Cry Uncle! (1971)

Cry Uncle! is the kind of shaggy, anything-goes ’70s oddity that feels like a dirty joke told with a straight face: a noir-ish private-eye setup shoved into a gleefully disreputable sex farce, with John G. Avildsen (yes, the future Rocky director) keeping the chaos moving like he’s daring you to keep up. It plays like a time capsule of New York sleaze and counterculture pranksterism—part mystery, part crime caper, part raunchy comedy—where the narration and deadpan performances give the whole thing a wink even when it’s being outrageous. If you’re on the fence, know this: it’s less about “whodunit” suspense than the audacity of how it keeps turning corners into blackmail, absurdity, and bad decisions, all with a scruffy, low-budget charm. It’s absolutely not for everyone—there’s a lot of explicit nudity and simulated sex played for laughs—but if you have a taste for transgressive midnight movies and offbeat detective spoofs, this one has the nerve and momentum to win you over.

Cry Uncle! is clearly aiming for a sleazy, anything-goes spoof of hardboiled detective stories, mixing a murder mystery with sex farce and blackmail shenanigans. The problem is the execution: the direction feels cheap and jittery, the tone swings wildly between “parody” and “soft-core shock,” and the jokes often land with a thud, making the whole thing feel more frantic than funny. If you’re expecting a clever whodunit, smooth noir style, or even consistent comedy, this will likely feel like a messy curiosity that mistakes nudity for punchlines. That said, Allen Garfield brings some watchable energy, and if you’re specifically hunting for oddball early-’70s exploitation-adjacent comedy with very explicit nudity played for laughs, you may find it amusing in a “what on earth is this?” way.