The Babysitter

THE BABYSITTER is a better movie than the title might suggest. Is it a low-budget, drive-in movie from the late 1960's? Yes. Does it feature bikers, nudity, and -egad!- "go-go dancing"? Indeed. However, it's the story that rises above the usual muck.

It's about George and Edith Maxwell (George E. Carey and Anne Bellamy) a middle aged couple who find themselves on the rocks, ever since their new, unexpected child was born. The marital tension is intense, with the wife blaming the husband, who shuts himself off completely.

Enter Candy Wilson (Patricia Wymer), the title character. She's young, pretty, and a very free spirit! In fact, she represents everything that has drained out of the Maxwells' marriage. She also has quite an effect on George.

Of course the aforementioned elements enter the picture, with lurid results. There's revenge, blackmail, and murder.

Still, the movie is solid enough to include the madness and remain watchable...

An assistant DA (George Carey) is prosecuting a biker for a vicious murder. The lawyer's home-life meanwhile is a wreck: He has a nagging, frigid wife and a newborn son, and his adult daughter is a lesbian. Things go from bad to worse, however, when he is unable to resist the charms of his seductive underage babysitter (Patricia Wymer). Meanwhile, the girlfriend of the biker befriends the prosecutor's daughter, hoping to get some photos of her with her lover so she can use them to blackmail the father. She really hits the jackpot though when she stumbles upon the man himself en flagrante with his babysitter mistress. . .

This movie would be a lot more believable if the hero was a handsome thirty-year-old guy rather than someone like Carey who looks more like the elderly FATHER of a thirty year old. (Even in the "free love" 60's his sexual affair with a teenage girl really beggars belief). Fortunately, this movie doesn't take itself too seriously. For instance, the first time the babysitter, "Candy", is left alone in the house she calls a couple of "friends" over, who turn out to be a loud rock band complete with a couple of girls who dance naked to their groovy music! This movie is surprisingly hard to find these days, even though its sequel "Weekend with the Babysitter" is readily available. This is the better of the two by far largely due to Patricia Wymer. Although she is obviously several years older than her character here, she is simply a much better actress than the unknown Susan Romen who played this part in the sequel. Carey, meanwhile, not only starred in both movies, but he also wrote and produced both of them as well (which makes you wonder what kind of dirty old man he was in real life). Tom McLoughlin, who went on to do "The Born Losers" and "Billy Jack", directed both movies, but HE had the good sense to use a pseudonym. I'd recommend this movie I guess (if you can find it), but I wouldn't bother with the sequel.

This familiar story of an older man/younger woman is surprisingly hard-edged. Bikers, hippies, free love and jail bait mix surprisingly well in this forgotten black-and-white indie effort. Lead actress Patricia Wymer, as the titular "Candy," gives the finest performance of her career (spanning all of 3 drive-in epics). Wymer was precocious and fetching in THE YOUNG GRADUATES (1971), but gives a more serious performance in THE BABYSITTER. The occasional violence and periodic nudity are somewhat surprising, but well-handled by the director. Leads Wymer and George E. Carey sell the May/December romance believably. There are enough similarities between THE BABYSITTER and THE YOUNG GRADUATES to make one wonder if the same director helmed the latter film as well. Patricia Wymer, where are you?

Hailing from Seattle, WA, Miss Wymer had appeared as a dancer on the TV rock and roll show MALIBU U, before gracing the cover (as well as appearing in an eight-page spread) of the August, 1968 issue of "Best For Men," a tasteful adults-only magazine. She also appeared as a coven witch in the popular 1969 cult drive-in shocker THE WITCHMAKER.

THE BABYSITTER has finally made its home video debut, as part of the eight-film BCI box set DRIVE-IN CULT CLASSICS vol. 3, which is available from Amazon.com and some retail stores such as Best Buy.

Late 2011 update: the original camera negatives for THE BABYSITTER were found! Code Red released a far superior DVD of the film, mastered from the uncut negatives. It was available via direct mail order with Code Red, and occasionally on Amazon.com.

"George Maxwell" (George E. Carey) is a mild-mannered Assistant District Attorney who has been given the task of prosecuting a motorcycle gang member for committing the horrific murder of a young woman. His wife, "Edith Maxwell" (Anne Bellamy) has gone completely frigid after having a baby 8 months earlier and as a result George is both lonely and frustrated. It's at this time that Edith hires a sexy babysitter named "Candy Wilson" (Patricia Wymer) who promptly goes about trying to seduce George. At first George is able to maintain his discipline but eventually he succumbs to Candy's charms and things take an immediate turn for the worse after that. Now, rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that this particular film was one of eight included in a DVD set titled ""Drive-in Cult Classics, Volume 3" which contains motion pictures typically seen at drive-ins in the 60's and 70's. In most cases these movies were at best grade-B offerings meant to partially augment the lack of quality films available to drive-ins during this time. Most of them are low-budget, sexploitation projects and this particular film is no exception. Although filmed in black-and-white, this specific movie has a couple of things going for it which raises it a notch or two higher than some of the other pictures of this type. First, it has the luscious actress Patricia Wymer in a leading role and she practically carries this film all by herself. Additionally, George E. Carey performs in a professional manner which also helps this movie to a lesser extent. In short, while this certainly isn't a great movie by any means, I found it to be satisfactory for the most part, and I rate it as about average.

This Crown-International release was in one aspect out of date when released, since it was in black and white, when that format, even in the B movie world, had pretty much passed on. Though despite the dated appearance of the movie, the filmmakers did manage to pack in a respectable amount of sleaze, including (but not limited to) lesbianism (the movie's two lesbian seduction sequences are unintentionally funny), nudity, sex, and a middle-aged man having an affair with a very young woman. This stuff is kind of fun, but the enjoyment from it is deflated by a very slow moving story that seems VERY padded, even though the running time is only 75 minutes. I personally don't think the movie quite makes it to a recommendation, but others here on the IMDb liked it, so I think this is one case where you'll have to watch the movie and decide for yourself.