Don't Be Like Brenda

Hugh Baddeley's DON'T BE LIKE BRENDA telegraphs its preachy amateurism in the title. This is terrible, not even campy scare tactics posing as instructional cinema.

Our 17-year-old heroine is in love with Gary, as shown in S.O.L.I. footage that convinced me this was made in the '60s, though IMDb assigns it a way-too-new-seeming date of 1973. When she's unexpectedly pregnant, Gary says "I'll call you tonight at 8" to discuss what to do. Instead, Gary's mom rings Brenda, and reads the poor girl the riot act, basically informing her that Gary's engaged to another girl, so don't ever darken our doorstep again.

Brenda has the kid (Baddeley never alludes to the existence of abortion, typical of these ostrich-like documentaries) and puts the baby boy in a foundling home awaiting adoption. Movie makes it clear the government is running these places and doing a fine job, thank you.

However, the title comes into play when the kid is discovered to have a congenital heart problem, and nobody wants to adopt the tyke. He'll evidently spend the better part of two decades without a family, until presumably the dear home boots him out on the street, ready to become a Teddy Boy and, I suspect, end up doing hard labor in stir.

Baddeley shows us an alternative girl, all decked out and beaming at her wedding, as the true role model. I found the whole farrago annoying and insulting, a prototype of how older generations seem to always fall into the same trap, talking down to kids and adolescents. No wonder we always rebel (of course, I'm in the AARP set now!).

Don't Be Like Brenda was made in 1973 in response to a Head Teacher saying that Hugh Baddeley Productions should add a sex education film to their roster of educational film and slide set titles.

Hugh Baddeley had a track record of making low budget but well scripted and shot educational films to support the then history and geography curriculum. The production company also made corporate films for Rolatruc, STC, The Salvation Army and other clients.

However, Brenda is a prudish misstep which attributes all the blame to the wanton and working class Brenda while her paramour, the middle class Gary, is staunchly defended by his mother and completely let off the hook. There is nothing to show what a healthy relationship might look like.

The film was out of date from its release. There is no educational content to explain conception, contraception and any consequences or options. Instead we are told Brenda has the baby out of wedlock only to be further punished when the baby is found to have a problem with his heart and is therefore unlikely to be adopted.

The film was included in the BFI release on DVD of a number of sex education films under the title The Joy of Sex Education.

Brenda lives on as an anachronism showing how things used to be, when sex mostly wasn't mentioned and girls (and their families) were shamed for having a child out of wedlock.

It's ironic that clips from Brenda have been used so frequently, eclipsing much of Hugh Baddeley's other work.