Baby Love (1969) User Reviews

" Ooh baby love, my baby love, I need you, oh how I need you."

[morrison-dylan-fan · 7/10 · 6 August 2014]

With having spotted beautiful British actress Linda Hayden years ago thanks to UK TV Channel 5 airing the British Sex Comedy Confessions of a Holiday Camp,I was delighted to recently stumble upon a title,which marked Hayden's film debut.

View on the film:

Filmed when she was only 15 years old,Linda Hayden gives a remarkable debut performance as Luci,as Hayden (who controversially appears naked in the movie) shows Luci's sensuality to slowly blossom,whilst also keeping Luci's deeply rooted psychological problems cast across her highly expressive,vulnerable face.Joining Hayden,Keith Barron gives an excellent performance as Robert,with Barron showing Robert to have a real sincerity towards Luci,but also being terrified about secrets from his past with Liz being uncovered.

Adapting Tina Chad Christian's novel, Alastair Reid, Guido Coen and Michael Klinger attempt to combined gritty Kitchen Sink Drama with teen coming-of-age flirtatiousness,which whilst offering a fascinating viewing,is sadly never able to be joined into a cohesive whole.For the first hour of the film,the writers superbly show Luci's unintended sensuality to be linked with the psychological scares she received from her mum,Disappointingly,as the title nears its conclusion,the writer's completely change Luci into being rather aware of what she is doing,which leads to the film ending on an incredibly ill-fitting note.

Filming a good amount of the movie on location,director Alastair Reid and cinematographer Desmond Dickinson use stylish,long running tracking- shots which allow for the actors to really dig deep into the characters.Edited in an great raw manner by future 007 director John Glenn,Reid and Dickinson also use sweeping,distorted angles to show that Robert and his family are never able to get a full view of Luci.

An intriguing oddity, and probably an acquired taste

[I_Ailurophile · 7/10 · 3 November 2021]

Even at only 15 years old, Linda Hayden ably illustrated her skills as an actress in 'Baby love.' Luci is roundly conniving and manipulative - and troubled - and Hayden possesses the poise, nuance, and intensity to portray her most ably, but also the capable range to reflect the character's garbled emotional state. This is hardly to count out her costars, though, particularly Ann Lynn and Keith Barron - steady and believable as adoptive parents Amy and Robert, responding to the turmoil of Luci's coming with their own strong feelings.

The movie is by all means a portrait of Luci, with her compartmentalized vulnerabilities and deviousness. But to the same extent it's a depiction of the widening fractures her behavior exposes and deepens in the Quayle's - and the iniquities she brings out in all those around her. There is definite plot, tracing the progression of the tumult, yet the way the film is structured quite centers Luci as more than just a character. In the same way that, for example, Michael Myers in the 'Halloween' franchise comes across as a brutal force of nature, Luci seems to be the unfettered embodiment of discord, bringing strife with her wherever she goes. And even still, Luci is only human - struggling with the trauma she has experienced, and the unwelcome overtures from those she unwittingly summons to her, set against the willfulness she represents. Though never fully engaging, it's a tack that certainly kept my attention.

On the other hand - that's the movie we get, but even without being familiar with the novel of the same name by Tina Chad Christian, I kind of get the impression that this wasn't necessarily the intention of the screenplay. Luci, in the film, also somewhat reflects a diluted interpretation of the vamp archetype, seen in her carefree flirtations amidst a disordered mentality that sows still greater chaos. But the narrative and scene writing never truly brings this aspect of the character to fruition, and with this notion lodged in our minds, the entertainment factor is weakened with a hodgepodge of half-realized tableaus. I'm of the mind that if one approaches 'Baby love' with the expectation borne out in common synopses, of a young seductress rending a family atwain, you're primed for disappointment. Why, given the varied ways that characters respond to Luci over time, the loftier assessment is the one that makes the movie work, and in general, only in broadening one's horizons to encompass a more esoteric reading does the movie become more engrossing, and satisfying.

