Baby Love

Baby Love Movie Review

"BABY LOVE" is some baby. She is a sensual 15-year-old, who is slightly unhinged after finding her mother a suicide victim. Sheltered by the family of the dead woman's former lover, she proceeds to wreck the household with sexual allure, childlike wonder and animal cunning. The film, a British import that opened yesterday at the Coronet, has been put together with diabolical brilliance. Ugly as it is in flavor and content, the picture is a genuine pint-sized spellbinder in construction, mood and mounting tension. Take one "Lolita," add the framework of the old movie "Guest in the House," put a trim cast into expert technical hands, and you have this color presentation from Avco Embassy Films.

As for the credibility of the story, adapted from the novel by Tina Chad Christian, it does seem likely that the disturbing young heroine, played by Linda Hayden, would have been sent packing well before the ironic climax. The easy-going family—Keith Barron, a doctor, Ann Lynn, his wife, and Derek Lamden, their teen-age son—are each magnetized by the girl but, rather naively, are unaware of each other's reactions.

Furthermore, while the picture avoids both sensationlism and an explosive finale, the unresolved fadeout keeps it a superficial teaser lacking real substance. But on this level, it is a hypnotic eyeful, solidly performed by the four principals and beautifully directed by Alastair Reid, one of the three scenarists. The movie seems psychologically sound as the nubile, neurotic girl moves into the comfortable home and fixes the family with a wide, speculative eye. The excellent color photography and the quick-cut editing don't miss a trick. Nearly every inch of footage builds the atmosphere of tension and sexual magnetism.

There is explicit suggestion — no more — that Miss Lynn, as the wife, has unwillingly succumbed to the sensual youngster. This is meaningful and even moving. "Baby Love," however, is basically a chiller, like the dripping water with the initial credits—a drop, a trickle and a cold flow.

Howard Thompson - The New York Times
March 20, 1969