The Young Playmates

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source: The Young Playmates

Talking to a family friend about the recent airing of the Comedy film Man About The House,I was surprised to find out that he had not seen a well-known Sex Comedy featuring leading Man About The House actor Richard O'Sullivan,which led to me deciding that it would be the perfect time to meet a pair of Au pair's. The plot: Arriving to the UK from a number of different European countries,4 women called Randi Lindstrom, Anita Sector, Nan Lee and Christa Geisler join an Au Pair agency.Shortly after joining the agency,each of them are sent out to assist families,with Randi Lindstrom getting greeted by a businessmen called Stephen,whilst Anita Sector is taken to a Rock concert,so that she can lose her innocence. View on the film: Despite being dismissive of the movie after it failed to be seen as 'high art' co-writer/ (along with David Adnopoz and David Grant) director Val Guest takes a rather daring approach to the flesh on display in the title,with Guest showing each of the beautiful women fully naked,instead of the 'cheeky peak' that was the traditional route taken for British Sex Comedies at the time. Whilst sadly being limited to a supportive role, Richard O'Sullivan gives a delightfully awkward performance as Stephen,whilst Me Me Lai gives the film an unexpected shot of melancholy as Nan Lee and Astrid Frank reveals a real sense of sorrow as Anita Sector. For the screenplay,the writer's initially give the movie a light & fluffy appearance,but disappointingly soon take the title into an extremely sour direction,due to the 'playful' frolics that the Au pair's find themselves involved in having a deeply uncomfortable predatory undertone,with the ending to Anita Sector's storyline,taking all the fun out of,what should have been a wonderful (Au) pair.

The "saucy" misadventures of four au pairs who arrive in London on the same day in the early 1970s. There's a Swedish girl, a Danish, a German and a Chinese. The story contrives to get the clothes off all of them, involve them in some Carry On-type humour and couple them with various misfits from the British film and TV culture of the time, including Man About the House star Richard O'Sullivan, future Coronation Street rogue Johnny Briggs and horror film stalwart Ferdy Mayne (playing a sheik). There's a pretty risqué amount of female nudity on display, for those who like that kind of thing (but obviously nothing hardcore). Most of the film is pretty thin and inconsequential; the girls are stereotypes, and German Anita especially suffers from some kind of infantalising disorder - she's a moron obsessed with colour TV who acts like a kind of uninhibited child & dresses to deliberately show her private parts; in another more serious film, she would be a psychiatric case. The most interesting section of the film involves the Swedish girl being taken to a club in London where some dodgy types are still trying to swing, being seduced by a middle-aged rocker, losing her virginity and realising that the scene is not for her. These sequences have some energy in them and point to a more intriguing film than we've ended up with, in which promiscuity and the dregs of the music business and upper classes live soulless and seedy lives (there's a fine turn by John Standing as an impotent public school roué). The strangest of the stories has the Chinese girl (future cannibal film veteran Me Me Lay) getting off with her childish piano prodigy employer, falling mutually in love with and then leaving in the middle of the night for no good reason at all, except some orientalist notion that "Chinese birds are inscrutable, ain't they?!" The film is pretty demeaning to its women characters and there's a smattering of homophobia in the dialogue and one of the characterisations. The end is striking, as Mayne's sheik for no earthly reason (except they have to end the film somehow) whisks all of the girls away to his Arab kingdom for what looks to all the world like a future in the white slave trade, which they are all delighted about. Stuff and nonsense for the most part then, but directed with a fair amount of skill by veteran Val Guest, which puts it as a piece of film-making a notch above most of the 70s Brit sexploitation flicks.

I watched this movie the same day I first saw The Day the Earth Caught Fire, quite unaware that both movies had the same director. Had I not been alerted to this fact, I would never have guessed. It is a spoof of soft core British * films to an extent, but also injects interesting dramatic material. The story is of four gorgeous girls who come to England as au pairs (doubtless using the Gorgeous Woman Only au pair service). Each of them only keeps their job for one day, for various reasons. Danish Randi is stranded with the rich kid son of her employer when his car breaks down, her clothes are soaked and they end up spending the night in a parking lot. Swedish Anita (a fun, delightful character who seems so liberated that she doesn't realize there's any alternative) shocks her employer by marching about the house * and ends up being picked up at a casino by an amorous sheik (in the sheik's abode, a man sounds a gong every time he walks through the door). German Christa, a near-prudish virgin, is indoctrinated into London's swinging underground by her employer's daughter who wants to offer her as a sacrificial virgin to a rock star. Chinese Nan is taken to a manor house and begins a sad little affair with a sheltered pianist man-child, who seems to have the emotional maturity of a child half his age. The odd thing is that the first two plots are funny and ridiculous, but the second two are tragic, as Christa realizes she has squandered her virginity on the ungrateful rock god and Nan scarcely seems happy to be regarded as a new plaything by her new bedmate. Both stories have tears. What's going on here? This stands in clear opposition to the brassy, fun nature of the other plots (and the atrocious upbeat theme song - you've got to hear it to believe it), and the ending that ties together all four girls in a riotously offhand and silly manner, as they all trot off to be the sheik's handmaidens, no questions asked. Also odd is that there's not all that much sex (though there is plenty of nudity). Anita does not actually have sex at all (and she doesn't seem to mind much, either!), and though the others do, it's hardly explicit at all. All the girls are likeable, which is more than can be said for the men. Nan's swain, who refers to her as "it" early on, like she's one of his model ships, is a particular repellent creation, although strangely one of the most repellent, who slips his hand into Christina's pants, actually proves quite respectful of her. For a * film, this is a rather well acted one. Guest handles the actors well, and provides some nice little touches (as when Anita applies a puff of perfume between her legs). The Au Pair Girls is a particular oddity, but not an unrewarding one.

