Cool It, Carol!

This is not what you expect from a Robin Askwith film. It's actually a charming, thought provoking little drama about a young naïve couple trying to make it in the big bad nasty city.

This story is exactly the sort of story which was the staple of dozens of pre-code movies in the early thirties. A young couple leave their quiet rural existence to make a life for themselves in the metropolis - how difficult can it be? As any fan of pre-codes will know, the only career choices for a pretty young lady in the big city is posing for saucy photos and becoming a prostitute! In the thirties, she'd have been someone like Miriam Hopkins. Maybe Spencer Tracy may have been the young man but here it's Robin Askwith.

For those of us used to seeing Robin Askwith in those dreadful "sex comedies", it takes a while to accept that this serious young actor is the same person. To confuse us further, he also used his own accent which isn't cockney! He's ok but not brilliant - it was probably a good career move for him to switch to those smutty comedies. The girl is the unknown Janet Lynn whose untrained, raw natural acting ability makes her fascinatingly complex character completely believable. The normally of her girl-next-door character really hooks you.

Underground director Pete Walker infuses a distinctive style to his picture ensuring that you know one hundred percent that this could only have been made in the late sixties. For an independent British production it's also got higher production values than you'd expect. The sumptuous classical score for example, swelling and ebbing with emotion is more reminiscent of a big budget 1950s biblical epic. This is a big score!

Just like in a thirties movie, as time progresses, it dawns on our young couple that they are not living at the bottom of the rainbow. Their new life is not what they wanted and the people they've become aren't really them. She becomes more trusting and subservient, he becomes more selfish and controlling. It's a simple but intelligent little morality tale.

If you want a fabulous taste of the real (un)swinging sixties, you should give this a go. That sixties, just like the thirties was a dirty, unsavoury and cruel place but also bursting with blind optimism.

An absolute gem! This is possibly Walker's finest film, although it is a bit unfair to compare it to his 'terror' pictures. England, particularly, London 1970 and things are changing and this little film captures something of the very essence. Janet Lynn is fantastic as the wide eyed innocent who is more than happy to shed her clothes and have some fun. 'I don't mind people looking at my body. I quite like it actually.' This she says as she changes her dress and gets rid of her bra, in a railway compartment. Robin Askwith is also very good as the young guy who pretends to have all the connections but in reality is nowhere near as resourceful as the delightful Lynn. There are sleazy sessions with elderly men in high positions ready to take her on for a fiver when the young couple find their finances dwindle. Plenty of location shooting, some marvellous cinematography, humour and flesh and an insightful glimpse of London's underbelly c1970.

Pete Walker is famous primarily for the superlative horror films he made during the 70's like "Frightmare" and "House of the Whipcord" and secondarily for the sex comedies he churned out in the late 60's like "I Like Birds" and "School for Sex". This film, made during the transition between the two periods, doesn't really fit either category. It is more of a serious, realistic drama with occasional comic elements. It tells the story of two naive but extremely amoral young people who leave their boring small town lives for swinging London. After many humiliating experiences--having to resort to pimping, prostitution, and performing in stag films--against all odds (and all plausibility), they achieve their dream of a success, but it proves to be less than what they hoped for.

For much of the running time this is pretty serious and believable movie, but it goes off the rails at the end. The female character, Carol (played by Janet Lynn), is apparently meant to be a homage to Christine Keeler (who the actress uncannily resembles), but while it was easy to see how a liberal-minded party girl like Keeler could find fame and fortune (or infamy and fortune) in the repressed Britain of the early 60's, it seems a lot less likely that this would happen ten years later when all the girls were pretty much giving it away for free. It also seems unlikely that these two shallow grasping characters would suffer all this humiliation only to grow a conscience AFTER they finally find wealth and success.

In some ways this film resembles "Midnight Cowboy", but the characters are much more amoral and insensitive, so the film doesn't really achieve the same tragic, emotional depths. Still the two leads are very charismatic. I always liked Robin Askwith (even if his bare butt often logged more screen time in his movies than his face). Janet Lynn was unbelievably sexy as a schoolgirl who gets felt up by a lecherous schoolmaster in a brief scene in "Assault", so you can imagine what she is like in a meatier role that requires her to shed her clothes every five minutes. Mostly though it is nice to see a British sex film that is not preachy and moralistic, on one hand, or given over to horrible sub-Benny Hill style "comedy" on the other. Pete Walker does it again.

As I write these words, 'Cool it, Carol!', directed by Pete Walker who is perhaps better known for his horror films, is close to its silver anniversary. It's sobering to remember that 25 years before the film came out, World War 2 had just come to an end.

A lot changes in 25 years. This story, sometimes known as 'The Dirtiest Girl I Ever Met' stars Janet Lynn as the titular strumpet - and she isn't a strumpet at all. Demure, shy even, she tells her wannabe boyfriend Joe (Robin Asquith) that she just doesn't see sex as a big deal. This comes in handy when the two of them try to make their fortune in London. In other circumstances, Joe becoming her pimp and managing her earnings might portray him as a bit of a git, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

We're never really witnesses to the various sex acts, but rather Joe's reaction as a number of old men disappear into the bedroom with Carol. When she wanders out after it's over for a nice cup of tea, she's not remotely fazed by the ordeal.

Based on real-life events, this slice of exploitation is both naïve and eye-watering in its depiction of the ambitions of these young people, both of whom are well portrayed.

While Askwith became a household name with a series of bawdy comedies, Lynn settled down to a life of domesticity away from the cameras. Jess Conrad, Stubby Kaye and DJ Pete Murray bolster the cast with a series of cameos.

I found this an enjoyable slice of what is now 'period drama'. My score is 7 out of 10.

COOL IT CAROL! is a low budget sexploitation epic from British director Pete Walker, although even at this stage of his career he can't resist making the material as dark and uncomfortable as it can be. Made in 1970, it proves a fitting tribute of its era, complete with sleazy porn producers, dirty old men, and all manner of outlandish fashions and hairstyles.

The production values are typically excellent as this looks and feels like your usual above-average Walker production. Robin Askwith and Janet Lynn are a good fit as the out-of-their-depth young couple who move to London with hopes of hitting the big time, only to find themselves drawn into a world of sleaze. The grubby atmosphere is spot on and there's plenty of tasty nudity for male viewers to enjoy (particularly from the delectable Lynn), but it's all rather seedy and depressing.

In many ways this film is an offshoot of the old 'sensation' genre of the 1930s, about pretty young girls finding themselves exploited by perverted older men. There are indications at comedy with the presence of Askwith and some funny dialogue, but as mentioned, it's rather depressing overall with a storyline that never really goes anywhere. I much prefer Walker when he has a story to tell, as in his later film HOME BEFORE MIDNIGHT.