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.

Carol is quite something when you see her in lingerie or nude. She leaves her boring existence to pursue her modelling career, taking off with childhood friend, Robin Askwith, mostly still filling the boots of his Timmy Lea character in the Confession films. Though the story is supposedly true in this film, one wouldn't really care. A lot of people will do anything to survive. Askwith and co need money in London. Food, like that delectable pastry in the window and accommodation costs money. Someone talent spots Askwith's better half, and soon she's doing some pretty weird photographic nude shoots, and offering sexual services, where may'be a bit of her likes it. She becomes hooked, finding it hard to turn offers down, where Askwith starts getting annoyed. Jealousy? He has a thing for her? She doesn't decline at first. Some tasty nudity, provide momentary erotic entertainment from our title lead, doing it with some 60+ men, some moments of it getting nasty, if demeaning to our lead, despite it being a comedy, that didn't have me laughing. This movie isn't anything special. Bits of it are truly pathetic, and I wonder if the words, "acting lessons", mean anything to Askwith.

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.

"London? At your age!?" Teenagers Joe (Robin Askwith) and Carol (Janet Lynn) leave their rather boring lives in rural Norwich and go to swinging London to make their fortune. Things do not go to plan and when they run out of money Carol turns to prostitution. She doesn't seem too bothered about selling herself to dirty old men but Joe is obviously jealous - that is until big money starts rolling in. However riches don't always bring happiness and I think that there is a moral in this tale (allegedly based on a true story). Director Pete Walker made a series of very British horror movies but before that he was making sexploitation films, this being the second one that I have so far watched. And I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a delightful snapshot of England, both rural and urban, in 1970. I loved seeing the fashions, the old vehicles, the music and listening to what would now be considered dated language. Apparently the film courted much controversy in the UK at the time but viewed now the sex side of it is pretty tame. Carol and Joe do have sex a few times, including on the train to London, but very little is seen. Janet Lynn was a very attractive young actress, she is seen topless quite a few times plus one brief full frontal shot. Askwith, who went on to star in the British sex comedy "Confessions of.." movies, is seen naked from the rear. Fair amount of sex talk, ranging from the f word to the very British "have it off". I noticed one goof, the couple agree to be filmed having sex for money, the reflection of the real crew cameraman can be seen in a mirror next to the character cameraman with his 8mm handheld camera. Cool It, Carol isn't exactly red hot as a sex movie but I found it to be an enjoyable and charming romp that has as much humour as it does sex.

Part black comedy, part cautionary tale, "Cool it Carol!" is the frank story of a sometime-couple of teens from the Midlands who hope to make the big move to London, circa 1969. She to be a model, he to be a delivery driver for an auto company. Carol is played by the fresh and quite pretty Janet Lynn, who unfortunately did almost no other films. The boy, played by Robin Askwith, brings a modestly charming goofiness. The rest of the cast is made up mostly of unknowns who do a pretty good job, and the sets and costuming are quite characterful. The music is unfortunately bland and heavy-handed. The plot is fairly standard potboiler stuff, relieved somewhat by the rather blase' attitude of the teens. Supposedly it is based upon a true story, as reported by that paragon of reportage -- The News of the World(!) Considering how often such situations must've occurred, it is not too wild a claim.

In all, a good addition to the catalog of youth films set in London in the late 1960s, and made more watchable by the appeal of "Carol" herself. Where is she now?