The Babysitter

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Audience Member I enjoyed this flick. It was full of great stuff I've come to love from cheesey exploitation flicks: lots of sex and taboo subject matter. Plus the leading lady is quite awesome. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member A great old school, man's film. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Audience Member Functioning less as an exploration of the generation gap separating the Baby Boomers from the Greatest Generation than an excuse for producer/star George E. Carey to cavort awkwardly with nubile, nude young women half his age in poorly directed softcore sex scenes, "The Babysitter" is a failure in every way that matters. It doesn't work as a "voice of a generation" piece (credit that to the crew probably comprising a group of middle-aged men with little experience with the counterculture), as a sex comedy it's limp and it's a totally incompetent assessment of how the old must make room for the young and their new set of values. Carey plays George Maxwell, a frustrated, well-to-do prosecutor who engages in an affair with the titular character Candy Wilson (Patricia Wymer), a promiscuous, free-thinking young woman whose spirit liberates George from his humdrum, upright life and unsatisfying marriage to Edith (Anne Bellamy). Apart from the sex typical of a May-December pairing, Candy has a poorly explained ulterior motive: She aims to convince George to throw a murder case in which one of her biker pals is the defendant. This subplot is quite possibly the film's biggest failing. We're given no compelling reason why the biker should be excused for his crimes (every person with a connection to him readily admits he a). committed the murder and b). did it to teach the victim a lesson for insulting him). The discomfort is elevated when you realize the movie came out in 1969, the same year Charles Manson and his "Family" raised hell in southern California, killing several people because the victims vicariously offended the cult leader with their "establishment" values. Deeper quibbles aside, though, "Babysitter" is just plain boring, drifting aimlessly from one unappealing sexual encounter(whether featuring Carey and his flabby physique or a pair of so-so lesbians indulging one another in the shower) to another, half-heartedly showing scenes from counterculture hippie and biker circles that feel about as authentic as "Wild Rebels" and plunging everyone onscreen into a half-baked blackmail/legal thriller scenario with a pat resolution capping it all off. From "Lolita" to "American Beauty," modern cinema is replete with good examples where an unlikely young-old romance (with hints of varying degrees of exploitation, naturally) drives the film. "The Babysitter" isn't one of those movies; as usual, the inclusion of hippies ruins a reasonably solid premise, though bad execution doesn't help either. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Cult gem is B-movie melodrama at its best. For all its exploitation trappings, its a surprisingly adept portrait of a mid-life crisis told with great style despite its low budget, and with characters that are a lot deeper than you'd expect - George E. Carey is strong in the lead, and Patricia Wymer is adorable as the title seductress. Those who appreciate B-movie cinema should really seek this one out. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member Today the story of an older married man being seduced by a young barely legal beauty may be old hat but back in 1969 this was quite new, and even shocking as "The Babysitter" adds doses of exploitation goodness when it comes to nudity and even violence to make this well worth a watch for fans of exploitative drive-in goodness. The plot has an aging prosecutor (George E. Carey) whose marriage has become soured thanks to a surprise pregnancy with his wife resulting in her becoming a complete bitch and no longer wanting to have sex. His boring, bridge playing days are about to come to an end when he starts having a wild sexual fling with their gorgeous blond bomb babysitter (cult actress Patricia Wymer). All is going wonderful until he becomes blackmailed by one of his lesbian daughters friends who takes pictures in order for him to drop the case against her boyfriend who brutally murdered a women. Will our prosecutor throw the case to save his failing marriage and job or will tough it out? For an exploitation indie drama this actually wasn't half bad. Sure the acting can be touch and go but surprisingly Wymer and Carey actually pull off the romance believably. Patricia Wymer is very titular as our babysitter Candy and I can see why she had a cult following though she only appeared in 3 films (most notably in the horror film "The Witchmaker"). She bares her breasts and luscious bum periodically and director William O. Brown handles this occasional nudity and violence well without making it come out too raunchy or gratuitous. I do have to complain about the ending so I am going to warn people that I am about to talk about a spoiler. (SPOILER START). After deciding not to throw the case, our prosecutor is prepared for the worst so he types up his letter of resignation and goes to see his boss the district attorney who wants to talk to him about receiving the incriminating pictures. Surprisingly his boss is okay with it and even wants to keep a picture for himself! Okay I can buy that but when his wife receives the pictures all she responds with is "perhaps we are playing too much bridge" and the film ends on a rather uplifting note. This whole ending makes it seem it's okay to cheat on one's spouse without any negative consequences and I just don't buy that. (END SPOILER). Overall I found this to be an interestingly little exploitation drama with a luscious star and enough skin and occasional violence to keep things interesting through the dull moments. The film proved to be popular enough that a sequel titled "Weekend with the Babysitter" got released a year later but sadly Wymer didn't return as the title character. "The Babysitter" never got a VHS release but if finally made it's DVD debut in various cult film DVD collections for people that are interested. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member A little something off the To-Watch PIle from the Drive In Cult Classics set, this was a decent little way to kill about 90 minutes. It's neither great nor bad, but it's a watchable blackmail thriller that doesn't overstay its welcome. It features some pretty awful acting, but that's the basic charm, it just doesn't know what the fuck it's doing. Worth a peep, but nothing special. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Babysitter

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