Genre: Period comedy/drama,
Rating: M 95’ sexual themes and sexual references
Cast: Hugh Dancy(The Jane Austen Book Club), Maggie Gyllenhaal(The Dark Knight), Felicity Jones(Northhanger Abbey), Johnathon Pryce(Pirates of the Carribean, Rupert Everett(The Importance of Being Earnest)
Director: Tanya Wexler
Mortimer Granville is frustrated by the medical practitioners who do not employ modern techniques in the treatment of their patients and has made himself almost unemployable with his protests, until, he visits the surgery of Dr. Robert Dalrymple who specialises in the treatment of 'Hysteria' in women. Hang on to your hats girls because their methode is basically genital fondling until the patient achieves an 'hysterical paroxsym' (also known as an orgasm)...allaying the world's frustrations and setting all to right for the patient! Mortimer must be very good at his job because the surgery starts taking bookings well in advance, so much so, he develops a repetitive strain injury from all of that 'manipulation'. He hankers for some real medical practice and is distracted by Charlotte Dalrymple's plea for professional help at her charitable women's respite (and suffragette refuge). Meanwhile, the more demure Emily Dalrymple is eyeing the marital prospects of Mortimer. Needless to say, he has spread himself very thin to manage all interests and...his arm still hurts. Mortimers wealthy housemate, electricity enthusuiast and inventor, Edmund, assists him to create a device that can achieve the desired Paroxsym within 10 minutes as opposed to the manual stimulation period of 1 hour. Their experimentation is successfully tested on a randy housemaid and deployed with immediate urgency to the growing number of patients at the surgery. In the meantime, Charlotte's campaigning for women's rights has brought her to the courtroom where she has been diagnosed with an incurable Hysteria and is to be committed to an asylm. Alas, Mortimer must now make his choice of the sisters and puts all on the line by divulging the real truth behind the 'Hysteria' diagnosis.
Some additional information. Mortimer was the first to patent the vibrator; it becomes the fifth electronic household appliance ever invented and in the early 20th C was advertised for mail order delivery in Women's domesticity publications. It even preceded the electric iron! Okay...in perspective "Will I do the ironing or have an orgasm..hmmm!" A French film in the 1920's depicted the vibrator in a more erotic scenario and henceforthe the device moved underground!
Reviews:
"Carefully composed images, excellent period costumes and a nice, frilly score decorate the film to such an extent it becomes wholesome and staid" Andrew Urban Urban Cinefile
"The movie is most entertaining during its pre-vibrator sequences, which generate laughs by presenting risqué material within the very civilized and even stuffy context of proper English society. : John Beifuss Commercial Appeal
"It's happy to get the big facts broadly right, as long as it's allowed to have a little fun with the rest." Michael O'Sullivan Washington Post