Baby Love [1968] Sexploitation

http://bayimg.com/KAdFLaadl Baby Love (1968) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062693/ Diana Dors ... Luci's Mother Linda Hayden ... Luci Troy Dante ... The Lover Ann Lynn ... Amy (as Anne Lynn) Sheila Steafel ... Tessa Dick Emery ... Harry Keith Barron ... Robert Lewis Wilson ... Priest Luci (Linda Hayden) lives alone with her sluttish, alcoholic mother (a strange, mute, cameo by Diana Dors) in a poor suburb of London. Coming home from school one day Luci discovers her mother’s body in the bathtub…she has slit her wrists. Robert (Keith Barren, “Nothing but the Night“), her mother's high school true love, discovers that she wrote a last letter pleading with him to look after Luci. Robert agrees and takes Luci to his home where she meets his rich wife Amy (Anne Lynn, “The Black Torment“) and their teenage son, Nick (Derek Lamden). Luci holds Robert responsible for her mother’s tragic life and death because he not only left her to go on to university, but left her pregnant. Luci’s wanton sexuality and resentment soon starts to cause friction in the household as one by one the family comes under her spell…. This almost forgotten (and now very hard to find except as dubious quality bootlegs) 60’s British sexual pot-boiler is deserving of a re-evaluation and a better availability, but a certain aspect of it, ironically the film’s strongest aspect, pretty much ensure this is unlikely to happen. That aspect is the lead performance as Luci by Linda Hayden. When she was given really meaty, colourful, characters to play the underrated Hayden showed just how memorable and powerful performer she could be. And if her bland cut-out characters in "Dracula has Risen from the Grave" or the two “Confessions” films she made did her a disservice then her roles in the superb "Blood on Satan's Claw" and her striking debut here in "Baby Love" more than made up for such occurrences.For such a young performer, in her very first film, Hayden is amazingly mature in vocal delivery, facial mannerisms and overall body language and even comes close sometimes to perhaps the greatest 'mature' child performance ever by an even younger Jody Foster in "Taxi Driver". But it has to be said the risqué elements in "Baby Love" are far more explicit than anything Foster, controversially, got involved with in Scorsese’s masterwork. Hayden shows, even at this age, she is not only a fine actress but that she has no qualms about stripping off for the camera and you have to balk now at how these scenes (especially when linked in with her sexually provocative actions) were ever allowed. At the age of 15 Hayden is shown naked from behind and also has a few brief topless scenes. It's thus extremely unlikely this movie could ever get a certificate today from the BBFC as it blatantly breaks UK obscenity laws they are meant to abide by (the now very rare ‘18' rated VHS releases from 1988 and 1994 seem to show a lack of knowledge by the BBFC as far as Hayden's age went, indeed upon discovery of Mario Van Peebles true age in his nude/sex scenes in “Sweet Sweetback…” those once allowed scenes were removed) and indeed you have to wonder if it could get legal distribution anywhere today. But lets not let this aspect of her performance overshadow the genuine thespian skills she shows here and you have to wonder why she never truly had a bigger (or indeed better used) career. Her character is also not a one-note ‘Lolita’ clone either. Hayden has some complex psychology to essay as Luci. It is obvious that Luci, due to her upbringing, survives and 'gets through it' in the only way she knows. By using her budding sexuality. The screenplay (by Alastair Reid, Guido Coen and prolific producer Michael Klinger from a novel by Tina Chad Christian) mostly handles this wild sexuality very well and the mix of Luci’s knowing flirtation and naivety is just about right. But sometimes it gets a bit absurd purely for the sake of comical titillation in scenes like Luci's underwear clad rampage through a clothes shop. It makes her seem like she borders mental retardation which she certainly does not. Scenes that work much better are those like the excellent cinema sequence where Luci subtly offers herself up to an older man (a mute role for the prolific Vernon Dobtcheff) in the seat next to her, awaiting his touch on her bare leg, barely disguising the obvious thrill of that touch until the disgusted (yet entranced) Nick pulls her away.But Luci comes across as a young woman simply craving the love and closeness she has never had, in the only way that seems possible to her due not only because of her upbringing but due to the fact that with her mother gone there seems no chance now for the parental love she really wants, so she makes do with the less innocent kind. Even the sexual 'love' of a stranger is better than no love at all. Sadly this corruption is so deep that even when the chance of at least some vestige of parental love is offered by her possible adoptive mother, Amy, she compromises it by letting this sexual idea of love overpower all else. There is certainly a vengeful side to her when it comes to Robert for how he left her mother in such a state, a state that literally poisoned everything in her mother's life, including her daughter, but that revenge does not seem to be aimed directly at his wife and son. She just can't (or dare not try to) help herself. So when this need for vengeance is combined with the untreated trauma she suffered when finding her mother dead and with her sexualised view of what love is, she throws away all chances of that innocent and honest parental love she so craves. Thus, away from all the exploitation trappings, "Baby Love" is actually a very profound look at a damaged child and the tragic legacy of that damage that will forever colour her life. The relationship with her 'adoptive' mother is a fascinatingly murky one at first. The screenplay obviously points to the fact Amy (a solid turn by Lynn) feels a void in her life at never having a daughter. The coldly masculine influence of her son and husband (plus their now equally cold marriage, shown perfectly in a bedroom scene where she says goodnight to Robert but receives no kiss only a grunt, as the bedclothes become an ocean of white nothingness between them) has pointedly not satisfied the love she still feels she has for a daughter. So when Luci appeared in her life, an orphan in need of not only a home but of a mother, she