La baby sitter

A young woman (Maria Schneider)is lured to a babysitting gig in a remote mansion by her treacherous roommate (Sydney Rome). When her young charge wakes up though, she realizes that he's been kidnapped and that she's being used as an unwitting front in the kidnapping. This movie was directed by a respected French director, Rene Clement, and is in black and white for some reason. It is a rather ridiculous melodrama, however, that doesn't really live up to its arty pretensions. On the other hand, people drawn in by its exploitative English title, "Wanted: Babysitter" ( I only understand the "jeun fille" part of the French title, but it seems pretty exploitative too) were probably pretty disappointed at its relative lack of exploitative elements. It was probably mistaken by many for one of the "sexy babysitter" movies of the era (i.e. "The Babysitter", "Weekend with the Babysitter", "Jailbait Babysitter", ad infinitum), especially with the Maria "Last Tango in Paris' Schneider in the lead.

I actually kind of like movies like this though that fall in the no-man's land between art and exploitation. The absurd plot kind of reminded me of an Italian giallo (although it's slow and subtle in a French way rather than delirious and over-the-top in an Italian). Regrettably--nay, tragically--Schneider has no nude scenes, but she's still pretty good. This is actually the third best movie I've seen her in after "Last Tango" and "The Passenger" (. . .well, actually I've only seen her in those two other movies). Rome does have nude scenes, and, surprisingly, she too is pretty good (I found her sexy but incredibly annoying in Polanski's "What?" and just plain irritating in the Italian anthology "Sex with a Smile").

This is a pretty unusual movie which I wouldn't recommend to everybody, but if it sounds interesting to you . . .

"A young woman unwittingly becomes part of a kidnapping plot involving the son of a movie producer she is babysitting. The kidnappers happen to be former business partners of the son's father and are looking to exact some revenge on him. Our babysitter must bide her time and wait to see what will become of the son and herself, while the kidnappers begin to argue amongst themselves, placing the kidnap victims in great peril," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

That acclaimed director René Clément could be responsible for this haphazard crime thriller is the real shocker. Despite beginning with the appearance of having been edited in a washing machine, the film develops a linear storyline. Once you've figured out what is going on, the engaging Maria Schneider (as Michelle) and endearing John Whittington (as Boots) can get you through the film. There are a couple of female nude scenes, which fit into the storyline well.

**** Scar Tissue (10/15/75) René Clément ~ Maria Schneider, John Whittington, Vic Morrow

From reading other reviews here it doesn't seem like this film has too good of a reputation. This surprises me. I found Wanted: Babysitter to be a very good crime-thriller. Having said that, I am not familiar at all with its director René Clément's other work. It appears from what I read that he was a renowned film-maker whose career was latterly panned by the critics. This film was his last offering and it seems to have suffered especially badly in this way.

I just cannot get behind the dislike though as overall I found the film to be very involving. I thought Maria Schneider was fine in the lead role and was ably supported by the likes of Robert Vaughn, Vic Morrow and Sydne Rome. The storyline is compelling enough and there is a fair amount of tension generated. The overall tone is gloomy and downbeat which is certainly in keeping with the film's French origins, seeing as 70's thrillers from that country seem to often be like this. Furthermore, the version of the film I watched was a public domain copy that was for some reason in black and white. I have no idea why this should be seeing as the film is clearly a colour production. It sounds like it may have been released this way for some obscure TV market perhaps. But whatever the reason, the funny thing is that the black and white presentation actually adds to the overall feel of the film. It only adds to the downbeat ambiance and very probably makes it a better film.

All I can say finally is that Wanted: Babysitter is nowhere near as bad as its reputation suggests. I would even go as far as to say that it is a good 70's thriller and is well worth checking out.

I was not disappointed by this last René Clément's film. It's an international cast, as he did for LA COURSE DU LIEVRE A TRAVERS LES CHAMPS, a couple of years earlier. Not a bad movie which the topic reminded me Yves Boisset's FOLLE A TUER. The nanny and the wealthy kid about to be abducted. Not a masterpiece but certainly not a garbage movie. You would not find such features now. Yes, it's a typical downbeat scheme, as we often saw forty years ago, especially from France. And not only. Good performances too, despite the fact that there was no great actors in the cast. It's also a rather rare film, hard to find and no often released even on French channels.

