Saturday 7 January 2012

Review #297: 'Jailbait Babysitter' (1977)

With typical exploitation tactics, the lurid title of this film, is incredibly misleading. A seeming gift for perverts, the concept of what the title offers, is not exactly what you get. This incredibly dull film follows Vicki (Therese Pare), a 17-year-old girl who won't "put out" to her boyfriend. (This is where the title comes into effect.) Vicki is visited by her boyfriend (shortly followed by a gang of drunken friends), and the "partying" begins. This protracted sequence, devoid of dialogue, simply shoots teens dancing inanely around, sometimes resembling home movies, with some dodgy stock "funky" music. One of the teens tries it on with a now dazed Vicki, who fights back and runs out of the home. She is then picked up randomly by Lorraine (Lyndia Wagner), who takes her into her home. She turns out to be a hooker, and unknown to Vicki, tries to teach her in the ways of the night.

This meandering narrative offers nothing but boredom. The pathetic character of Vicki, naive to the point of farce at times, just aggravating at best. There's a reference to My Fair Lady (1964), and attempts to weave this into a section where Vicki is shown acting like an adult, but failing. At times the film also thinks it's funny. So basically this is a tale of a precocious-seeming girl who won't have sex with her boyfriend because she wants to be with more mature people, but learns a lesson whilst trying to fit into that adult world. It just all looks so cheap. It has the same aesthetic as a hard core porn film of the period, that has been copied down on several generations of VHS pirating (or so I've heard!), but without the porn. It has very little nudity or sex either.


Directed by: John Hayes
Starring: Therese Pare, Roscoe Born, Lydia Wagner
Country: USA

Rating: *

Marc Ivamy



Jailbait Babysitter (1977) on IMDb

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