Cool It Carol! (Pete Walker, 1970)

Cool It Carol! was oft regarded as part of the decade-long wave of comedies featuring the likes of Eskimo Nell, Au Pair Girls, Come Play With Me, and the Confessions series. This association was underscored by an early star turn from British cinema's saucy seventies mainstay and perennial cheeky chappie, Robin Askwith. However, the film, while nominally a comedy, played more like a kitchen sink drama—with tits.

Indeed, were one to have taken Janet Munro’s Jennie Jones from Peter Graham Scott’s Bitter Harvest, paired her with Tom Courtenay from John Schlesinger’s Billy Liar, then set them loose upon London, à la Smashing Time, the result may have been something akin to this third foray into sexploitation cinema from Pete Walker.

Robin Askwith portrayed Joe Sickles—a young, bored, small-town butcher’s boy with dreams of a better life. Hoping to impress, he regaled seventeen-year-old petrol pump attendant and former beauty contest winner Carol—played by Janet Lynn in her sole starring role—with tales of celebrity friendships and lucrative job offers in high-end, London car showrooms. Fueled by self-belief and aware of the opportunities for an aspiring model, Carol persuaded a reluctant Joe to join her in a move to the capital—seducing him en route. This significant encounter served to suggest a matter-of-fact approach to sex and the actions of a fully grounded, self-assured young woman, guiding a naïve, if somewhat hubristic, companion.

However, no sooner had the couple arrived at the capital, than the dynanamic of this relationship seemed to shift—the mood darkened. For, what initially played out in breezy sex-comedy territory—with montage, and nod to swinging London counterculture—quickly turned sour, as mishaps and missteps befell our babes in the wood.

As money dwindled, and so too the job opportunities, an unemployed Joe pressured Carol into sex work—effectively pimping her on the street. Fashion shoots gave way to glamour sessions, and ultimately to 8mm Soho stag loops—shot on hand-cranked Bolex. While, throughout, Carol was watched by an ever-present fringe of lip-licking, raincoated, predatory older men, loitering at the edges of the frame.

Viewed through an almost documentarian lens, Carol’s descent reached its nadir in a brilliantly handled, yet extremely harrowing, extended scene, in which she was forced to endure a procession of men soliciting sex—even while, beyond the curtain, boyfriend Joe paced to the discomforting diegetic beat of grunts and the rhythmic clatter of the kettle.

This sequence left a lingering sense of unease, which did not dissipate—even as the road ahead glimmered with the bountiful wages of perseverance—as Carol, betwixt pimp and pornographer, and inundated with photoshoots and upmarket Johns, became drawn into an increasingly lucrative, yet amoral, world. At this point a tonal shift, and an accompanying attempt to restore breathless levity, failed to land. As a result, Cool It Carol! ultimately felt more a grim cautionary tale than comedy.