With all that said, I think 'Baby love' is an imperfect happy accident. We've all seen movies that were so regrettably untidy in their execution that their purpose is subverted, becoming a delightful outright comedy instead of a drama or serious thriller. 'Baby love' also suffers a similar difficulty, except instead of totally upending the picture as we see it, the perspective is simply altered, like a different filter used in capturing an image. The writing isn't strong enough to cement the cinematic telling of a story, but in its faults it gives way to something even better. Other details in the feature are quite fine - I love the care given to wardrobe, hair, and makeup, and the filmmakers put together a solid soundtrack. Instances of camerawork emphasizing small details in a scene, or subtleties of a performance, are most appreciated. Again keeping in mind the dependence on one's analysis, I think scenes are put together quite well.

'Baby love' is a bit of an oddity. The suggested subject matter is lurid, and the story as written is direct. But the execution is a little less unseemly than we'd anticipate, and the plot becomes something more amorphous. There are a lot of points here that may be a turn-off for some viewers, including not least of all how rough it is around the edges - again, that I think the movie comes off well appears to be lucky happenstance. Of course it also goes without saying that there's a content warning for sexual content involving a minor. But the performances are great, and there's a lot of value here if you can pick up on the more illustrious overarching ideas that the incomplete writing fortuitously conjured in its wake. Recommended most of all for fans of Linda Hayden, one needn't necessarily go out of their way for 'Baby love,' but it's peculiarly enjoyable if you come across it.

Fruit, green but sweet.

[rmax304823 · 5/10 · 12 February 2011]

Perhaps this British movie from the late 60s has virtues that were hidden from me. I didn't think much of it. (My opinion may have been tainted by the sleazy transfer to DVD.) It's the story of Luci, a fifteen-year-old girl whose mother has just committed suicide and who is taken in by her mother's former beau and his family -- a nice wife and a goggle-eyed adolescent boy.

It's a pretty nice house and a comfortable place, though the father is uptight and snarls a lot. Luci exploits all the family members by suggesting she's sexually available, although there isn't a lot of nudity or simulated coitus. What it is, is a set up for a pornographic movie, but without the skin, just the rather ordinary plot. In skin flicks, a plot like this would be used as a device to hinge together the varied couplings. In an underground skin flick they'd have introduced the family mule or something. They'd bring in the chauffeur and the idiot son who is kept in the attic. Here, without the couplings, it's just dull.

And it's not simply that the plot isn't exactly gripping. The only talent visible on the screen is that of Luci's adopted mother, who gives a seasoned performance. Luci herself -- that is, Linda Hayden -- could have been replaced by any reasonably good-looking kid who had stood out from the crowd in her high school plays. The editing is pretty clumsy too. Luci is groped by a neighbor in the local cinema but the camera doesn't seem to know how to handle the situation any better than the heroine. The cuts are confusing and Luci's response is a blank.

It's not a terrible movie -- not a fell insult to anyone's sensibilities. It's just cheap and rudely made. A little more gratuitous nudity would have helped. However, others have apparently got more out of it than I did.

The debut film of the incredible Linda Hayden

[lazarillo · 12 July 2012]

This nifty, late-60's British thriller is about a scheming teenage girl (Linda Hayden) who after her mother's suicide moves in with the family of her mother's married lover and proceeds to seduce all three of them (father, mother, teenage son)--two of whom may be blood relatives! If this sounds vaguely familiar, it's because it was the subject of an uncredited, near-remake by Hollywood in the early 1990's called "Poison Ivy", which spawned three increasingly trashy sequels and revived the career of Drew Barrymore. Hayden is actually much better here than Barrymore was in "Poison Ivy", but this movie is very hard to find today, no doubt because Hayden has several brief nude scenes and was about the same age at the time as her fifteen-year-old character. This is monumentally silly more than forty years later--half the adult population (women) have seen a girl that age naked, and the other half (let's just be honest here) probably have at some point in their lives. But we live in a society today where if a teenage girl sends nude photos of herself to her teenage boyfriend, instead of considering it a "teachable moment", we're more likely to charge them both with distributing child pornography!

