COOL IT CAROL

CONTAINS SPOILERS AND RUDENESS

Carol Thatcher is a complete sexual pushover who's pretty much anyone's at the drop of a five pound note. Not that Carol Thatcher, obviously - I'm talking about the amusingly named petrol pump attendant heroine of Pete Walker's 1970 sex comedy Cool It Carol, who legs it away from small-town drudgery to the bright lights of London, along with halfwitted butcher Robin Askwith, and embarks on an endless series of sexual shenanigans en route to becoming the biggest prostitute and sex star the world has ever seen - before she decides she's had enough of dropping her knickers for whoever's in the room, he decides he's had enough of arranging porno and hooker gigs for her, and they both elect to slink back to their small-town origins.

Back in 1970 it had a big shiny X certificate; time and social change have allowed it to drop to a fairly weedy 15. It's another movie that's more interesting for its portrait of Britain and London in 1970, and for the attitudes and behaviour of its characters that wouldn't be countenanced today. Askwith's laddish idiot thinks nothing of living off his girlfriend's income as a prostitute, and the perfectly nice and pleasant Carol (Janet Lynn in her first and biggest role of a short career) thinks nothing of basically doing it with absolutely anyone. In all honesty it's not a film to like but it is eye-opening in places. Though it obviously doesn't come anywhere near hardcore, there are still vast amounts of casual nudity and debauchery, and for some reason Stubby Kaye is in it as well. Very strange.

Though I prefer Pete Walker's horror movies (particularly Frightmare and House Of Mortal Sin), it's still worth catching a few movies of this ilk from time to time and I'm sure Walker's other entries in the genre will show up on DVD sooner or later. On balance, Cool It Carol isn't great, or even particularly good, but it is mildly interesting.

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