Autumn Born

The only reason this film exist at all is that Dorothy Stratten is in it. Autumn Born has all the finesse of a 70's porn film, but without the sex scenes. Although, I did like the story, An uncle who have his niece kidnapped to brainwash her into signing her fortunes over to him. It is a interesting story, but not fully realized by the writer and by the director of this movie.

In Autumn Born, you get to see plenty of Dorothy Stratten than any other films that she is in. You get to hear her speak with her Canadian accent(she does have a very lovely voice). You get to heard her say "eh" couple of times at the start of the film. You get to see Dorothy in varies states of undress either by another or by herself a lot. What I like about this movie is that you get to see the budding of her acting talent. Now I have seen more than my shares of bad acting in low budget movies, but Dorothy's acting although rough around the edges, still have more room to grow, that is, if she was to allow to develop her skill. It is really a shame that all we get to see of Dorothy Stratten as an actress is in low rent movies like this one.

The fictional filming of this movie is shown in the Bob Fosse film STAR 80, which is about the death of Dorothy Stratten, and is called "Wednesday's Child" instead of "Autumn Born". In STAR 80, Dorothy Stratten, played by Muriel Hemingway, is being slapped by an actor, and she bites into a blood pellet too soon, and the director gets mad at her. And then Eric Roberts, who plays Strattens crazy boyfriend/husband Paul Snider, calls her up and gets her to cry on the set. That's in STAR 80 and the movie "Wednesday's Child" is really this movie, "Autumn Born", and it's plain awful. It looks like a porno, has acting like a porno, has music like a porno, but doesn't pay off at all... There is lesbianism involved but they kiss each others noses and that's it... The sex is all edited out for the most part, and all that's left is horrific acting... They cut out so much sex that it doesn't even seem as if this movie deserves an R rating... It's awful, but somewhat fun to watch I guess. In one scene, Stratten falls in love with a wind up mouse (!!!), and then she hears voices in another room singing the Three Blind Mice song, about the farmer's daughter cutting off the mouse's tail, and Stratten begins crying and trying to hide the mouse inside the walls. Since this film mainly deals with lesbianism, they should have at least shown some real kissing, or something other than badly edited nose pecks. To note: other films mentioned in STAR 80 that in real life starred Stratten are "Ballbearings" that is really "Skatetown USA", and there's the movie "They All Laughed" shown, but that title isn't mentioned in STAR 80. Anyhow, since the Fosse film is one of my all time favorite movies, I checked out this one, "Autumn Born", aka, "Wednesday's Child", and I wish I hadn't, because it was a big tease and nothing more.

Many elements of this movie went into Bob Fosse's film. He watched this movie and took a lot of its music, other things like that for his film. There are many campy elements that Fosse picked up on that have made this a cult movie. Dorothy driving a (I think) Rolls is a beautiful shot, you wish you were blonde and rich in 1979. Dorothy's talking style is similar to many of us girls when people have accused us of talking wooden or stilted when it is our natural speaking voice, which makes a girl feel better that we talk as good as an actress. When she tells the other girl "you're a really nice person" my friend said, she says it just like you and then I knew it wasn't really wooden.

The other actors are quite interesting in their delivery, and there is a weird little music that plays over the intercom. Dorothy yelling, stop playing that bloody music is a high point and makes you feel comfortable, if you grew up hearing people yell bloody fool and things like that.

She looks her stunning self in every scene. The end is quite clear, the uncle is trapped and they will all live in the mansion with the uncle in the little room.

The best campy line is the woman saying, when Dorothy is about to paint her toes, Oh no, I detest that rustic shade! All the elements make it a bizarre, high camp movie. But for soome reason easygoing, tolerant people can barely sit through it once.

There were apparently a lot of films from around this time, that were heavily influenced by the movie "Story of O," and "Autumn Born" is definitely one of them. A young and beautiful heiress is kidnapped, and taken to a strange "school of discipline," in an effort to torture her into relinquishing her inheritance, which includes control over a family empire, to her corrupt uncle. Dorothy Stratten is so stunningly beautiful that it is sometimes difficult to notice anything else. But "Autumn Born" is actually a bizarre, and atmospheric film, filled with some beautiful and surreal imagery. As someone else mentioned, this is a textbook study on the art of brainwashing, which some will consider very unpleasant subject matter. The heiress, Tara is subject to random whippings, and other sexual humiliation, as well as some real psychological torture. At one point she is raped by her captors, who she later wins over to her side, with her charm and innocence. When she starts to become unhinged, Stratten actually shows some competent acting skills; she is so much better in this film than I thought she would be. She had definite screen presence, and would surely have gone on to make more films, had her life not have been ended so soon. She had that same ethereal and innocent quality as Marilyn Monroe had on camera. "Autumn Born" is surely an odd film, as well as a fascinating late 70's time capsule, made even more interesting by the story around the film and the actress. It is a must-see for fans of cult cinema and erotic films from that period. It was also nice to see that there is actually very little nudity and sex on camera, which means that Miss Stratten wasn't really 'exploited' in the making of it. It is also interesting to note that "Autumn Born" is rated as a better film here, than the more well-known "Galaxina." Recommended, if you can actually find a copy..

All the acting is poor. The plot is weak. The film is merely a vehicle to display Dorothy Stratten's body. On that count, well done. But, even that is not enough to maintain an interest to the end.