Anyway, whatever else she was, Linda Hayden was a criminally underrated actress. She got some attention for her appearances in Hammer's "Taste the Blood of Dracula" and as another sexy, evil vixen in "Blood on Satan's Claw" (where, incidentally, she has even more graphic and still-underage nude scenes as well). She had more bad luck after that though. She reunited with the director here (Alistair Reid) as well Peter Finch and Shelly Winters in another very solid thriller called "Something to Hide" that has been all hacked up and never released on DVD for no good reason I can tell. Her best performance perhaps though was in "The House on Straw Hill" (which makes it's likely inspiration, Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs", look like a Disney film), but that entertaining but uber-sleazy venture became the only British-made film to be labeled a "video nasty" in Britain and it was banned there for many years. As a somewhat ironic result, it's considered a minor cult film there today(and was even remade in 2009), but was little seen outside of the UK. As for Hayden, she eventually took her considerable charms to dumb British sex comedies like the "Confessions of" series and "Queen Kong" (starring her then paramour Robin Askwith) before ending her career with a cameo role (mostly nude, of course) in "The Boys of Brazil".

There's nothing much to say about the rest of the cast as this is Linda Hayden's show all the way. But there is a good cameo at the beginning by ill-fated, former glamor actress Diana Dors as the Hayden character's mother. As for the director, Alistair Reid, he's no doubt now written off as a "dirty old man" in some quarters for having directed this, but his "Something to Hide" and "Deadly Strangers" (with Hayley Mills and Sterling Hayden)were equally good British thrillers. I'd certainly recommend this.

A study of burgeoning sexuality

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 1 September 2022]

Essentially this is the British version of LOLITA, and just as moderately shocking as it must have been upon first release. I've always been a fan of Linda Hayden for her work in the horror field and she's every bit as good here, really investing her character with a sympathy that exists even in devilish turns like her one in BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW. The film explores burgeoning teenage sexuality in a stark and sometimes provocative way, also looking at trauma, marriage and lust at times; the focus on characte relationships is what makes it engrossing. It's well acted and well shot too. Seen today it's a fitting portrait of the predatory nature of the era.

Meet the London Lolita.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 12 February 2021]

Looking a bit like Jodie Foster in "Taxi Driver", Linda Hayden is all innocence on the outside but a troubled little vixen on the inside. She's the daughter of Diana Dors, seen preparing for her Shelley Winters underwater playing in the opening scene and discovered by Hayden when she returns from school. Feeling sorry for her, Dors' ex-lover Keith Barron takes her in where she begins to have a series of horrifying nightmares and eventually begins to make plays for members of the entire family, even Baron's wife. Obviously the presence of this troubled girl will turn the family upside down, but they kowtow to her every emotional need, hidden through sexual desire on the surface.

A rather troubling coming of age drama, this is not how most parents want to see their children come of age and as a result, this is often disturbing to watch. Dors, not shown as a dead Dora, makes a series of quick nightmarish appearances in Hayden's dreams, one time laughing maniacally but never really saying a word. I don't see this film being for all taste, and it is definitely a product of the swinging London sixties that wasn't at all absolutely fabulous. The lack of name British stars in major roles will prevent this from having much interest today, and outside of being somewhat of a time capsule is quite forgettable.

Incest Tease Without Satisfaction

[chow913 · 2/10 · 9 June 2013]

First off IMDb's plot synopsis is all wrong! (as usual) Luci is a beautiful troubled teenagers from the wrong side of the tracks in London. Fortunately she comes home to find her mother with slit wrists in the bathtub.

Luci is taken in by a wealthy family with an unknown connection to Luci's mother. Ironically what is denied that Luci's is Harry's illegitimate daughter he abandoned is pretty much confirmed to be the reason Harry takes Luci in.

The sexy flirt soon lays the grounds for the solid incestuous seduction of her father Harry and her half brother Robert. YES! Get ready for a BIG let down! The only person to bed Luci is the middle aged stepmother! Hence the film really is a tease which does not deliver anything interesting.

An opportunity missed...resulting in a rather sleazy film that just seemed unreal.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 20 October 2009]

Warning: Explicit nudity, lesbianism and all-around bad behavior make this a very poor choice for showing your kids or your 80 year-old mother.

