Little Sweetheart

"Little Sweetheart" is an extremely suspenseful and very odd movie, basically--- it's not handled that perfectly, that's some problem. As the third time I saw it, I noticed many things which didn't make sense to me, about the development of the plot, mainly. Also some of the suspense was gone, but I still enjoyed it much and I'm surely seeing it again.

The *little sweetheart* is called Thelma, is nine years old, and goes to a boarding school where *the others* don't like her, as we learn from herself. In the summer, she lives at some vacation place with her careless and rather stupid, widowed mother and her brother - rather a cartoon in a would-be mother-teenager-conflict, sorry film makers! She makes friends with another girl her age, Elizabeth. The both of them meet a pair of gangsters, played by John Hurt and Karen Young. Hurt seems to like Thelma, while his *mistress* Young sees her as a rival. She's so mad at the girl that it's only ridiculous. However, she seems to be kind of right, when Thelma decides that the two girls blackmail the pair. The blackmailing is no big deal and no big movie making - but it's only the prelude...

In some moments this movie is really chilling and eerie, because of its absurd and disturbing events and possibilities. I won't judge if the events in this movie are realistic enough, so that they could really take place, but the movie illustrates how kids are always underestimated in our society. Regarded as *cute*, *innocent*, *dull*, *can't do no harm*, they're not taken seriously. Therein lies the intelligence and the irony of the movie: To what point the kid may be *evil* and spoiled, she remains the good guy in a way, as she is just a little girl. And John Hurt is the bad guy, though he's probably the nicest character in the film.

There's one rather fake dialogue with Thelma speaking to Elizabeth. But as her brother tells us, the kid has been loafing around in front of the TV all her life, so that may explain much. The un-known young actress, Cassie Barasch, is very cute and smart in the film, so that you want to like her, on the other hand she acts her character spoiled enough that you want to hate her. Good job! Which part of you is likely to win?

Not a too caring piece of art, nor deeply psychologically analytic, but a convincing, entertaining, suspenseful film with an extraordinary story and a little ironical humor. 8 out of 10!

"Watch me!"

Little Sweetheart also known as Poison Candy is the first feature film made for cinema release by the BBC. Its a little seen film and was released in the cinemas in America some years after it was made.

John Hurt and Karen Young are a couple who have embezzled money and hiding out in a coastal resort. They cross paths with two nine year-old girls who themselves have just met. We have already been introduced to Thelma (Cassie Barasch) who is blackmailing her older brother and is addicted to violence on television.

The other girl is Elizabeth (Ellie Raab) who has moved into the area. The girls burgle the couple's house and steal a gun. Later Elizabeth goes missing and the police become involved putting the errant couple in danger.

Despite the location filming this is a low budget morality tale and an insight on a girl who is sweet but beneath the surface is malevolent and might be willing to kill and frame others. John Hurt and Karen Young do well in this offbeat and little known film and the child actors carry of their roles with aplomb. Its a minor character study, lacking in strong direction with a minimalist score.

This film is shot primarily upon St. George's Island, a resort site along Northern Florida's Gulf Coast, that becomes the transposed location from France in the original novel, of which only a basic outline has been retained. John Hurt portrays Robert Burger, a middle-aged bank employee who has embezzled over one million dollars and, along with his co-conspirator and girl friend Dorothea (Karen Young) is on the lam from Texas, and from his wife, with an idea of relaxing a bit on the island before continuing their flight. Unprovidentially for the renegade pair, they cross paths with two nine-year-old girls, one of whom, Thelma (Cassie Barasch), bristles with curiosity about the newcomers. Thelma is addicted to television and to the violent action she finds available there, and when she and her young friend Elizabeth (Ellie Raab) burglarize the cottage of the fugitives, Thelma steals Robert's revolver, whereupon her imagination becomes hazardous to all about her. Director Anthony Summers creates the script, and wherever a change is made from the plot of the admittedly third-rate novel, credibility goes begging, particularly when homage is being made to Kubrick's LOLITA in referential scenes not difficult to identify. His direction is weak, a source for those frequently occurring scenes when players are left upon their own, with Hurt improvising as always; yet, Guy Boyd as a sheriff is smooth and consistent as silk, easily regulating scenes in which he appears. A minimalist score, composed and performed by guitarist Laurence Juban, matches an obviously minimal budget, with Juban's suspended chords, particularly in the case of the main theme: "Oyster Blues", conjugating nicely with the palmetto plaited scenery. Cinematographer John Hooper's closeups help define this flawed but interesting piece, and he emphasizes the omnipresent gloss from the sun, making this perhaps a first example of a genre: Incandescent Noir.

