BABY LOVE (1968)

Dreams

Steamy

Looking

Title: Baby Love
Year: 1968
Director: Alastair Reid
Format: DVD
Label: Network

Notes: This is the first film I've watched as a consequence of reading Simon Matthews' treasure trove of obscure films Psychedelic Celluloid. His book covers films from 1965-1974 with some link to the groovy music scene of the period. In BABY LOVE the link is Katch 22, a psyche band too obscure to be on Wikipedia, who provide some pretty average tunes during a discotheque sequence. Expect more films on this blog from the book because I enjoyed this slightly sleazy experience quite a bit...

BABY LOVE is a provocative sexploitation story about a teenage girl who witnesses her mother's suicide and is subsequently taken in by a family who she then appears to seduce one by one. I write 'appears' because one of the redeeming features of this fairly grotty film is the suggestion that Luci isn't really to blame for the chaos she causes as she's clearly suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. There are scenes that are almost a convincing psychological drama with a few scattered allusions to horror. This is only a subtext though as the opening and closing scenes certainly portray the poor girl as something more calculating.

My reason for watching this (the aforementioned book) does not feature too much; the disco scene is fun for fans of the period's aesthetic and there are several gratuitous sequences of Swinging London sight-seeing that the book warns of. Mostly we focus on Luci's experiences and the thrill of her nubility thrown into a staid nuclear family. You enjoyment of the film will probably be determined by your reaction to this dubious premise.

This DVD claims to be restored from 'original elements' and actually looks a bit better than I expected although I think it's probably just a scan from a reasonably clean projection print.