Au Pair Girls (1973)

Admirable film.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

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.

Pretty foreign girls take au pair jobs in England and get seduced into naughty situations by a variety of local louts. The look is cheap and the whole proceedings are played for sensationalism and cheap laughs, rather like a D-list Carry On film, which incidentally was how this piece was advertised when it first played on cable TV in the 80s. The characters have little depth, and there is nothing in the way of a story, just random episodes leading to shedding of clothes. For its genre it wasn't terrible, and the girls are pretty attractive (especially the obviously British Gabrielle Drake playing a Scandinavian, and the amusingly named Asian actress Me Me Lay), but keep expectations low.

So, it's cheesy sexploitation from the 70s, but it is really funny. It's like watching Benny Hill with nudity. The nudity is all part of the comedy.Gabrielle Drake manages to lose her clothes in a barn with the employer's son after they break down in the country. They never do make it home.Astrid Frank is with an older couple. She has no qualms about parading around naked. Even when she is dressed, knickers are optional. She manages to get picked up by a sheik on her first night.Me Me Lai of cannibal fame is with a very wealthy family. The son is a pianist - and a virgin! He gets lucky before everyone else.Nancie Wait is in the hands of a wild daughter her first night. She ends up rocking away her virginity with a rocker.Lots of laughs.

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 porn 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 nude 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 porn 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.