Baby Love (1969) Dysfunctional Family Noir

Directed by Alastair Reid.

Written Alastair Reid, Guido Coen and Michael Klingerby and based on  Tina Chad Christians novel The Cinematography was by Desmond Dickinson the Music by
Max Harris.

The film stars Linda Hayden as Luci Thompson, Ann Lynn as Amy Quayle, Keith Barron as Robert Quayle, Diana Dors as Liz Thompson, Derek Lamden as Nicholas 'Nick' Quayle, Patience Collier as Mrs. Carmichael, Dick Emery as Harry Pearson, Sheila Steafel as Tessa Pearson, Timothy Carlton as Admiral, Sally Stephens as Margo Pearson, Marianne Stone as Manageress, Vernon Dobtcheff as Man In Cinema, Julian Barnes as Crew member, Bruce Robinson as Man in nightclub (uncredited).

Another un Politically Corret dysfunctional Family Noir. I recently reviewed What The Peeper Saw and a similar Transitional Noir All Fall Down that cover the same territory, and you can include a lot of films based on the works of Tennessee Williams one of which was reviewed here The Fugitive Kind.

Linda Hayden as Luci 

Ann Lynn as Amy Quayle

Derek Lamden as Nick Quayle

Diana Dors as Liz Thompson

Keith Barron as Robert Quayle and Luci

Luci Thompson, a teenager in Northern England, comes home one day to discover her single mother Liz dead in a bathtub, in a steaming bathroom, with her wrists slit.

Liz had a reputation of being something of a town tramp. That reputation using the "like mother, like daughter," inference causes Luci to be the target of salacious come-ons from schoolmates and sleazy townies. It doesn't help that Lucy's daddy issues causes her to equate love with attention.

Before offing herself Liz sent a letter to her former lover Robert Quayle now a doctor in London asking him to take care of Luci.

Luci meets her step other and  brother 

Orphaned Luci is charitably taken in by the family of Doctor Robert Quayle. Robert Quayle was Liz Thompson's former lover who broke off their relationship because, rather than stay up in the poor depressed North, he left to make something of himself in the South.

Unfortunately, the Quayle's have their own dysfunctional problems. Robert rules his roost, but he resents his wife Amy's family's money got him partially to where he is today and the fact that she holds it over him. Nick their son is a bit protected by his folks, and is on the naive side when it comes to girls.

Into this simmering family paella drops Luci an amoral free spirit. She's a good looking bundle of sexual energy in long blonde tresses and a mini skirt.

her new digs

Luci immediately gets Nicks hormones shifted into overtime. Luci prick teases Nick and then cock blocks him when he gets turned on. Though its not shown we do not know how far Luci and Nick have progressed.

Peeping Tom Nick

Luci also works her sexual attraction powers on Amy. Amy was a former convent school girl who had casual exploratory lesbian relationships with her fellow students. Luci senses something there and she uses the excuse of the nightmares she experiences to get Amy to sleep with her.

Her nightmares are either cloaked in steamy white clouds referencing her traumatic discovery of her mother's suicide, or green shaded to perhaps signify the jealousy of her mothers various one night stands

Amy of course is understandably conflicted over all this. Luci also cuts a wide sexual swath through her new school and also among the Quayle's social clique charming the menfolk while pissing of the women. Luci also

Trying to seduce Robert

Things go seriously Noirsille when Luci attempts of seduce Robert after hearing that the Quayle's are thinking of sending her off to a boarding school. Luci brazenly presents herself naked to Robert while he is out in the garden.

Noirsville

The big controversy with Baby Love is Linda Hayden appearing nude in the film at the age of fifteen. Look at in it context of when it was made. It was at the end of the 1960s when the threat of nuclear annihilation shit canned all the old taboos. If it felt good people were gonna do it. Boundaries were pushed. You're meant to feel queasy while viewing the sordid goings on. Art is meant to evoke feelings, create controversies, provoke thought. It was censored by the British Board of Film Classification for its original UK cinema release.

It's similar to the controversy that was sparked by 1978's Pretty Baby. That film was labeled as "child porn" on the cover of People magazine It was also condemned by Rona Barrett a film critic. That film "sparked complete outrage among audiences, even becoming banned in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Saskatchewan. Brooke Shields declared to People magazine at the time. "It's only a role. I'm not going to grow up and be a prostitute." When Vanity Fair asked her in 2018 if she regrets starring in the controversial flick, she said "It was the best creative project I've ever been associated with. The best group of people I've ever been blessed enough to work with." Director Louis Malle refuted the criticism, stating to People, "Anybody who calls it child pornography has not seen the d**n thing ... nymphet and Lolita rub me the wrong way."" IMDb.

Another off the beaten track film that fits the Transitional Noir parameters. Hard to tell if the version I watched was the directors preferred cut or not. Screencaps are from a crappy online copy. It's nothing to go out of your way to see. 5-6/10

Note, I cropped out underage Linda Hayden's nude caps. lol