Wow. This is one sleazy movie and it's a shame, as a really good film seemed like it was hiding within and could have resulted had the direction and script been a little more clever and a little less sensationalistic. The disturbed relationships of all concerned did have the possibility of making a fine film.

The movie starts with a middle-aged woman (Diana Dors) committing suicide. Her 15 year-old daughter inexplicably goes to live with her old lover and his new family. This really doesn't make much sense--you'd think there'd be SOMEONE related to her or a foster home instead of this person who she'd never even met. This is very contrived, but so be it. Once in this home, you are never sure how much this girl connives or just happens to fall into bizarre sexual relationships with the son, wife and tries desperately to have sex with the father!! In many ways, she appears to seek emotional love and support in the only way she understood--with her body. All in all, a surprisingly dark and twisted series of events that is rather hard to believe--especially in the end of the film when she is revealed to be a bit less naive than in the rest of the film.

Sadly, had this movie taken more of the high road it actually could have been quite challenging but good entertainment. The Freudian aspects as well as as the idea of a sick family whose dynamics are thrown for a loop with the introduction of this troubled teen is fascinating. Think about it--because of their own inadequacies and unfulfilling relationships they each, in turn, seek it out in the girl. This could have been an interesting film that was less exploitation and more psychological. But, instead with glimpses here and there of the girl's body and lots of innuendo, the film just seemed more like soft-core porn than anything else.

By the way, the 15 year-old in the film really was 15--making you feel, perhaps, a bit dirty for watching it. I just assumed she was of consenting age and was surprised when I looked it up on IMDb to see that somehow they got away with making a skin flick with an underage girl. That's rather sad.

Linda the Lolita.

[BA_Harrison · 8/10 · 22 March 2015]

After her impoverished, cancer-ridden mother (Diana Dors) commits suicide, schoolgirl Luci (Linda Hayden) is adopted by her mother's ex-lover Robert (Keith Barron), now a wealthy, married doctor living the high-life in London. Once in her new home, the deeply-disturbed girl gradually spirals out of control, teasing teenage son Nick (Derek Lamden), flirting with sleazy family friend Harry (comedian Dick Emery), allowing herself to get felt up in a cinema, taunting local lads by the river (and risking being raped for her trouble), whilst driving a wedge between her adoptive parents by awakening latent lesbian urges in her new mother! Phew!

I found out about Baby Love while searching for films starring my favourite Hammer horror babe, the lovely Linda Hayden, and, boy, is it an eye-opener, the film undoubtedly exploiting the 15-year-old actress's burgeoning sexuality for all its worth, even having her stripping off for the part. But Baby Love is so much more than an opportunity to ogle jail-bait Linda in the altogether: part kitchen-sink drama, part psychological study, it's a skilfully told and ultimately tragic tale of an emotionally damaged, self-destructive soul who, due to her troubled upbringing, is unable to relate to kindness, instead exerting control the only way she knows how—through seduction; in doing so, she tears apart the already fractured lives of those who have tried to help her.

Made in the late 60s, when movies deliberately challenged the establishment, Baby Love is about as subversive as it gets—a controversial piece of film-making that dares to push the boundaries in all directions, while deliberately making the audience feel just a little uneasy about what they are watching. As such, I found it extremely compelling viewing, and highly recommend it to fans of intelligent, provocative drama, as well as to those who find the idea of Linda Hayden as a naughty nymphet simply too tempting to resist.

7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

Wrong on so many levels

[artpf · 3/10 · 16 October 2013]

Luci, she is a slutty 15 year old English schoolgirl who comes home one day from school to find her Mum as dead as a door knob in the tub. You see her Mum has cut her wrists. Fortunately for Luci, her Mum's childhood friend is now a very successful upper-middle class doctor who has decided to take Luci home to his family (on a trial basis). And the seduction begins.

It's a very slow and boring movie, but apparently some reviewers really get off on seeing an underage girl involved in these shenanigans. -- including stripping. I don't.

I watched this mostly because I wanted to see Diana Dors who oddly is in the film for 2 seconds and has no lines!

