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Whilst THAT scene is possibly the sexiest example of pre-code Hollywood, it wouldn't have worked unless you hadn't not only got to know Joan Blondel's character but fallen a little bit in love with her. The magic of this movie is that you do fall in love with her.

Rarely in these old pictures are you drawn so deeply into the story but Roy del Ruth's absolute perfect direction manages to transport you, if you're male, into the shoes of Jimmy Cagney. For an hour and a half, you're not simply watching this, you are in it, you are Cagney and every upset, every setback hits you. Every twinkle in the eye or hidden smile of Blondell makes your heart skip a beat. That immersive experience is what makes you fall in love with Blondell. It's not just because she's drop-dead gorgeous, it's because you feel you personally know her.

Like the divine Joan, Jimmy Cagney also doesn't come across like he's acting - he projects an utterly believable, real and likeable person.

This isn't quite a straight drama, it isn't quite a comedy, it isn't just a story about two small time con-artists - it's about a relationship, it's about love. Soppy and melodramatic it is definitely not but if tears don't start to trickle from your cynical hard-boiled eyes in the scenes near the end then you're not normal. Just tell yourself you're watching a tough, macho Cagney movie, if it helps but really you're watching one of the most touching love stories ever committed to celluloid.

The hand-held camera gives this a very intimate feel. Whether it's a serious drama or a dramatic comedy, the best films don't just make you feel as though the characters you're watching are believable real people whom you can relate to. The best films drag you, you, yourself up onto the screen and make you become them. In this brilliantly composed "comedy" although Benjamin must have by the squarest, dullest least groovy sixties student ever, you are in his shoes. You feel his anguish, his awkwardness, his sense of hopelessness and cringe with him as his life drags him into a very personal darkness. You personally are excited, you personally feel hope growing inside you when Benjamin meets and experiences love from Mrs Robinson's daughter. It's an exceptionally well composed story.

This subject must have been filmed dozens of times but not like this. Mike Nichols virtually created his own genre. It is totally unique, there's nothing else like it. Perfect writing, perfect acting, perfect direction, perfect soundtrack all resulting in perfect and compelling storytelling. It also beautifully evokes the mood of the real 1960s. Forget Austin Powers, this was the real sixties. The gaudy, intense old-fashioned Technicolor enhances that sense that the sixties was determined to cling on to be more of the fifties but the contrast of the fantastic imaginative cinematography tell you that the times, they are a changing.

For gentlemen of a certain age, Yvette from ALLO ALLO was the epitome of sexiness. Thousands of teenage boys in the 1980s would count down the days to the next Sunday evening to catch their next glimpse of tv's most outrageously hot waitress. And now you've discovered she did a naked horror film ..... has Christmas come early for you? No - this is a dire film and although Vicki Michell tends to loose her clothes a few times, she's actually a million times hotter in ALLO ALLO.

Bland, one-dimensional characters and a story that's both ridiculously unbelievable and pointlessly convoluted gives us a bland, disjointed and completely unengaging ninety minutes. The last thing you might think is that if you put two naked, attractive young ladies in a picture you end up with something really boring. That however is what you get. They're just not real enough. If you can't believe in the characters, you can't invest any emotion in them. You might as well just watch a cartoon.

Admittedly, the girls do look rather hot in their short skirts which we see them in at the beginning but unfortunately this film lasts more than the necessary three minutes needed to note this. The subsequent gratuitous nudity feels cheap, tacky and tasteless. After watching this you won't feel good about yourself - you'll feel you've been part of something rather distasteful.