over here (England, or if you will the UK, look you see) we have about a hundred (give or take) free to air television stations. well, maybe less ("fewer"), but still, a lot more than the 3 and then 4 what i grew up with. usually, or invariably, there's a variable (to be kind) level of quality to what each of them elects to screen. every now and then, mind, you stumble on a gem. well, if not a gem, then something or other of note, or partial interest. yes, this is going somewhere.
it has now come to pass that, more often than not, at 10pm each evening i shall tune into one particular channel, the one called (i think) Together TV. why would i do such? because that's the time, and so far in my experience it is daily, they broadcast some "classic" 70s example of British (if we are honest) smut. yes, a bit of cheeky, rude, saucy cinema. extraordinarily tame by the standards of today of course, but as it happens that is what i kind of prefer. not that i am against any such filth.
whereas they only have half a dozen (or if you like 6) or so such films that they rotate generally i will sit and watch whichever one is on for half an hour or so before retiring to bed for the evening. and why not, for seeing some very pleasant, lovely nudies prior to going to sleep is most agreeable. difficult to say which, exactly, of the ones they constantly show is my favourite. ultimately kind of a tie between one called Au Pair Girls and the one this blog post is about, Can You Keep It Up For A Week, as they, from what i can tell, have the most nudies in them. actually likely Au Pair Girls, as you get loads of full tilt nudies from the start, whereas you have to wait a bit for some "plot" stuff with this Can You Keep It Up For A Week one.
somehow it took me a lot longer (as it were) to work out who(m), exactly, was the (male) lead star of this particular film. which is, as the below picture confirms, is Jeremy Bulloch. as in the Jeremy Bulloch. yes, that one. he who was, for those of us there at the time, Boba Fett. once again, yes, that Boba Fett, as in the one out of Star Wars. whereas for those comfortable in the 21st century it is now so that Temuera Morrison is Boba Fett (and a damned good one), for those of us who kind of prefer to linger in the 20th century (for it was better), it shall always be known that Jeremy Bulloch was he.
not, in retrospect, too much of a surprise that i didn't immediately clock it was him. usually i don't see the credits of Can You Keep It Up For A Week for i know there are no nudies on offer so i nip outside momentarily for a cigarette (sorry). also, famously, Boba Fett (as a 20th century concern) always kept his bucket like helmet thing on, so it's not like you (or one) would recognise him. being as honest as i possibly can, it's also not him (appreciating he is the ostensible protagonist) that i watch the film for.
plot? yes, there is one. i paid vague attention to it once. from what i recall it's that the fiancé of the Jeremy Bulloch character (nope, no idea on the name) refuses to get married unless Jeremy can keep hold of a job for at least one (1) week. much of the film seems to be the plight of Jeremy trying to do this, but somehow end up losing the job prior to seven days due to some sort of indiscretion, the nature of which is him ending up in quite a (very enjoyable looking) compromising sexual situation that in some way or other displeases his (brief) employer.
honestly i had never bothered to look at the other films what Jeremy Bulloch had been in. yes, as is widely known his presentation of Boba Fett made him the third best character in Star Wars, just behind Lando and Lobot. but still, not interesting enough to see what else he had been in. now that i think, though, i really need to see what actor played Lobot and see what other films they gone done, on the off chance i have missed out on some other saucy filth.
quite the insight into the casting decisions George Lucas made, this. or at the least the casting choices made in regards of English (or British) actors playing characters what face you never see. famously David Prowse got cast as Darth Vader based on being in A Clockwork Orange, a film which doesn't immediately suggest "space dude with laser sword", but there was no flaw in the Lucas view of "good enough for Kubrick is good enough for me". presumably, or maybe, George Lucas sat and watched Can You Keep It Up For A Week, possibly enjoyed aspects of it like i did, but he also saw the lead actor and said "you know what, he would be quite class with a bucket on his head and a missile firing jet pack on his back". this has been proven as a categorically excellent view.
leaving aside the Jeremy Bulloch aspect for now and alarm bells rang when i once got more than half an hour or so into the film and was confronted with Richard O'Sullivan. as in yes, the Richard O'Sullivan. who, to be fair, is there right from the start of Au Pair Girls, but i had no idea he had done more than one of these "saucy" films. for my generation (born in the 70s) Richard O'Sullivan was the darling of early evening family (by 70s standards) entertainment, featuring in stuff like Man About The House, Robin's Nest and of course Dick Turpin. i had no idea at all that, and presumably our parents knew, initially the idea was to market Richard O'Sullivan as a "British John Holmes", or if you like Dirk Diggler. well, at least as far as the prudish "none of that sort of thing" sorts at the BBFC would allow, with nudies and intimacy being things they did not believe the British public should be allowed to see.
for his role in this one (in Au Pair Girls he is just the understandably quite randy son of a wealthy business owner) he seems to play an effete hairdresser or something. think it might be a hairdresser, but the emphasis is very much on the effete part there. yes, oh yes, it is so that Richard O'Sullivan and Jeremy Bulloch do share a scene. an image of it is below, and it appears to be the point in our history at which things like "gender fluid" and "non-binary" were invented.
just done a bit of research (unusual i know) and as it turns out this was the last film role Richard O'Sullivan did. i wonder if it was due to him feeling he had reached a peak, or zenith, and from a cinematic point of view he felt this was the way to leave his legacy. or just that he wanted to concentrate on his television career, and anyway around that time (early to mid 70s) someone thought it was a good idea to start casting Robin Askwith in this kind of role for that sort of thing. anyway, as at the time this will appear on the internet thing it is close to christmas, no doubt as usual at least one newspaper will run a story on how the much beloved Richard O'Sullivan lives in a lovely retirement home which is kind of exclusive for famous types and celebrities.
do i recommend Can You Keep It Up For A Week? well, that's tricky. if we take as a given that the only reason i have frequently watched first half hour (or forty or so minutes) of it is the nudies, well, that's up to you to decide if that is also what you want from a film. admittedly when i have paid attention to the other parts it does seem light heartedly amusing watching, mostly from the perspective of the numerous absurd ways it turns out that Jeremy ends up in a (somewhat) compromising position.
certainly a temptation exists to do a (sort of) quasi companion piece to this post and share more thoughts on that other film, Au Pair Girls, but Jeremy Bulloch isn't in it. maybe if i see there's a significant level of interest in this i will do one, but at this stage no plan for it.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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