The Brits simply don't get sex, and it is always educational to compare how the English do it on film with other countries. The Germans tend to take a regimented point of view and accompany it with oompah bands. The French are very matter of fact and photograph it beautifully. The Americans take it very seriously. And the Brits? So tied up with Victorian guilt are we that the only way we can bear to put sex in the public domain is to call it "bonking" and try to laugh at it. Hence a string of pre-internet so-called sex comedies which take the Carry On approach, but miss the point that the innuendo was what made the Carry Ons funny by taking it a step further and spelling everything out in full-frontal detail.Au Pair Girls is a case in point. The flimsy plot is hardly worth mentioning, the script even less so (other than to point out that it's not actually very funny).However, there are worthwhile things to observe (at least several of which belong to Gabrielle Drake, har har).The first is that, so run down was the British entertainment industry (particularly in the 70s) that this film, in common with many of its ilk, boasts a decent array of relatively high profile talent, taking work where they can in order to pay their mortgages. I'm sure they would rather have been in Hamlet, but there you go - beggars can't be choosers (the aforementioned Miss Drake went on to TV success not long after exposing her frontage and nethers in this offering, for instance).The second is that there are some pretty girls with no clothes on.But that's about it, really.

So, it's cheesy sexploitation from the 70s, but it is really funny. It's like watching Benny Hill with nudity. The nudity is all part of the comedy.Gabrielle Drake manages to lose her clothes in a barn with the employer's son after they break down in the country. They never do make it home.Astrid Frank is with an older couple. She has no qualms about parading around naked. Even when she is dressed, knickers are optional. She manages to get picked up by a sheik on her first night.Me Me Lai of cannibal fame is with a very wealthy family. The son is a pianist - and a virgin! He gets lucky before everyone else.Nancie Wait is in the hands of a wild daughter her first night. She ends up rocking away her virginity with a rocker.Lots of laughs.

'Au Pair Girls' is a cheesy "naughty" sexploitation comedy from the early 70s. During this period before hard core porn was readily available these kinds of movies were very popular in England. They mixed unsophisticated slapstick comedy, Benny Hill-like double entendres and lots of naked babes. Thirty years later they are enjoyable as kitsch but have little else going for them. 'Au Pair Girls' story concerns the misadventures of four beautiful girls sent to England to work as (yes, you guessed it!) Au Pair girls. They are Randi (Gabrielle Drake), Astrid (Anita Sector), Nan (Me Me Lay) and Christa (Nancie Wait). Randi ends up losing her clothes in a barn after the son of her employer (Richard O' Sullivan from the popular 70s sit-com 'Man About The House) gives her a lift and his car breaks down in the country. Astrid, a nutty Swedish girl obsessed with colour TV, gets picked up by a Sheik (Ferdy Mayne) while on a date at a casino. Nan is hired by Lady Tryke (Rosalie Crutchley) to be a companion for their socially inept but musically gifted son (Julian Barnes), who quickly falls in love with her. Christa is taken to a club by her employers liberated daughter Carole (Lyn Yeldham) and is seduced by a rock singer Ricky Strange (Steve Patterson). People raised on British sit-coms of the 60s and 70s will notice several familiar faces in the supporting cast, most notably John Le Mesurier ('Dad's Army'), who plays Richard O'Sullivan's Dad, and Trevor Bannister ('Are You Being Served?'), who plays his photographer pal. Of the four girls Gabrielle Drake, sister of legendary folk singer Nick Drake, and a cult figure in her own right from appearing as the purple wigged Lt.Gaye Ellis in the series 'UFO', is the most beautiful and shows some genuine flair for comedy. I've had a crush on her for many, many years and her full frontal nude scenes are reason enough to watch this movie! I didn't recognize the actresses who played Astrid or Christa, but Me Me Lay went on to become a cult figure from her appearances in the cannibal movies 'Man From Deep River', 'The Last Cannibal World' and 'Eaten Alive' as well as co-starring in Lars Von Trier's 'The Element Of Crime'! Another interesting thing about 'Au Pair Girls' is that it was directed and co-written by none other than Val Guest, the man behind the early Hammer classics 'The Quatermass Xperiment' (aka 'The Creeping Unknown'), 'Quatermass 2' and 'The Abominable Snowman'. I must admit that the involvement of Val Guest and Me Me Lay aside, the main attraction here is the utterly gorgeous Gabrielle Drake. Apart from that it's pretty average.

What a fun filled, sexy movie! They certainly don't make them like this anymore. 4 sexy au pairs arrive in London and have all sorts of sexual misadventures. The tone is oddly innocent, as the considerable nudity evolves out of stock farcical situations, rather than any overt sexual desire on the part of the characters. It is only when the actresses accidentally lose their clothes that the male characters become rampant. Richard O' Sullivan literally gets 'Randi'(sic). The film certainly betrays the origins of the softcore feature as lying in the nudie cuties and naturism films of the old school. My special interest in 'Au Pair Girls' is that I am a huge fan of Gabrielle Drake. If any actress has ever looked better naked (she's slim but wonderfully curvy), or clothed, come to that (I've loved her since the original run of UFO - who else could carry off a purple wig!), I'll eat my hat.