tries to desperately have what she has always missed. A daughter to care for, dote over and share gender personal moments with. But given Luci's age these otherwise harmless moments of shared closeness and offered affection take on a more uncomfortable aspect. The scene where Amy comes into the bathroom when Luci is in the bathtub and comforts her (due to Luci's obvious distress when the hot, steaming, water reminds her of her mother's suicide scene) and lightly bathes her takes on a pointed lesbian feel due to how old Luci is. A feeling that is magnified by the (as we have discussed) corrupted view of affection Luci has that is shown in the, seemingly based more on deluded perception than reality, erotic way she herself views the look on Amy's face and her languid movements. The same shadowed uncertainty of intention is also well executed during the sequence when Amy sleeps in Luci's bad with her, and you can see Luci's grasping of Amy's breast (as she sucks her thumb in her sleep) how you want to see it, as either subconscious lesbian flirtation or a child's need for the comfort of a mother's bosom. From Amy's point of view, although the film is explicit in her discomfort at such a touch, you are again left to figure out if her discomfort is because of her own realisation of her sexual feelings towards Luci, or that the discomfort is down to her accepting that even though she has no sexual feelings towards Luci, at Luci's age this innocent grasp for comfort is no longer acceptable. Thus Amy's growing frustration as the film goes on may indeed be a sexual one, but coul d also be the frustration that the baby girl she has so craved has instead come to her as a young woman. This is all very astute and interesting stuff, but the screenplay does not have the bravery to keep it that way. Instead it goes down the far more mundane (if genuinely erotic at times) path and moves Amy's, initially open to interpretation, feelings into explicit lesbian ones when Luci crudely offers herself sexually to Amy in a desperate attempt to secure her place in the household. And sure enough Amy succumbs and makes love to Luci (we only see the initial kissing and caressing) who, despite her scheme to make this happen, is obviously uncomfortable and perhaps even sad at this turn of events. Thus reminding us again of the kind of non-sexual, parental, love she really wants that her bitter scheming, and overpoweringly sexualised version of what love is, utterly swamps. What the film benefits from though, when it utilises these more explicit sexual overtones to everyone's relationship with Luci, is the chance for it to deliver some wonderful scenes of the household tearing itself apart as both husband, wife and son, obviously never able to let their true desires towards Luci be known to each other, fight against the jealousy they feel towards one-another and anyone else who gets to close to Luci (like teenage lads or the lecherous family friend Harry, played by popular TV comic of the time Dick Emery) due to their own desire for her. Things take a far more melodramatic slant later on which may seem a bit overblown, but does bring the home the level of psychological damage that Luci has suffered and the dangerous turns it can take. And the final scene may come off more rushed than it should but it manages to deliver a cheeky wink to the audience at just how entangled the family is with this now utterly damaging, but utterly compelling, force of twisted sexuality that never even had the chance to just be a happy, loved, child. “Baby Love” may sometimes be a narrative mixed bag and a bit dry in execution and lethargic in pacing, but the solid support performances, the risqué sexual styling, the complex lead character and the excellent, up-front, essaying of that character by the striking Linda Hayden ensure it’s worth tracking down for fans of gritty British cinema. "BABY LOVE" is some baby. She is a sensual 15-year-old, who is slightly unhinged after finding her mother a suicide victim. Sheltered by the family of the dead woman's former lover, she proceeds to wreck the household with sexual allure, childlike wonder and animal cunning. The film, a British import has been put together with diabolical brilliance. Ugly as it is in flavor and content, the picture is a genuine pint-sized spellbinder in construction, mood and mounting tension. Take one "Lolita," add the framework of the old movie "Guest in the House," put a trim cast into expert technical hands, and you have this color presentation from Avco Embassy Films. As for the credibility of the story, adapted from the novel by Tina Chad Christian, it does seem likely that the disturbing young heroine, played by Linda Hayden, would have been sent packing well before the ironic climax. The easy-going family—Keith Barron, a doctor, Ann Lynn, his wife, and Derek Lamden, their teen-age son—are each magnetized by the girl but, rather naively, are unaware of each other's reactions. Furthermore, while the picture avoids both sensationlism and an explosive finale, the unresolved fadeout keeps it a superficial teaser lacking real substance. But on this level, it is a hypnotic eyeful, solidly performed by the four principals and beautifully directed by Alastair Reid, one of the three scenarists. The movie seems psychologically sound as the nubile, neurotic girl moves into the comfortable home and fixes the family with a wide, speculative eye. The excellent color photography and the quick-cut editing don't miss a trick. Nearly every inch of footage builds the atmosphere of tension and sexual magnetism. There is explicit suggestion Miss Lynn, as the wife, has unwillingly succumbed to the sensual youngster. This is meaningful and even moving. "Baby Love," however, is basically a chiller, like the dripping water with the initial credits—a drop, a trickle and a cold flow.

udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80
udp://open.demonii.com:1337
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969

Shadow_Dreamer (2011-02-06)

Well, lets give it a shot...
Have not seen it, but thanks for hunting down an oddity.

Hirudinea (2011-12-12)

A surprisingly good movie, especially considering its age. An absorbing and daring plot and excellent acting in the main roles, including Linda Hayden who was just 15 at the time. Admittedly I think she's gorgeous, but honestly her acting talent really shows here. Shame about the very poor video quality but still worth watching.