The underage girl went on to doing some Hammer horror movies and sex romp films.

If you saw Pretty Poison, you know the plot of this movie. They are roughly the same film, only Dew Barrymore isn't as attractive.

Frankly, I would have rather seen Taste the Blood of Dracula than this one.

Rare, interesting, but ultimately disappointing

[David198 · 29 November 2003]

This extremely rare British film of the late 1960s features the debut of Linda Hayden, who went on to appear in a succession of horror films and the 'Confessions' sex comedies, and an early appearance of Keith Barron, known to British audiences as a prolific character actor to this day.

The story, of a sexually-precocious and beautiful 15-year old who takes revenge for her mother's suicide by using her body to seduce not only her mother's former lover, but also is wife and son, is probably unlikely to be shown again in today's paedophile-aware society. Scenes where she lets a disgusting lecher in a cinema start touching her up, and on another occasion seemingly consents to gang rape, are both unlikely and perverted. The film does however have a lot going for it - a relentlessly downbeat yet gritty storyline, an illuminating probe behind the outward respectability of an ordinary middle-class family, and the physical assets of Linda herself, who reveals everything but full-frontal.

On the negative side, the ending is an anti-climax and suggests a loss of interest in the story by this point. Linda whilst undeniably sexy, sports a very variable northern England accent and variable acting talents - excellent in some scenes, less so in others. It's clear that subsequent casting directors saw more in her physical assets than her acting skills, considering the low-budget and fairly dire movies she went on to appear in.

The lesbian scenes between her and the relative unknown playing Keith Barron's wife are probably the most memorable. All in all, an interesting combination of a 'kitchen-sink', very British, family drama, with sexual situations which would not be allowed in a film today - especially considering Linda herself was only 15 when she made it.

Another viewing may bring out some hidden depths, but on first sight this was disappointing. A better-developed story and more care over the acting could have made this a classic of its day.

Put Your Shoes On, Luci

[writers_reign · 3/10 · 27 September 2016]

Back in 1965 a modest five-hander slipped under the radar and attracted some tasty ink. It was shot in Gloomcolor which is black and white with a fog filter and the storyline followed two couples supported by the Thames. All five actors were more or less unknown and the film was called Four In The Morning. One of the males, Norman Rodway, worked steadily and in that same year played Hotspur in Orson Welles Chimes At Midnight, the finest Shakespeare movie ever made. Joe Melia also worked steadily without setting the world on fire as did Brian Phelan. One of the two females was Judi Dench, making her film debut, and what happened to her is anyone's guess. The other female, was Ann Lynn and she impressed me but slipped of my radar at least so when I noticed she had a role in Baby Love it was sufficient for me to watch it. Alas, I lived to regret it. Very wisely two of the five writers, Michael Robson and Henri Safran opted to remain uncredited, the other three clearly have no sense of shame. This is the kind of film that gives drek like The Texas Chain-Saw Massacre a good name. All I can say is give this one plenty of the back of your neck.

Pushing the Evelope Then, and Now

[jaibo · 8/10 · 9 August 2009]

This is a rarely seen and unjustly neglected gem from the "swinging London" period of British film-making. It's subject matter – a nubile, underage teenage girl is adopted by a middle class family and becomes the erotic focus of father, son and mother – was certainly ahead of its time, and its amoral stance towards this material make it even more surprising. It was cut by the BBFC for its original UK cinema release (it is surprising it was granted a certificate at all) and its unflinching approach to its underage protagonist's sexual allure and responsiveness would get it into as much if not more trouble with the moral guardians of today.

The film begins with cross cutting Hayden's character Luci kissing a boy in front of a gaggle of her male and female schoolmates with the suicide of her mother (a debauched and distressing Diana Dors) in a hot bath with a razor. With her mother dead, Luci goes to live with her Mum's old flame Robert, played by Keith Barron, now a wealthy and successful London doctor. Luci's presence inflames both the teenage son of the doctor and his neglected wife, both of whom attempt to take advantage of Luci's disturbed state of mind (she is having nightmares and hallucinations featuring her dead mother) and Robert himself is also susceptible to the young nymphet's charms. But Luci is no innocent - she seems to know that sex is power and she plays the game for what its worth, hanging onto her position in the house through sheer female will and exploiting the desires of each member of the family when it suits her.

