Femmes en location

'Au Pair Girls' is a cheesy "naughty" sexploitation comedy from the early 70s. During this period before hard core porn was readily available these kinds of movies were very popular in England. They mixed unsophisticated slapstick comedy, Benny Hill-like double entendres and lots of naked babes. Thirty years later they are enjoyable as kitsch but have little else going for them. 'Au Pair Girls' story concerns the misadventures of four beautiful girls sent to England to work as (yes, you guessed it!) Au Pair girls. They are Randi (Gabrielle Drake), Astrid (Anita Sector), Nan (Me Me Lay) and Christa (Nancie Wait). Randi ends up losing her clothes in a barn after the son of her employer (Richard O' Sullivan from the popular 70s sit-com 'Man About The House) gives her a lift and his car breaks down in the country. Astrid, a nutty Swedish girl obsessed with colour TV, gets picked up by a Sheik (Ferdy Mayne) while on a date at a casino. Nan is hired by Lady Tryke (Rosalie Crutchley) to be a companion for their socially inept but musically gifted son (Julian Barnes), who quickly falls in love with her. Christa is taken to a club by her employers liberated daughter Carole (Lyn Yeldham) and is seduced by a rock singer Ricky Strange (Steve Patterson). People raised on British sit-coms of the 60s and 70s will notice several familiar faces in the supporting cast, most notably John Le Mesurier ('Dad's Army'), who plays Richard O'Sullivan's Dad, and Trevor Bannister ('Are You Being Served?'), who plays his photographer pal. Of the four girls Gabrielle Drake, sister of legendary folk singer Nick Drake, and a cult figure in her own right from appearing as the purple wigged Lt.Gaye Ellis in the series 'UFO', is the most beautiful and shows some genuine flair for comedy. I've had a crush on her for many, many years and her full frontal nude scenes are reason enough to watch this movie! I didn't recognize the actresses who played Astrid or Christa, but Me Me Lay went on to become a cult figure from her appearances in the cannibal movies 'Man From Deep River', 'The Last Cannibal World' and 'Eaten Alive' as well as co-starring in Lars Von Trier's 'The Element Of Crime'! Another interesting thing about 'Au Pair Girls' is that it was directed and co-written by none other than Val Guest, the man behind the early Hammer classics 'The Quatermass Xperiment' (aka 'The Creeping Unknown'), 'Quatermass 2' and 'The Abominable Snowman'. I must admit that the involvement of Val Guest and Me Me Lay aside, the main attraction here is the utterly gorgeous Gabrielle Drake. Apart from that it's pretty average.

Au Par Girls (1972)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

British sexploitation film about four beautiful women who travel to London so that they can work as Au Pair girls. I guess there's really not too much of a reason to go into the plot as we simply see all four of them end up nude and in various sexual situations. The most shocking thing about AU PAIR GIRLS is the fact that it was written and director by Val Guest who is best remembered for for various Hammer productions including the wonderful THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN. I was really surprised to see how well he handled the material but then again, all he really had to do is make sure the ladies got naked throughout the running time and that the film never slowed down too much. This is a comedy so are there any laughs? I'd say not really as all of the situations are quite predictable and never overly funny. One girl gets hooked up with the son of her boss. Another gets to live with a weird older couple and so on. The film manages to be entertaining simply because of the four ladies. Gabrielle Drake, Me Me Lay, Nanci Wait and Anita Sector are the four ladies and all of them are obviously beautiful but they also manage to keep a smile on your face. Me Me Lay is probably going to be best remembered for a number of Italian cannibal films that she'd make later in her career. Another good thing is that the film is certainly proud of being made in the 1970s, which means we get some great visuals of the various styles and settings of the period. AU PAR GIRLS isn't a masterpiece and it certainly can't compare to many of the German sexploitation pics of this era but it's still worth watching for fans of the genre.

You can pick apart this film for the cheesiness of some of its scenes, the not so great acting, especially the fake accents, and general flimsy story, but somehow this all works. The absolutely gorgeous Gabrielle Drake (sister of the late, great singer/songwriter Nick Drake) is so sexy, you forget her Scandinavian accent is pretty awful. There is copious nudity here, but there also is a story. I especially liked the scenes with Nan (Me Me Lay) and piano prodigy Rupert, they are more sweet than overtly sexy. The 70's brought a lot of these sex comedies, but this one is far less sleazy than many of them. Its not meant to be a classic, but it is in its genre. If you like these films, its worth watching. The ladies are amazing, which is meant to be the draw in the first place.

Pretty foreign girls take au pair jobs in England and get seduced into naughty situations by a variety of local louts.

The look is cheap and the whole proceedings are played for sensationalism and cheap laughs, rather like a D-list Carry On film, which incidentally was how this piece was advertised when it first played on cable TV in the 80s. The characters have little depth, and there is nothing in the way of a story, just random episodes leading to shedding of clothes. For its genre it wasn't terrible, and the girls are pretty attractive (especially the obviously British Gabrielle Drake playing a Scandinavian, and the amusingly named Asian actress Me Me Lay), but keep expectations low.

AU PAIR GIRLS is a pretty decent example of the British sex comedy film of the 1970s, especially when compared to other entries in the genre during the decade. It has strong production values - thanks to being produced by the great Tigon Pictures studios - and even better direction courtesy of veteran helmer Val Guest, just before he went on to make possibly the ultimate example of the genre in 1974, CONFESSIONS OF A WINDOW CLEANER.

What stands out about AU PAIR GIRLS is the unusual and highly watchable plotting. Instead of having a single plot strand dragged out to feature length, this is a kind of anthology movie which follows the misadventures of four foreign au pairs who arrive in England and each find themselves in an unusual situation with their new-found employer. Chances are that if you don't like one of the stories then at least one of the others will be more appealing.

The arresting Gabrielle Drake stars in the most typical of the story lines about a girl who gets into various run-ins with the son of her new employer, played by Richard O'Sullivan. There's a lot of slapstick humour in this tale, and ample nudity from the beautiful Drake. Astrid Frank is a Swedish au pair who causes Geoffrey Bayldon to get hot under the collar before falling in with Trevor Bannister's photographer. Next up we get the oddest tale, an oddly touching story starring the one and only Me Me Lai (star of those Italian cannibal films) who has never looked more lovely and who falls in with a child-like man. The last tale, by far the darkest, involves Nancie Wait's virginal young woman who ends up being introduced to the sleazy side of the music world.

The supporting cast is quite good, with the ubiquitous John Le Mesurier popping up in a cameo and future CORONATION STREET actor Johnny Briggs doing his best to pick up the girls. There are bit parts for John Standing, Marianne Stone, and Milton Reid, plus the unusual sight of Ferdy Mayne playing a sheikh. What impresses most is that although the four actresses are all picked for their looks and willingness to go nude, they're actually quite talented performers who convince in their roles and evoke emotion in the viewer. More than your usual sex comedy, then.