"Au Pair Girls" is an above average Brit sex comedy, a cut above the rest simply by virtue of never being unbearably awful. It is unusually generous with the full frontal nudity, and thankfully spares us the sight of hideous, balding men in their birthday suits that these movies often inexplicably include. The "plot" is something to do with four sexy "au pairs": young women from around the world staying with host families in England. There's an Asian one, a German one, a Scandinavian one (of course), and another whose origins are not made plain. The Scandinavian is played by the gorgeous Gabrielle Drake - sister of Nick - and she looks so good you may not notice she doesn't even try an accent. As with all other British sex comedies, this is a comedy in name only. You'll be hard pressed to even detect an attempt at humour, unless someone slipping over is supposed to be funny. Still, I say no humour is better than painfully unfunny humour.

Actual rating = 6.8, sad to see only a 5.1 on IMDb. No spoilers except a few quotes below which I felt compelled to add since the film is underrated and undervalued for the script/gags. A light, sexy farce. A pleasant surprise for what I thought might be a laughably bad film as I only watched this as it queued up in my Netflix list, I think because I watch a good amount of everything including foreign films. An English sexploitation (or is it really? aren't most movies in that sense exploitation either of violence, one's fears as in horror films, etc), it is surprisingly well-written and has a terrific sense of humor. I wouldn't call it a sexploitation film, but it almost seems mainstream in a genuinely better written and acted film. Many English comedies can run a bit local, but this one has a more universal humor with plenty of double entendre, gags, etc. Very cleverly done script. The first few minutes open fairly poorly, boring and one wonders if this will be a $50,000 film. But it actually gets better and has a light, witted humor about. There is plenty of gratuitous frontal nudity but it's barely erotic but done in humor. As one commentator mentioned, not unlike watching Benny Hill. Some people say the stereotypes of the girls and the silliness of Astrid Frank who constantly asks for color TV runs dry, but keep in mind, it's a light comedy, very much in the late 60s, early 70s style. I actually thought Anita Sector (played by Astrid Frank), B.W. Wainwright, the farm and mechanic hands Fred ("can't do nothing") and Burt, and Lord Tryke ("Port") more for some of humorous characters. Even the sheik with "ordained' lines. The jokes "My friends, they call me Randi"…"…so do mine" run on the light, witty side. Gabrielle Drake and Nancie Wait are beautiful to watch. The worst and least interesting character was the conceited Ricky Strange, a terrible voice for a "singer" and a boring character, more hippy and trash than the others. Even Buster was more interesting. Goofy and bizarre was the relationship between Nan Lee and the sheltered, strange Rupert ("what do you think of your new playmate?" "I like it"). The photographer scene was hilarious, "what is this?" "Boobless bath oil". Although comedic, it leaves a distaste in most of the girls mouths as in one night, none succeed at their jobs except Anita comes to the rescue of the others. Acting is very good except for the girls (except Nancie Wait did a good job as the virgin), probably because they were asked to act silly. Today we watch plenty of violent films. One wonders if this genre is a bit healthier but again, in almost any film, nothing is real. As imaginary as the character Stephen Wainwright's fantasies. It almost seems to have influenced a series like Austin Powers and is actually better written although production is lesser. But a well-written although silly comedy.

Gabrielle Drake! NAKED!!!!!!! What more do you want????

I decided to check this movie out on Netflix in spite of the uninspiring description given for it, which made it sound like a typical grade B- exploitation flick, just because I wanted to see Gabrielle Drake in something other than reruns of the 1960's TV series *UFO*. But granting that I'm an American too young to have seen much of this genre of films from this era, I found this movie much more enjoyable than I expected. It was thoroughly professionally produced, with consistent and thoroughly professional acting, editing, photography and comedic effects and timing from one end to the other. The plot -- actually, plots (here there are four of them) work perfectly well for what they are, are not especially predictable, and are light on the clichés, and there is some pretty witty dialog, too. Several times I caught myself laughing out loud. Moreover, the, er, mature parts actually fit the true definition of that word for a change, as it seemed to me that the filmmakers were not the least bit shy about how they handled them, being quite unembarrassedly frank to the point of in-your-face (not to mention actually more believable in certain small details than typical American-made Cinemax 2:00 AM fare) in the way they were handled. It may not be high art, but like, say, *Gilligan's Island*, I thought it was quite good for what it was. I'm not surprised to learn that the director actually seems to have a reputation for doing good stuff in other genres.

I remember rather enjoying this a few years back but coming to it again, I wonder why. I guess it always looks good and the girls do rather well but the men do rather let the side down. Why oh why in so many English films about sex do we have to have such inept men along side the pretty girls? What is more this begins predictably enough as a sex farce similar in vein to the Confessions films but about a third of the way through (whilst we are beginning to enjoy the presence of the lovely Me Me Lai) the film asks us to start taking it seriously. Not only that but the central rock club and cannabis sequences are very forced and just look stilted. In short this is neither as innocently silly or as intelligently serious as it seems to intend. Richard O'Sullivan maybe, as such a central figure, could have helped but I reckon this to be one of his worst performances. Just worth it for the ladies.