''Baby Love'' is a 1969 British

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

film directed by

Alastair Reid Alastair Reid (22 March 1926, in Whithorn – 21 September 2014, in Manhattan) was a Scottish poet and a scholar of South American literature. He was known for his lighthearted style of poems and for his translations of South American poets Jo ...

and starring

Diana Dors Diana Dors (born Diana Mary Fluck; 23 October 19314 May 1984) was an English actress and singer. Dors came to public notice as a blonde bombshell, much in the style of Americans Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren. Dors was p ...

, Linda Hayden

Keith Barron Keith Barron (8 August 1934 – 15 November 2017) was an English actor and television presenter who appeared in films and on television from 1961 until 2017. His television roles included the police drama ''The Odd Man'', the sitcom ''Duty Free ...

and

Ann Lynn Elizabeth Ann Lynn (7 November 1933 – 30 August 2020) was a British actress, especially prominent during the British New Wave of the 1960s, appearing in many films that represented what is known as kitchen sink realism. Lynn's career spanne ...

.Simon Sheridan, ''Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema'', Titan Books 2011 p 59-60 The film tells the story of a 15 year-old schoolgirl who seduces her

adoptive Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

family after her mother committed suicide. Reid went on to work in television, while Linda Hayden, who was only 15 at the time of filming, later appeared in sexploitation movies, including two of the entries in the ''Confessions'' film series, ''

Confessions of a Window Cleaner ''Confessions of a Window Cleaner'' is a 1974 British sex comedy film, directed by Val Guest.Leach, p.132 Like the other films in the ''Confessions'' series; ''Confessions of a Pop Performer'', '' Confessions of a Driving Instructor'' and ''C ...

'' (1974) and '' Confessions from a Holiday Camp'' (1977). The film features an uncredited appearance by

Bruce Robinson Bruce Robinson (born 2 May 1946) is an English actor, director, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote and directed the cult classic ''Withnail and I'' (1987), a film with comic and tragic elements set in London in the late 1960s, which drew on hi ...

, later to direct '' Withnail & I'' (1987).

Plot

Luci Thompson is a 15 year old school girl whose mother Liz, suffering from cancer, commits suicide. She goes to live with Robert Quayle, a childhood friend of Liz's, who is married to Amy and has a son, Nick. Luci’s arrival causes sexual and psychological tensions to surface, bringing the family close to destruction.

Cast

as Liz Luci's Mother * Linda Hayden as Luci *

Troy Dante Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Çan ...

as The Lover *

as Amy (as Anne Lynn) *

Sheila Steafel Sheila Frances Steafel (26 May 1935 – 23 August 2019) was a British actress, who was born in Johannesburg, but lived all her adult life in the United Kingdom. Life and career Steafel, who was born in Johannesburg, trained at the Webber Dougla ...

as Tessa Pearson *

Dick Emery Richard Gilbert Emery (19 February 19152 January 1983) was an English comedian and actor. His broadcasting career began on radio in the 1950s, and his self-titled television series ran from 1963 to 1981. Life and career Richard Gilbert Emery was ...

as Harry Pearson *

as Robert *

Lewis Wilson Lewis Gilbert Wilson (January 28, 1920 – August 9, 2000) was an American actor, who was most famous for being the first actor to play DC Comics character Batman on screen in the 1943 film serial ''Batman''. Life and career Wilson was born in ...

as Priest * Derek Lamden as Nick * Patience Collier as Mrs. Carmichael * Terence Brady as Man in Shop *

Marianne Stone Marianne Stone (23 August 1922 – 21 December 2009) was an English character actress. She performed in films from the early 1940s to the late 1980s, typically playing working class parts such as barmaids, secretaries and landladies. Stone appe ...

as Manageress * Christine Proyor as Shop Girl * Yvonne Hormer as Shop Girl *

Vernon Dobtcheff Vernon Dobtcheff (born 14 August 1934) is a British actor, best known for his roles on television and film, he has acted in numerous stage productions. Biography Dobtcheff was born in Nîmes, France, of Russian descent. He attended Ascham Pre ...

as Man in Cinema * Linbert Spencer as West Indian * Sally Stephens as Margo Pearson *

Timothy Carlton Timothy Carlton Congdon Cumberbatch (born 4 October 1939) is an English actor. Early years Carlton was born in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, the son of Pauline Ellen Laing (née Congdon), who died on 11 October 2007, and Henry Carlton Cumberb ...

as Admiral * Christopher Witty as Boat Crew * Julian Barnes as Boat Crew * Michael Lewis as Boat Crew *

– Man in nightclub (uncredited)

Production

The film was based on the debut novel by Tina Chad Christian. Film rights were bought by producer Michael Klinger, who had just left Compton, a production company he had run with Tony Tenser. ''Baby Love'' would be his first movie as an independent producer. The first director attached was Henri Safran. Linda Hayden was cast after an extensive talent search. She was only fifteen years old and had to do her screen test topless. Safran was fired by Klinger and replaced by Alistair Reid. Linda Hayden said "Michael got rid of him because I don’t think he didn’t like what he saw, or something, but ...er... it was just that little bits of it were a bit tacky." Most of the finance came from Star Cinemas in the UK. Klinger sold the film to Joseph Levine of Anglo-Embassy for over $1 million. Hayden later said the film was "one of those projects that could so easily have gone wrong. It could have been a bit sleazy. Alastair made the film more grounded, so it wasn’t just done for sensationalism." Hayden recalled Diana Dors "hadn’t had a resurgence then; she was still yesterday’s news. And then suddenly, as the film came out, she had a resurgence. She was terrific. They did use her name quite a lot to hang the film on and it certainly paid off. She was quite a coup, and a smashing lady. I loved her. Her character casts a long shadow over the film. It needed somebody like that to do it." The film helped revive her career.

Reception

Box Office

The film was the 11th most watched movie of the year in the UK in 1969. The film took over half a million dollars in both the North America and the UK, and over $300,000 in other territories. receipts. Howard Thompson of

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

gave the film a positive review, he praised the technical brilliance and wrote: "Ugly as it is in flavor and content, the picture is a genuine pint-sized spellbinder in construction, mood and mounting tension."

References

External links

*
Baby Love
at Letterbox DVD
''Baby Love''
at

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baby Love (Film) 1969 films 1969 drama films British drama films 1960s English-language films Films based on British novels Films set in London Embassy Pictures films Films directed by Alastair Reid Teensploitation 1960s British films