Rabbit Test (film)
| Rabbit Test | |
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| Directed by | Joan Rivers |
| Produced by | Edgar Rosenberg |
| Written by | Joan Rivers, Jay Redack |
| Starring | Billy Crystal Roddy McDowall Joan Prather Alex Rocco Doris Roberts |
| Music by | Pete Carpenter, Mike Post |
| Cinematography | Lucien Ballard |
| Editing by | Stanford C. Allen |
| Distributed by | AVCO Embassy Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1978 |
| Running time | 81 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | N/A |
Rabbit Test is a 1978 comedy motion picture about the world's first pregnant man, directed by Joan Rivers and starring Billy Crystal.
Its title is derived from the rabbit test previously used to determine pregnancy.
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[edit] Plot
Lionel Carpenter is a night-school teacher who has bad luck with women. He remains a virgin until his brash cousin Danny (Alex Rocco) sets him up with a one-night stand. Soon after, Lionel starts feeling nauseous and throwing up, eventually doing so onto Segoynia Savaka (Joan Prather), one of his immigrant students. This turns out to be a blessing in disguise, as it gives him an excuse to ask her out on a date, and a romance develops.
When Lionel meets Segoynia's fortune-telling grandmother (played by Roddy McDowall in drag), she intuits that he is the world's first pregnant man. This results in a series of gags relating to his pregnancy and people's reactions to it. One sideplot has Lionel being pursued by the army, as the president is afraid of what effect the widespread ability of men to conceive will have on population growth.
In the ending sequence, which is patterned after the Nativity, Lionel finally goes into labour. The camera rises to heaven where God announces to the viewers the successful delivery: "Oh my god... it's a girl!"
[edit] Production
This was the first and only theatrical film directed by Joan Rivers. It was also Billy Crystal's first starring role.
Rivers makes a cameo appearance as a comic nurse. Her daughter Melissa Rivers also has a bit part.[1]
Rivers' husband Edgar Rosenberg was producer.[1]
There are many cameo appearances by notable performers, including Imogene Coca, Richard Deacon, Norman Fell, Fannie Flagg, Alice Ghostley, Roosevelt Grier, George Gobel, Paul Lynde, Roddy McDowall, Sheree North, Charles Pierce, Tom Poston, Charlotte Rae, and Jimmie Walker.[1]
Whereas the similarly plotted Junior (1994) explains how its male protagonist gets pregnant (injection of a fertilized embryo into the abdominal cavity), in Rabbit Test this area is never delved into; Lionel simply has sex (he's on the bottom) and becomes pregnant.
