Rolls Royce Baby

There is really only one reason to watch this film and it goes by the name of Lina Romay. She is at the top of her form here as she plays a rich, lonely and seemingly troubled woman who satisfies her wanton lust by picking up hitchhikers, both male and female and discarding them after having her way with them. This all stems from an incident in her past when she was abused by a couple of lorry drivers. Eventually, through lucky contacts and contracts, she becomes very well-off which is when we pick up the story.

As in a lot of these films there is nudity aplenty and Lina Romay is well worth the price of admission and the film also contains plenty of spread legs and female genitalia shots which would be banned if submitted to our beloved BBFC for certification. However, it lacks the penetration and climax shots so it is not truly hard core. Lina Romay is definitely the star here and absolutely captivating - so watch and be captivated.

Rolls-Royce Baby (1975)

** (out of 4)

Dietrich, best known for producing several Jess Franco films, takes the director's chair and delivers an average sexploitation film, which stars Lina Romay. In the film, Romay plays a sex addict who has become a famous movie star. To get her sexual needs, she has her chauffeur (Eric Falk) drive her around in the Rolls-Royce to pick up various men and women for sex. This film is pretty much softcore except for a small oral scene and this mix really gives the film a what the hell feel because I'm not quite sure what Dietrich was going for. The film is never really erotic because the sex scenes are more graphic than anything else but at the same time they never go hardcore so all of the scenes are in a rather strange mix in terms of what's going on. When I first watched this film I was shocked to see Romay doing the oral sex scenes but since then I've seen over a hundred Franco movies and know that Romay has gone onto do countless hardcore movies. She's pretty good in the film and one could argue that she's never looked better. The film opens up with her shaving her private areas with a straight razor so she certainly isn't shy. In the end the film comes off rather flat but fans of Romay will certainly want to take the ride (no pun of course).

Rolls-Royce Baby, directed by Erwin C. Dietrich, is a curious entry in the world of 1970s European exploitation cinema. While it strives for elegance and decadence, the end result is a jarring and uneven experience.

From a purely aesthetic standpoint, Rolls-Royce Baby is a stunning achievement. The film's opening sequence, featuring Lina Romay standing nude in a spacious mansion, immediately sets the tone for the entire film. The use of lighting, set design, and color is impressive, creating an atmosphere of opulence and sensuality. The film's Swiss-German origins also lend it a unique flavor, setting it apart from its American pornographic contemporaries.

However, the film's visual splendor is often at odds with its low-budget origins. Despite featuring lavish settings like mansions and vintage luxury cars, the overall production design feels chintzy and lacking in authenticity. It's as if the film is trying to mask its budgetary constraints through excessive glitz and glamour, which ultimately detracts from the viewing experience.

Where Rolls-Royce Baby stumbles the most is in its lack of a compelling narrative. The film prioritizes style over substance, and as a result, the story feels thin and underdeveloped. This is a common pitfall of pornographic films from this era, and unfortunately, Rolls-Royce Baby fails to rise above this limitation.

The characters are one-dimensional, serving merely as vehicles for the next sexual encounter. There is little to no character development, and the dialogue is often cringe-worthy and stilted. This makes it challenging for viewers who crave a stronger emotional connection or a more intricate plot to remain engaged throughout the film's runtime.

In terms of sexual content, the film is relatively tame compared to other pornographic films of its time, such as Debbie Does Dallas and Deep Throat. However, it does feature full-frontal male and female nudity, and its sex scenes are decadently presented. Romay, in particular, commands the screen with her performance, exuding a raw sensuality that elevates the film.

That being said, the sexual encounters often feel more like a means to an end rather than integral parts of the story. They are beautifully shot and performed, but they lack the emotional depth or narrative context that could have made them truly memorable.

Rolls-Royce Baby is a film that aims high but ultimately falls short of its ambitions. While it succeeds in creating a visually stunning and atmospheric experience, it falters due to its thin plot, underdeveloped characters, and uneven tone.

Swiss director Erwin C. Dietrich is responsible for producing some of Franco's best movies, including JACK THE RIPPER, FRAUENGEFANGIS, and TROPICAL INFERNO, but as a director, manages to be more consistently enjoyable than Franco. His gore-sodden, laugh-riot biker thriller MAD FOXES, the near-hardcore WIP exploiter CAGED WOMEN, and NIGHT OF THE FEMALE COLONEL - the latter two starring Brigitte Lahaie - are well worth a look. So is this one, even if it is quite repetitive to watch, being not that much more than your usual hardcore filth. The plot, or what counts as one, involves a young woman (Romay, who looks stunning here) who gets humiliated by two crude long-distance truckers whilst hitch-hiking. After they've both had their way with her, they throw her out of the truck and keep her clothes.

She becomes rich and famous, thanks to a fortuitous movie-role. The incident is still very much on her mind, and she apends her days reversing the role she played. Picking up numerous lucky sods in the back of her Rolls Royce, and satisfying herself on them, she drives off and moves onto the next.

Dietrich regular Eric Falk plays her chauffeur, and almost steals the show with his scenes of intense, straight-into-the-camera kung-fu, clad in a pair of disappearing karate trousers. These are the standouts of the movie, as is the sequence where the truck-driver gets a fit of the giggles watching Romay get off with his mate.

The rest of the film concentrates on hardcore couplings, but these are very nicely-shot in bright yellow and greens, mirroring the countryside where Romay's character lives. Most hardcore movies get more than a little tedious with their repetitiveness, and this one is no exception, but at least Dietrich has the good sense to throw in a lot of humour.

Any movie that has Lina Romay brushing her pubes in close-up can't be all bad, can it?

Lina Romay plays the "Rolls-Royce Baby", an irresistible Erotic Diva who rides around in -you guessed it- a Rolls-Royce in search for simulated sex with strangers. She is chauffeured by the great and multi-talented Eric Falk ("Barbed Wire Dolls"), a staple in Edwin C. Dietrich's line of bland-yet-intriguing "erotic" flicks. Here Falk sets aside his usual role as verbal abuser and whipper of female prison inmates to showcase his tender side, his furious nude karate technique, and his ability to drive a Rolls-Royce extremely slowly through the Swiss countryside.

Like in "Gefangene Frauen" AKA "Island Women", Dietrich's sense of light and color adds visual appeal to a fairly dull storyline, which makes this film almost watchable. Another plus is that the film adheres strictly to Dietrich's 10 second rule, which dictates that no more than 10 seconds shall pass without on-screen nudity, preferably in the form of close-ups of female pubes. Yet despite the undeniable effectiveness of these techniques, "Rolls-Royce Baby" starts to fall apart after only twenty minutes, thanks to the complete absence of anything resembling a plot.

It's fair to say that this film doesn't qualify as good by virtually any standards, including prurient ones. Falk almost saves the day with his atrocious performance and spectacular martial arts displays, but doesn't overcome the meandering, repetitive "plot" that eventually calls for the fast-forward button. It's probably best to stay away from this film.