Portnoy's Complaint

This controversial film almost garnered an X rating when it was released, and it still shocks today. Screenwriter Ernest Lehman, whose credits include the screenplays for North by Northwest, Sabrina, West Side Story, and The Sweet Smell of Success, wrote and directed the adaptation of the Philip Roth novel about Alexander Portnoy (Richard Benjamin), a Jewish man who, during a session with his analyst, goes on one long tirade after another about his family, his childhood, his sexual fantasies and desires, his problems with women, and his obsession with his own Judaism. Karen Black stars as Portnoy's Gentile lust object, and Jill Clayburgh appears as Naomi, a woman Portnoy meets in Israel.