Inserts

I first saw this film alone. The following night I took my friends, and that weekend I named my band after it. In Cambridge in 1977, this film became a small cult. The allusions to silent days were intriguing to a burgeoning film buff, with Clark Gable, that kid from Pathe, forever trying to get through the door, junkie reminiscences of Wally Reid, and many more nods and in-jokes that I would undoubtedly smile at now from knowledge, not ignorance.

The performances were, as I recall, uniformly good, with Dreyfus - whom I had only seen previously in American Graffiti - a revelation. This was also the first big screen role I can remember from Bob Hoskins, and after her small but memorable role in Love and Death, Jessica Harper brought just the right degree of irritating sexiness to Cathy Cake.

Annoyingly, despite the limitations of scale, and the occasional staginess, I don't think John Byrum has ever made a better film!

This unusual and imaginative tale is well-acted, funny, and a credit to Dreyfuss, Harper (Phantom of the Paradise), and Hoskins (The Long Good Friday). The comments of others will give you a sense of the plot line; the sad thing is that you may never see this small gem, which richly deserves to be released on tape. I certainly regret not being able to see it again.

I think many reviewers have lost the point here. This is no excuse for porn, you guys. If you want porn, go get porn. And if you are put off by a film that entirely takes place in an apartment, stay away. But I think that this film is not one you get to see every day. Its special 'plot' and context could only create a unique film. So, its rare... where do we find it? I saw it on MGM, late at night...

This is a pretty sophisticated film on making porn. Dreyfuss is excellent as the alcoholic director. All in all, you are likely to love it if you like smart, dialog based films, and of course if you're not offended by some nudity and decadence. But what did you expect? This guys is making porn films in his apartment!

Provocative , a bit offensive , surprisingly shockin, yes, but unique and original as well. Note: this is no expoitation flick, even though some might view enjoy it as such...

John Byrum's 1975 film "Inserts" owes a lot to Hitchcock's 1948 classic "Rope". Although it does not feature Hitchcock's experimental feature length continuous shot, it is nonetheless told in real time. The 115 minute running length is the time needed to tell the story as it is the entire duration of the action on the screen, nicely book-ended by shots of the main character alone in his Hollywood home playing the piano. There are no flashbacks or progression of time sequences, and the camera frame never leaves the immediate area of the great room of the house.

Technically two cameras as this is one of those "film within a film" things; one on and one off screen. The main character (played by Richard Dreyfuss) is a gone-to-seed once famous movie director nicknamed "The Boy Wonder". It's never made entirely clear whether his is a self-imposed exile; only that he has great disdain for talking pictures. In the midst of the Great Depression he earns money cranking out smut films shot inside his doomed home; a house standing in the path of the so-to-be Hollywood freeway.

Inside his Moorish style bungalow, all the Boy Wonder needs is a girl, a boy, a camera, and a bottle. This is a casual set with the director prowling around in his bathrobe and the swimming pool serving as his septic tank. And not unexpectedly there are a fair amount of self-reflexive movie references in the script; such as those about the "new Gable kid at Pathe" who wants The Boy Wonder to direct his next film.

"Inserts" is odd and ambitious, more a play than a film; with dialog and intensity level worthy of "Dinner Rush" (2002). Watch how all scene transitions are signaled by the entrance or exit of a character speaking dramatic entrance and exit lines. The Boy Wonder's leading lady (played by Veronica Cartwright) is the first character to make an appearance. She's an airhead flapper with a heroin habit and a heart of gold. Cartwright is wonderful in this role, with a voice just slightly less irritating than the one Jean Hagen brought to her character in "Singin in the Raid". Voices that for obvious reasons were a better fit in the silent film days.

Next to appear is the leading man, Rex the Wonder Dog (Stephen Davies), a gravedigger who will do anything to break into the movie business. Bob Hoskins plays Big Mac, a gangster with a plan to open up a chain of hamburger stands. He is financing The Boy Wonder's films and pays a visit to the set along with his new girl Cathy Cake (Jessica Harper). Cathy has come from Chicago to break into the talkies and is playing Big Mac to get a jump-start on her acting career.

"Inserts" shares its main theme with "The Stunt Man", the blurring of a participants's ability to distinguish between the reality of life and the fiction being acted for the camera. Watch for the occasions where the actors get into a scene too far; even the "barely with a pulse" Boy Wonder gets too involved. A liquor bottle broken over their head quickly brings these characters back to earth, insert heavy symbolism here.

Bynum also allegorically explores the dynamic of an artist who must create for an audience for whom he has total contempt. The Boy Wonder is equally contemptuous of smut viewers and mainstream commercial movie goers.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

The same year that he starred in "Jaws", Richard Dreyfuss played a very different role in John Byrum's "Inserts". This focus on a director whose trouble adjusting to the arrival of talkies has resulted in him directing porno flicks is quite shocking. I guess that the point is that the dreams that people had of going to Hollywood and becoming stars - whether in front of or behind the camera - were in vain.

Jessica Harper's role as the moll interested in porno reminded me a bit of her aspiring singer in Brian DePalma's "Phantom of the Paradise". Bob Hoskins as the producer reminded me very much of his detective in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (incidentally, both movies focus on old Hollywood and mention the construction of freeways). As for Veronica Cartwright, this movie combined with "The Birds" and "Alien" makes her one versatile actress.

All in all, this movie won't be for everyone, but I liked it.