Can You Keep It Up For A Week?

Year releasted: 1974

by Noel Murray
January 11th, 2006

Plot: Dopey, unexceptional Jeremy Bulloch (who would later achieve fame by playing Boba Fett) wants to get married, but his girlfriend Jill Damas says he isn't marriageable because he can't hold onto a job for more than a day or two. Bulloch's problem? He's accident-prone, and has a habit of losing his clothes and/or making inadvertent lewd gestures around women. Damas promises to marry Bulloch if he can stay employed for a full week, but Damas' boss Neil Hallett—who wants her for himself—arranges to send Bulloch on assignments where compromising positions are inevitable.

Key scenes: A typical Bulloch cock-up: He's in the corner of a doctor's office, adjusting a stuck knob, and doesn't see a female patient walk in, so when the doctor says, "Take your clothes off and lie on the table," Bulloch strips, the patient strips, they lie down together, and naturally, they begin to have sex. (It seems no woman can resist Bulloch's tiny, tiny penis.)

Can easily be distinguished by: The very proper British tone, which makes double-entendres like "just take a piece and stick it in the hole" and "we prize ourselves on satisfaction" sound both smutty and classy.

Sign that it was made in 1974: A streaker races by, bearing a briefcase and a bumbershoot. Later, Bulloch walks into his boss' office wearing a puffy Snoopy sweatshirt. Could this guy get any sexier?

Timeless message: Why get the milk for free when you can buy the cow?

Memorable quotes: While Bulloch is under a car helping a lady mechanic, she says, "You can see what the trouble is. It needs a screw. A very long screw." Bulloch then accidentally rolls on top of her, and when she's alarmed by what she feels against her leg, he explains, "I've got an adjustable spanner in my pocket."

 

Available on DVD from Image, by itself or in the three-disc set Naughty Britain Collection.