Cool It Carol!

Cool it Carol!
Directed by	Pete Walker
Written by	Murray Smith
Produced by	Pete Walker
Starring	Robin Askwith Janet Lynn
Cinematography	Peter Jessop
Edited by	Tristam Cones
Music by	Cyril Ornadel
Production company	Pete Walker Film Productions
Distributed by	Miracle Films (UK)
Release dates	1 December 1970 (UK) 7 December 1972 (US)
Running time	101 min.
Country	UK
Language	English

Cool it Carol!, also known as Oh Carol, is a 1970 British sex comedy-drama film directed and produced by Pete Walker, starring Robin Askwith and Janet Lynn. It was released in the US as Dirtiest Girl I Ever Met.

Plot

Young couple Joe and Carol leave the sticks behind and journey to Swinging London in search of fame and fortune. Joe fails to find employment in the big city, but Carol rapidly becomes a model. As the naïve couple begin to enjoy the London night life they are drawn ever deeper into the sleazy but lucrative world of pornography and prostitution, with Joe acting as Carol's manager/pimp. Eventually it all becomes too much for them, and they return home to their former conventional lives.

Cast

• Robin Askwith as Joe Sickles
• Janet Lynn as Carol Thatcher
• Jess Conrad as Jonathan
• Stubby Kaye as Rod Strangeways
• Derek Aylward as Tommy Sanders
• Kenneth Hendel as pimp
• Stephen Bradley as Terry
• Harry Baird as Benny Gray
• Chris Sandford as David Thing
• Peter Elliott as Philip Stanton
• Claire Gordon as Samantha
• Pete Murray as himself (credited as Peter Murray)
• Eric Barker as signalman
• Pearl Hackney as mother
• Martin Wyldeck as father

Production

According to the opening credits, "this story is true but actual names and places are fictitious"; the film being apparently inspired by a tabloid article the director read in the News of the World.

The film was shot on location in the villages of Northiam and Bodiam, Sussex and London, England.

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Despite an occasional flash of pubic hair, Cool it Carol! is entirely anaphrodisiac. This is perhaps largely intentional, most of the sex scenes being treated with distancing irony. While the film doesn't stand up to criticism, it is beguilingly good-humoured, and the throwaway, laconic dialogue certainly has its moments. Peter Walker is not very good at constructing smoothly flowing sequences and the images tend to stand in isolation, though this can sometimes be a positive gain, as in some of the location shots. The film is quintessentially English, unconcerned and pragmatic, taking modelling, prostitution and blue movies in its bland stride. Its rather attractive underlying attitudes are summed up by Carol's father, who asks as she waits to go to London, "Is your maidenhead intact?" She replies that it isn't, whereupon he says she can go and gives her twenty pounds. Pragmatism."

Kine Weekly wrote: "This crude and salacious production has been carefully geared to appeal fo a certain predictable minority. The film is supposed to be based on a real-life story. But never, surely, has Shropshire given birth to two such naive creatures as Carol and Joe. And never has success come so rapidly, nor been so casually rejected, as in this sleazy fairy-tale. The plot is, in fact, quite absurd; the script is very low-level stuff and the acting is only so-so, despite appearances from several well-known personal ities, including Jess Conrad, Pete Murray and Stubby Kaye. Janet Lynn is a pretty little thing with a trim little body which the film is never tired of displaying. Her Carol is an indefatigable love-maker who manages to look sweet and cool even after five clients in a row. Robert Askwith brings clumsy charm to the role of her boyfriend Joe. Director and producer Peter Walker has put all his energies into the staging of the sex sequences, some of which are very titillating and most of which depend on heavy breathing or a voyeurs approach. Points of appeal: Sex."

DVD Drive-in wrote: "it’s no great film by any means, but it’s an enjoyable time capsule romp worth checking out."

lightsfade.co.uk wrote, "if you're a fan of late 60's nostalgia then there's a lot of prime material here. The world of "Cool it Carol" returns us to an era when petrol stations looked both picturesque and romantic, trains looked clean and ran on time, antique red buses were in abundance alongside phlegmatic cab drivers (some things never change)...With chunks of wonderfully cheesy dialogue, "Cool it Carol" is a kitsch delight."

Cinedelica wrote: "compared to a movie like Smashing Time [1967], Cool It Carol! is probably the more realistic portrayal of the swinging London dream. But we're still in the land of the exploitation flick, so don't expect Ken Loach-like realism."

Pablo Kjolseth writes at TCM.com: "in reflecting on scenes that stood out as memorable, my vote goes for the disturbing and eerie tight shots (seen more than once) of old men licking their dry lips with lusty tongues at the sight of nude, young women. These brief moments introduce an ominous, unpredictable, claustrophobic and icky energy into an otherwise languid story. An early indication, perhaps, that Walker's talents would be best served in a different genre."

External links

• Cool it Carol! at IMDb
• Cool It Carol! then-and-now location photographs at ReelStreets