Inserts (film)
| Inserts | |
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 Film poster |
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| Directed by | John Byrum |
| Produced by | Davina Belling Harry Benn Clive Parsons |
| Written by | John Byrum |
| Starring | Richard Dreyfuss Veronica Cartwright Jessica Harper Bob Hoskins Stephen Davies |
| Cinematography | Denys N. Coop |
| Editing by | Michael Bradsell |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | 1975 |
| Running time | 117 mins |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Inserts is a 1975 British film, written and directed by John Byrum while he was in his twenties, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Jessica Harper, Bob Hoskins and Veronica Cartwright. Featuring full-frontal nudity, a drug overdose, and no shortage of macabre humor, it was originally rated X but later re-rated as NC 17.
The film's title takes its name from the double meaning that "insert" both refers to a film technique and sexual intercourse. Inserts was filmed like a stage play on one set.
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[edit] Plot
The story takes place in Hollywood, shortly after the start of the talkie period. A visionary and gifted young Hollywood director (Dreyfuss) known as The Boy Wonder has fallen out of favor with the studios. This is ostensibly due to his reluctance to lower his standards or abandon his artistic and experimental style (such as using a hand-held camera) for the sake of churning out lesser quality films for easy money, possibly due to his full-blown alcoholism.
The Boy Wonder, who is impotent, is willing to live in a decaying mansion shooting low quality stag films for little money instead of making a lucrative living shooting big budget mainstream films for larger audiences due to principle. He shoots pornographic clips for the "syphilitic men who will pay 25 cents to watch them" and in support of his drinking problem. He works out of his mansion, which is the only one left on a lot being turned into a freeway.
On the morning of this particular shoot, he hires a heroin-addicted waitress, Harlene (Cartwright), who was once a well-known and respected star during the silent film era. She is now the star in the first of his six-picture deal. We witness her preparing and shooting heroin along while The Boy Wonder drinks heavily during a conversation about the changing times in Hollywood.
An actor called Rex the Wonder Dog (played by Stephen Davies) soon arrives in a white suit with grass stains on his knees because he just came from his job working for a mortician. He is an intellectually unenlightened man, but due to his good looks and ability to take direction there is interest from concerned parties about his getting work in the mainstream talkies.
The Boy Wonder awkwardly attempts to make an artistic film using an actress under the influence of heroin and an actor who becomes increasingly frustrated with the director and all of his poetic talk, much of which he admits he doesn't understand. The scene goes wrong when Rex becomes out of control during the action and The Boy Wonder needs to smash a wine bottle over his head to get him to stop.
Enter Big Mac (Hoskins), a porno film producer. He has heroin packets in his jacket pocket, a cigar in his mouth, wads of money for Rex and a pretty wannabe hanging on his arm (Cathy Cake, played by Harper). Harlene takes her payment in heroin and soon dies from an overdose.
Big Mac convinces Rex to help him bury the body and, while the two are away, Cathy and The Boy Wonder develop a chemistry that eventually leads to another ironic high point in the film. He makes love to her believing he has found something of a soulmate, but she is disappointed when she learns the camera was off throughout the tryst.
The Boy Wonder realizes that this romantic encounter was simply a ploy to get her into the film. Big Mac returns and finds them disheveled. In a rage, Big Mac ends his six-picture stag film contract with The Boy Wonder, who by this time is completely drunk. The end of the film finds The Boy Wonder alone, again, pondering what he'll eat for lunch.
[edit] Cast
- Richard Dreyfuss as "The Boy Wonder"
- Jessica Harper as Cathy Cake
- Veronica Cartwright as Harlene
- Bob Hoskins as Big Mac
- Stephen Davies as Rex
[edit] Cultural References
Movie industry names are dropped throughout the film, starting and ending with (pre-fame) Clark Gable, but also including Wallace Reid, Jack Pickford, Lillian Gish, D. W. Griffith, Cecil B. deMille, and Will H. Hays, head of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. Rex's impending "date" (a "Big Cheese from Metro") is a thinly-veiled reference to director F. W. Murnau.
[edit] External links
- Inserts at the Internet Movie Database
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