I love watching such movies from time to time, gloomy and so sad.

This movie’s BOMB rating in the Leonard Maltin Film Guide seemed to justify distinguished French director Clement’s bowing out of the industry at the relatively early age of 62 (after all, he would go on to live for another 21 years); though admittedly clumsily constructed at times, it’s hardly such an embarrassing mess that would lead a renowned film-maker to become suddenly unbankable!

The bizarre and eclectic international cast is, in itself, quite notable: Maria Schneider, Sydne Rome, Vic Morrow, Robert Vaughn, Nadja Tiller, Renato Pozzetto and Carl Mohner; THE BABYSITTER, in fact, was an Italian-French-German co-production – albeit filmed in English – from Italian movie mogul Carlo Ponti’s stable. While it’s the Americans (Rome, Morrow and Vaughn) who truly make the film, the contributions of Schneider and Pozzetto (both of whom seemed particular liabilities for Maltin!) are hardly negligible or jarring (Schneider’s haunted, disheveled look by the end of it – having been assaulted by Morrow who, in his fury, took a knife to her hair! – and Pozzetto’s surreal ramble to Morrow himself about the apocalyptic inevitability of two-headed insects and radioactive mozzarella bear witness to this). The stunning Rome has a couple of brief, frank nude scenes (one of them at the very start of the film) but, surprisingly enough, Schneider doesn’t (her rebellious and self-destructive nature, which got the actress famously sacked from Luis Bunuel’s THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE [1977], would soon spell the end for her meteoric stardom); incidentally, the two characters meet when Rome is hit by a taxi in which Schneider is a passenger – and the two later decide to shack up together!

Rome, Morrow, Vaughn and Tiller are all down-on-their-luck actors involved in a complex kidnapping scheme actually inspired by Schneider’s titular line of work: in fact, Rome impersonates the latter at the villa belonging to a former conquest – an American industrialist – who had jilted her (the whole, then, is organized by the man’s very own unscrupulous lawyer!); a gruff Morrow doubles as a telephone-repair man in order to move about inconspicuously in the neighborhood of the designated premises, while the customarily brooding Vaughn lends a definite camp factor to the proceedings. Schneider, who’s an unwitting victim here, and the industrialist’s boy start off on the wrong foot (since Rome had mistreated and even drugged him so that he can be transported to an empty house in the suburbs) – but they eventually bond and, by the end, the kid (named Boots!) doesn’t want to leave her side; incidentally, Morrow is forced to kill an elderly neighbor whom Schneider had tried to contact.

Pozzetto, Schneider’s boyfriend, won’t rest on his laurels – also because he gave her the key to his apartment!; somehow, he manages to locate the house but is scared off by Morrow in the above-mentioned scene they share (it was certainly weird seeing the popular, chubby Italian comic interacting with the likes of him and Vaughn) – the film, then, ends on an agreeably amusing note as Pozzetto decides to call in a professional with a passkey to his home (arriving on the scene loaded with them) but, by this time, Schneider’s come back! By the way, the greedy lawyer decides to keep the ransom money all for himself and eliminates Vaughn and Tiller (a scene witnessed by Schneider and the boy); when Morrow turns up, she tells him he’s been duped and he leaves, disconcerted – after which Schneider calls the police to denounce the lawyer’s involvement in the case…

For the record, Clement started out with the famous WWII semi-documentary LA BATAILLE DU RAIL (1945) and proceeded to such Art-house hits as FORBIDDEN GAMES (1952) and GERVAISE (1956); however, after introducing Alain Delon in the excellent Patricia Highsmith adaptation PLEIN SOLEIL (1960), he seemed stuck in a rut of pulp thrillers right till the end of his career – JOY HOUSE (1964), RIDER ON THE RAIN (1970), THE DEADLY TRAP (1971), AND HOPE TO DIE (1972), etc. Incidentally, the film under review had been shown on late-night Italian TV a number of times in the past – but it was only now, still moved by the footage of Morrow’s horrific death, that I decided to check it out…and for which I was glad since, while essentially unsatisfying, it clearly turned out to be of more than passing interest.