Pretty Good

Good concept, poorly executed.

As Good As It Gets

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

If it weren't for the casual nudity and sapphic silliness, this movie might have received the MST3K/RiffTrax treatment a while ago. This movie turned up as a recommendation on my Amazon Prime in July 2017, and like many of the obscure titles that have come up, this is hardly a diamond in the rough. It was clearly written and produced by a middle- aged SoCal Republican who saw the counter-culture movement as an excuse to be an uncivilized hedonist. (Think "Poison Ivy" meets "Slouching Towards Bethlehem.") The affair/blackmail plot at the center of everything probably would've worked with a younger actor, but maybe Don Henderson and George Carey were looking at this like wish fulfillment. At its best this is a competently made "message" movie bordering on exploitation, bogged down by one-dimensional characters and flat, hygiene-film acting.

Great fun. This is ostensibly a tale of an older man falling for a young girl but turns out to be such fun because the film makers, clearly worried that their tale might not hold up, pepper the movie with colours, music and dialogue of the moment. This may have seemed crass at the time but now makes for a wonderful time capsule of a movie. That the girls are only too glad to bare their breasts and bums helps too. There is a sub plot involving blackmail that could have held up proceedings but instead makes for more nudity and even bloody violence. George E Carey is effective as the older guy and Patricia Wymer a lovely and very willing babysitter. With nothing taken too seriously, this makes for a super drive in movie, for once worthy of the moniker, 'classic'.

I watched The Babysitter as part of BCI Eclipse' Drive-in Cult Classics (featuring Crown International Pictures releases) on DVD. I think it is a very good film.This movie packs a lot of story into a very short time. You have hippies, rock music, bikers, lesbians, sexual impropriety, blackmail, and murder, all in one spot! The lead actors do a credible job. And, I found the intricately woven plot to be believable and interesting.However, the supporting cast, primarily the bikers, delivers a stilted performance, particularly when asked to deliver lines with more than just a few words. Perhaps they used real bikers, instead of actors. A couple of the characters, in particular, were exceptionally believable.The musical score is absolutely spot-on, for the times, the tempo, and for moving the story forward. I found the music a real treat. I noticed in the opening credits that the movie featured the music of "The Food," I googled them; but, couldn't find anything...In any case, George E. Carey who wrote, produced and starred in this movie liked the idea so much (of a wayward married man brought to redemption through trials and tribulation; and, a little help - of course) that he wrote, produced and starred in "Weekend with the Babysitter."

This familiar story of an older man/younger woman is surprisingly hard-edged. Bikers, hippies, free love and jail bait mix surprisingly well in this forgotten black-and-white indie effort. Lead actress Patricia Wymer, as the titular "Candy," gives the finest performance of her career (spanning all of 3 drive-in epics). Wymer was precocious and fetching in THE YOUNG GRADUATES (1971), but gives a more serious performance in THE BABYSITTER. The occasional violence and periodic nudity are somewhat surprising, but well-handled by the director. Leads Wymer and George E. Carey sell the May/December romance believably. There are enough similarities between THE BABYSITTER and THE YOUNG GRADUATES to make one wonder if the same director helmed the latter film as well. Patricia Wymer, where are you?Hailing from Seattle, WA, Miss Wymer had appeared as a dancer on the TV rock and roll show MALIBU U, before gracing the cover (as well as appearing in an eight-page spread) of the August, 1968 issue of "Best For Men," a tasteful adults-only magazine. She also appeared as a coven witch in the popular 1969 cult drive-in shocker THE WITCHMAKER.THE BABYSITTER has finally made its home video debut, as part of the eight-film BCI box set DRIVE-IN CULT CLASSICS vol. 3, which is available from Amazon.com and some retail stores such as Best Buy.Late 2011 update: the original camera negatives for THE BABYSITTER were found! Code Red released a far superior DVD of the film, mastered from the uncut negatives. It was available via direct mail order with Code Red, and occasionally on Amazon.com.