Noises Off

By definition, farcical violence is designed to be laughed at. An actor falls downstairs. A man slips. Actors sabotage each other. A woman is mistakenly punched in the eye. A man's nose bleeds easily and often. Actors shove each other. One bites another on the leg. A woman is kicked in the knee by a supposed romantic rival. A woman is seen comically strangling her ex-lover.

Backstage romances abound. As couples switch allegiances, jealousies are played out on stage and off. The play-within-the-play features two couples arriving at a cottage, thinking it empty, to have sex. A character spends most of the movie wearing only a lacy bra, underpants, and stockings. A man is having an affair with two women at once and gets one pregnant. Men drop their pants for non-sexual reasons. In several scenes couples seeming to be in sexual positions are actually doing something else (in one case, cactus needles are being removed from a man's behind by another man and, in another, cast members are crouching as they search for a lost contact lens). Word play abounds: someone wants to "go into a few things," or is "poking around." As the play is in progress on stage, a voice can be heard from backstage yelling, "I'm pregnant."

"F--k."

A bottle of whisky is passed around as cast members try to keep it from an alcoholic actor. As disasters mount on stage, the actors drink from the bottle.