WANTED: BABYSITTER

France/Italy, 1975, 110 minutes, Colour.
Maria Schneider, Sydne Rome, Robert Vaughan, Vic Morrow.
Directed by Rene Clement.

An entertaining mystery crime thriller, directed by Rene Clement, veteran of so many excellent thrillers from Full Sun to Rider on the Rain. It is not in the same class as his early work. Of interest are the stars: Maria Schneider soon after Last Tango in Paris and The Passenger and Americans, Robert Vaughan and Vic Morrow. Sydne Rome also has quite a good role. The material is fairly conventional but treated straightforwardly and entertainingly.

1. Interesting thriller? Audience involvement in the mystery, motivation, solutions?

2. The international flavour? Locations, stars?

3. Thriller conventions, the world of the wealthy, heroine, criminals, kidnapping, murders?

4. The wealthy, the world of crime, ambitions? Careers and success, fading actors’ careers? Cruelty, lack of scruple, the trail, death? Audience interest in this kind of world?

5. The initial focus on Anne, attractive, her accident, growing cruelty and selfishness? Depression? Relationship with Chase? Skill as an actress, her exploiting this in the scheme? Friendship with Michelle, yet her cruelty? Well delineated character, deviousness, repentance? Ugliness of her suicide?

6. Transition to Michelle as heroine? Attractive personality, kindness, becoming a victim as she was more and more implicated in the plot? At work, her skill as a baby-sitter? Being tricked, imprisoned? The effect, her relationship with the boy? A mixture of desperation and resourcefulness? The note and the dog? Her boyfriend, his attempted helping? Her ultimate heroism?

7. The mystery elements, veiled from the audience, the presentation of Henderson, his motives, the actual revelation of the complications at the end?

8. Chase and Lotte? The characters, careers, relationship, motivations, cruelty, ambitions, their deaths? As villains?

9. The killer, personality, the group with the kidnapping, the sadistic jailing and tormenting?

10. The boy and his father, his place in the family, being kidnapped, the effect of the imprisonment on him, the bond with Michelle?

11. Franklin and his liaison with Anne, the vengeful response of Anne to his leaving her, setting in motion the kidnapping and the deaths?

12. Murder thrills, themes of right and wrong, responsibilities, guilt? The emotional response to thrillers and their values? Communication and values through thrillers?