name. I have never seen the live play, so I cannot comment on how it compares to the live play, but I do know that it is a introspective about our attitudes on one of the most important of topics of human nature -- none of us would be here without it.

There is full frontal male and female nudity and simulated sex scenes.

It is basically a series of short skits dealing with various aspects of human sexuality including swinging and dating, being sexual naive, victorian repression, fantasies, sexual experiments. And there are also parts that simply celebrate our sensuousness, sensuality, sexuality, such as the beautiful nude ballet scene.

This is a classic of film.

The DVD is just made from the VHS video.

By the way, the title "Oh! Calcutta!" has nothing to do with Calcutta in India. It is a corruption of the French, "O quelle cul ta!" which means "What a nice rear end you have!"

This review is taken from my review of another edition of the same DVD.

While, sure, it could have been better written, better filmed, better preserved for transfer... it's worth seeing. Everything is clean enough to see. Words are intelligible, and the dancing is beautiful.

I'd suggest borrowing it from Netflix or some other rental place before investing in the DVD yourself.

But from someone who is denied, by virtue of not having been born in 1974, of having seen the show onstage, I was delighted to find it.

They simply don't do naked theater anymore, and I think nudity can convey elements of the human condition that costume cannot.

It reminded me quite a bit of "Free to Be You and Me"

Considering the team of very talented writers that they had developing this show, you would expect that it would be a literate and witty satire on sex. I don't know what went wrong in the writing, but unfortunately the sketches turned out to be neither literate nor witty. I can only speculate about what went wrong; perhaps they just had too many writers on the project and they ended up working at cross purposes and canceled out each other's talents? All I know for sure is that the sketches are terribly sophomoric and stupid. The producers of this show could have achieved the same level of writing sophistication if they had simply hired 3 or 4 undergraduates, given them two pitchers of beer and told them to write about sex. The music is similarly insipid, especially disappointing since I've always been a fan of Peter Schickele.

The strengths of Oh! Calcutta! are in the dance parts, which unfortunately are too small of a proportion of the film to make up for the weaknesses of the rest of it. The DVD is worth renting just to see the dance piece "One on One," which features some great choreography and is performed with great skill, gracefulness, and erotic vitality.

How does one rate this flick for a review ? VERY CAREFULLY, I think ! Make sure all the Kiddies are tucked in nicely before rolling this one ! What does this movie leave to the imagination ? = NOTHING ! Is this movie naughty ? = DEFINITELY ! Is this movie Raunchy ? = PROBABLY ? Movie theme =exposure ! Movie plot = exposure. If your pleasure is exposure wrapped in nudity,? this is your flick ?