A Marca do Pecado

Made on the cusp of the sexual revoloution.This film now seems dated and rather laboured.Part of the problem is that the film is not allowed to reach a dramatic conclusion.Instead we have a ten minute discussion on the pros and cons of pre marital sex.The conclusion is predictable.

'The Yellow Teddybears' is misleadingly packaged as a "saucy" 60s sexploitation movie, which is nowhere near the truth! It's actually a serious message movie about teenage pre-marital sex. Dated as all hell, it's almost like a Smiths fan's wet dream.

The movie concerns a girl's school where a group of "bad girls" wear a small yellow teddybear on their uniforms to symbolize their loss of virginity. The ringleader of these girls, Linda, fears she is pregnant by her boyfriend Kinky, who is a window washer by day, and wanna be pop singer by night. Desperate, and unable to confide in her uptight parents she seeks the help of a local woman of the world who suggest an abortion. However she has no money and the price she must have to pay could be even worse than the prospect of shame as a single mother. Meanwhile, Linda's concerned biology teacher gets wind of the meaning of her students yellow teddybears and when she confronts them about it she ends up being accused of leading the girls astray.

While dated and corny in many ways 'The Yellow Teddybears' is interesting as a snapshot of pre-"Swinging Sixties" England before The Beatles and The Pill changed young people's lives forever.

THE YELLOW TEDDY BEARS is available on VHS in England. The print is quite good, but it's the censored domestic version. There was also a "Continental" version that added nudity (however, the nudity was provided by adults, not the "schoolgirls"). It is dated now, but it's fun to see films that were once shocking.