I'm Not Feeling Myself Tonight!
a.k.a. I Am Not Feeling Myself Tonight
1976 · Directed by Joseph McGrath · UK
I’m Not Feeling Myself Tonight (1976) was directed by Joseph McGrath and written by David McGillivray. The cast includes Barry Andrews, James Booth and Sally Faulkner. Mary Millington has an uncredited role as the girl with sunglasses. McGillivray has writing credits on Satan’s Slave, Frightmare, House of Whipcord, Schizo and House of Mortal Sin. With a CV like that, I was expecting something that would stand out from the usual 1970s British sex comedy. Unfortunately this addition to the genre has little to recommend it.
The plot, such as it is, concerns John Pigeon (Andrews), a cleaner at a sex research institute who invents an electronic sonic aphrodisiac machine in an attempt to seduce his boss’s secretary Cheryl (Faulkner). The boss, Nutbrown (Booth), is after getting his hands on the machine, dubbed AGNES (it is an acronym, but that really doesn’t matter).
The sex research institute consists of patients running around the corridors naked, a nude aerobics class, and no man is safe from the groin-grabbing tea lady. Film historian and critic Kim Newman said the film is “an excruciating comedy with a vaguely offensive plot about a ray gun which turns repressed Britons into sex maniacs.” John ends up head of the institute due to his invention, and Nutbrown his chauffeur. There is an ongoing gag about no one remembering Pigeon’s surname: he gets called Sparrow, Tit, Mallard, etc. That really is the level of comedic nuance that McGillivray presents in his script.
Britain was awash in the 1970s with sexploitation films starring well-known TV and film actors. Among the cast there are cameos from Brian Murphy and Graham Stark, who will be familiar to TV audiences. I guess it was a case of paid work where you could get it. It’s better than Derek Ford’s dismal What’s Up Nurse, but far from Pete Walker’s Cool It, Carol!, which certainly stands out.
