Not Coming to a Theater Near You

The blonde and mischievous Eve follows a general Mr. Fixit and conspires to entrap him in situations of temptation. A companion and thematic extension of The Immoral Mr. Teas, Eve and the Handyman identifies an omnipresent female lust in one woman instead of many, in Meyer’s (former) wife, Eve.

She makes a game of tempting the handyman, arranging situations in which he is tempted by a beautiful, usually provocatively (un)dressed woman. One involves the delivery of two scoops of vanilla ice cream with two meticulously-placed cherries by a similarly-proportioned waitress. In another, he encounters a hitchhiker who has eschewed an item of clothing for every car that passes her. He stops, responsibly hands her a jacket, and leaves.

Eve illustrates one of Meyer’s ironies, that he’s a filmmaker with unpretentious chauvinist interests, yet his primary character is an empowered female. Like Mr. Teas, Eve is more of a series of related scenarios than it is a meandering narrative. It is of merit, however, as the type of viewer that would object to this film is its principal character.