Little Sweetheart is a thriller with a lot of problems. While the basic idea for the plot is good; the execution is rather uneven and many of the plot details don't hold up to close scrutiny in some cases; and outright don't follow any sort of logic in others. However, for me the film gets round all of its problems simply by being very entertaining for the entire duration. The idea of a child being immoral enough to commit murder purposely has surfaced occasionally in films ever since it was done brilliantly in 1956 with The Bad Seed; and generally it at least provides an interesting film. That is certainly the case here. This film focuses on a nine year old girl named Thelma. She is introduced to another girl her age, Elizabeth, when her parents move to the town Thelma lives in. Shortly thereafter, a couple turns up and Thelma takes an interest in them. The male half of the couple at first sees the girls as being rather cute and harmless; but this changes when the girls realise they can play the couple to their advantage.

Cassie Barasch takes the lead role and fully convinces with it. She always seems at home with the role and it's very easy to take her seriously as the young kid with an agenda. She is joined by Ellie Raab; who puts in a similarly effective portrayal, but the standout has to be John Hurt; who as usual delivers the standout performance. The film is always driven by the story rather than just the premise, and the drama is very character lead. Writer-director Anthony Simmons skilfully keeps the film interesting by constantly introducing new twists and ideas and never leaving the film long enough for it to get stale. Of course, the plot is rather unlikely (this is even acknowledged at one point in the film) but that never gets in the way too much and even the less likely elements of it never really throw a spanner into the works. The film flows well throughout, and boils down to a well orchestrated and suitable conclusion. This film is not an easy one to find; but its well worth seeking out if you enjoy entertaining thrillers.

This little-known British film is excellent in every way. There is an interesting and memorable story, good acting, beautiful Florida beach scenery set to beautiful jazz guitar solos, attractive actresses, and more. All actors and actresses were very well chosen for their parts--young and old, male and female--with respect to looks, personality, and demeanor.

Regarding the two starlets involved, this is Cassie Barasch's only film (to date), but Ellie Raab appeared in several other films after this one, the most popular of which were probably "Eyes of An Angel" (1991) and "The Fabulous Baker Boys" (1989). John Hurt and Karen Young of course have many films to their credit. Blond Cassie Barasch plays the innocent-looking but precocious bad girl whereas brunette Ellie Raab plays the sweet, naive good girl, who in the movie are friends until their differences strain their friendship to the breaking point, to put it mildly. It is unfortunate that Cassie did not continue in film in the way that the actress Patty McCormack did after Patty played the cunning young murderer in the very successful and groundbreaking film "The Bad Seed" (1956), since there are parallels between the stories and the starlets.

The film script is based on a rather obscure and out-of-print paperback novel called "The Naughty Girls" by Arthur Wise, 1972. Whereas the novel was set in France in the 1970s, the movie was set in the U.S.A. in the 1980s, on the gulf coast of Florida around St. George's Island and Apalachicola. Therefore numerous details such as place names, people names, song titles, dates, and various laws had to be updated from the book to reflect American culture in the 1980s. However, the film follows the book rather closely: a man and his female companion who have just embezzled funds are attempting to lie low until interest in their crime blows over. This couple selects an out-of-the-way rental property that they believe to be safe and private, but through chance meet up with two little girls, Thelma and Elizabeth, who live in the area. Thelma's natural intrusiveness, nosiness, and interest in photography lead her to take photographs of the couple and to uncover part of the couple's sordid past, which then leads to the two girls blackmailing the couple. Conditions then rapidly and continually degrade for everybody even remotely associated with Thelma while all the while Thelma continues to look like an innocent little sweetheart.

The film has some strong Lolitaesque undertones that weren't present in the book, a fact which may have given the film a cult following and made the film ahead of its time. While current public interest and a DVD version are lagging, expect the popularity of this well-made film to rise in upcoming decades as more people discover it.