This portrait of Luci as colluding with those who would pray on her is troubling, but psychologically acute. Luci is both powerless, disturbed and the off-spring of a Mother who clearly (we learn in flashbacks) was no sexual wallflower. Luci is very much the product of her background, one of financial and emotional poverty, and so is rather more sympathetic than the spoilt middle-class folk whose fantasy figure of attraction and repulsion she is forced by circumstance to be. The film ostensibly looks like one of those dramas in which a cuckoo comes in to disturb a nest, but in actuality the middle-class family was always already deeply divided and she but acts as a catalyst which brings the ruptures to the surface. There is a suggestion that Luci has been sexualised before we meet her – her mother's burly lover hangs around her house both before and after the suicide & the cruel laughter from mother and lover in the flashback where Luci catches them at it suggests that he was also involved with Luci, the mother rubbing her sexual competitiveness with her daughter in the poor child's face. This reading of the film makes sense of those moments where Luci responds to improper, aggressive advances in inappropriate situations – the black man in the nightclub, the groper in the cinema, the louts in the rowboat. She also flirts heavily with Robert's friend, a depressing old lecher played by Dick Emery who acts as a sort of Clare Quilty figure, embodying Robert's worst knowledge about himself.

Baby Love is brilliantly put together, using a roaming camera which constantly prowls around the characters hoping to catch them as some sordid thing and fast editing offering us glimpses of impressionist moments from each situation. It seems extraordinary that the film was made over 40 years ago – it makes most teenage drama now look like punch-pulling chicken feed.

Luci in the earth without diamonds

[andrabem-1 · 9/10 · 29 November 2011]

Most of the films about "Swinging London' celebrated the joys and colors of the time. "Baby Love", while it was made during the heyday of "Swinging London", deals with the story of an adolescent girl called Luci, and London serves just a background for Luci and the other characters around her. The characters and their environment are portrayed with a documentary feel - they are shown in a realistic way.

Luci, one day, on returning home, finds her mother dead. A great shock! For Luci there are not many choices. Her future looms black. But her mother, before killing herself, had sent a letter to a doctor who in the past had been her lover, and where she asks him to take care of her daughter Luci. The doctor is now a married man with wife, son and maid - in short, a well-off family.

The doctor brings Luci (Linda Hayden, who was only 15 at the time) to his home. At first she seems just a bewildered, shy girl, but it won't take long till they discover other sides of Luci's personality.

Luci needs love and protection, and for her, love and sex are not very apart. She is manipulative (but not consciously so), yet she acts by instinct - she's a bundle of contradictions, a very complex character. She'll use her powers of seduction on all members of the family, everything is turned upside down and masks fall.

In some ways, "Baby Love" reminded me of "Teorema" by Pasolini, but while "Teorema" is a mystical-political parable, "Baby Love" has her feet on the ground.

The creativity linked to reality, the freedom of the camera, Luci's sensuality/sexuality (there are even some bits of nudity), the nonjudgemental way of showing the characters, make "Baby Love" a very interesting film. It's a pity though that (as far as I know) the only available copies have soft (a bit washed out) colors. Anyway the film is very watchable. Well worth checking out.

Lolita and Poison Ivy rolled into one

[RavenGlamDVDCollector · 8/10 · 7 May 2017]

Would you believe that this very old movie, with little known stars (well, even back then, I suppose) has actually stood the test of time?

Okay, towards the end, it shoots itself in the foot when the movie turns violent. But aside from that...

I'm always on the look for controversial movies and when I read about this one, I was immediately intrigued. With something so old and with such an unknown cast and, on top of it, dealing with such a subject matter, I didn't even expect it to have been released on DVD, much less find it on my seller site, but I did.

First off, let me just voice an objection. The current (2017) summary here on INDb was written by somebody (anonymous) who doesn't like the movie, and that particular style is fine (and entertaining enough) for a review, but absolutely unsuitable for a summary. To each their own, if they don't like a movie, they don't have to be nice, but summaries should be factual and impartial.

The movie doesn't deserve to be derided. As for the deeply human characters, I have enjoyed watching, I was pleasantly surprised, it is a good movie. Yes, I'm into pretty actresses, we all know The Raven, but besides the obvious points of interest for me, it was surprisingly well done. The movie is almost fifty years old and I knew I was taking a big chance when I bought it sight unseen.

I'm glad I did.

Diana Dors is just way off-putting as the choice for Luci's Mom, and here's something else: Somebody who already knows pain (cancer) would choose being scalded by boiling water while bleeding to death because of razor slices as method of suicide? I think that nasty start should have been replaced with something more "sedate" like sleeping pills or so. That was just to shock! And the movie doesn't need it.

Anyway, loved Linda Hayden and appreciate her fine performance. I do appreciate that she is the real thing, only fifteen years old, imagine this being done today!!! Good choice with mature female lead Ann Lynn as well.

The naughty schoolgirl

[Cristi_Ciopron · 9/10 · 11 November 2009]

BABY LOVE seems one of the most exciting of the '60s youth movies; not only it's thematically daring, but it's interesting, lively, thrilling, thanks in equal measures, I suppose, to real qualities of style and to a nymphet's nudity. It's such a lovable movie. The sulfurous story gets a slightly sleazy B treatment, wholly appropriate for a B subject. The girl in this movie stands out as one of the genuinely exciting realist portraits of women in the cinema.

The tendency might look a bit misogynistic—not only is this girl, Luci, the acme of depravity—but look at her mother—and at her adoptive mother …. The one member of her new family who completely capitulates is the adoptive mother. By comparison, her new father and her new brother seem slightly more principled, anyway; though they're counterbalanced by guys like the ugly one who assaults the girl in the movie theater, and the family friend who does his best to seduce the girlie.

Is the schoolgirl Luci merely naughty? Is she nasty? The movie suggests she's mentally disturbed.

The mellower Shannon Tweed will also seduce a whole family—husband, wife and son—in A WOMAN SCORNED. But Shannon's was a thriller, meant to please more than to shock.

Babe Hayden was, as known, 15 yrs old in BABY LOVE, her nude scenes are great and very rewarding; she went on to play in some defining B movies of the '70s, being perhaps the iconic '70s British cult actress. Nowadays she's 56.

British Lolita with more than an eye for the men, and women.

[christopher-underwood · 8/10 · 20 June 2020]

Surprisingly good and whilst not a major work, a most interesting and involving film from that sunny 1968 with appropriately colourful and short skirts and dresses. Basically exploitation this is not, however, without thought but now is it steeped in moralising as the British film of the time tended to be. Indeed, although the plot here concerns the dropping of a highly sexed and vulnerable 15 year old into a well off family situation where the father once went out with the girl's mother it is dealt with in a refreshingly reasonable manner. Nevertheless there are various hints and incidents of rape and incest along the way as this goes from bad to bad but always with a smile. Not much smiling from Keith Barron who seems to not be enjoying his part here at all. For the rest it is a different story and Linda Hayden excels as the British Lolita with more than an eye for the men, and women. It is an impressive and nuanced performance and no wonder at all that she went on to further movies. It is also a credit to all involved that it was possible to get such a performance out of the youngster. Dick Emery just about controls himself in a small but exuberant role and overall this is a most watchable film very much of the moment that certainly could not be made today.

The Sixties generation-gap

[wrv-16858 · 9/10 · 29 December 2021]

The essence of 'Baby Love': female lead Luci rebels against the morals & behavior her 'new parents' try teach her -- a very well known theme in Sixties-films.

Luci comes quite far in her rebellion, almost wrecking this household. Showing herself indecently to her new father, waking up lesbian feelings with her new mother, and having some adventures with her new brother.

All these battles are intensified by the class-difference between Luci and her new family: working-class against London upper class.

'Baby Love' is a very well-pictured film (according to the technical standards of 1969). Its good acting shows no flaws.

It's very English as well, and evokes memories for those around in 1969.