TOYS ARE NOT FOR CHILDREN: STRANGE EXPLOITATION FILM

To say that TOYS ARE NOT FOR CHILDREN is not your usual type drama is an understatement. This was the kind of movie made for the exploitation circuit. Promising to fulfill the lustful needs of the patrons of grindhouses and drive-ins across the country it delivers the goods but not near as much as one would think with more story than expected.

Jamie Godard (Marcia Forbes) is a young girl enthralled by her now long gone father. He sends her toys every year on her birthday but hasn’t been a part of her life in years. The film opens with her apparently masturbating while holding a 3 foot tall stuffed toy soldier he sent her. When her mother (Fran Warren) walks in on her she rants about her father being a no good man like all of them are, wanting only to be with his whores as she calls them.

In an effort to escape her mother, at least for some few hours a day, Jamie gets a job in a toy store. This is a dream job for someone as obsessed with toys as she is. Her boss Max thinks she’s the best thing to come along in some time, an employee as committed to toys as he is. She catches the eye co-worker Charlie Belmond (Harlan Cary Poe) who dates and then marries her.

But things don’t go as planned. On their wedding night Jamie is still obsessed with her toys. She presents a frigid atmosphere to Charlie and the wedding night, as they say, is not consummated. This goes on for some weeks resulting in a frustrated Charlie and sad Jamie. Her says consist of nothing more than playing with toys and watching TV.

Seeking advice Jamie contacts her friend Pearl (Evelyn Kingsley). Pearl is a call girl who has known Jamie’s father intimately in the past as one of her customers. She and Jamie become friends and when Jamie learns of her profession she has nothing bad to say about it. She’s the wild eyed innocent who thinks this is how people should be, especially if her father was meeting with Pearl. She’s as twisted as a young girl can be due to how she was raised by her mother.

Jamie, induced to do so by Pearl’s boyfriend/pimp Eddie, decides she wants to become a call girl as well. With more money coming in Eddie has no problem with this. So while her husband Charlie is still not involved with her physically, she becomes a call girl who tells her tricks she will call them daddy. Eventually all of this will have dire results that some will see coming before it takes place.

Most exploitation films of this sort relied heavily on nudity to garner an R rating but this film has less nudity than many mainstream films of today. Instead, it relies on the subject matter to make it the exploitation film that it is. A woman who has this sexual desire to be with her father remains as taboo subject today as when the film was released in 1972. One can only imagine the ratings board watching this and wondering just what was going on in director/writer Stanley H. Brassloff’s mind. As one of only two films he directed I doubt we’ll ever find out.

The film provides plenty of characters here and nearly all of them seem to have their own motivations that all revolve around Jamie. Her mother wants to control her, to pass on to her her own hatred of all things male. Her husband loves her but when shunned by her in bed seeks pleasure elsewhere. Pearl wants to take care of her but in return expects sexual favors eventually as well. And her father just wants to be a dad from a distance. It seems only toy store owner Max truly is a nice person here. And Jamie is perhaps one of the saddest and most mixed up characters we’ve ever seen on screen.

The film is being released by Arrow Video who once again have saved what would have been a film lost to viewers forever from the junk pile. In addition to that they’ve done so with a great wonderful 2k restoration from available film elements creating a nice picture to view. They’ve also included more extras than one would expect for such a movie. Those include a brand new audio commentary track with Kat Ellinger and Heather Drain, a newly filmed appreciation by “Nightmare USA” author Stephen Thrower, “Dirty Dolls: Femininity, Perversion and Play” a new video essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, the original theme song “Lonely Am I” newly transferred from the original 45 RPM vinyl single, the original trailer, a reversible sleeve featuring original and new artwork by The Twins of Evil and for the first pressing only a collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Vanity Celis.

The movie was better than I expected but still leaves one with an uncomfortable feeling watching a young innocent girl have the salacious thoughts she does concerning her father. And while she may be the single most character to focus sympathy for one has to wonder how someone could turn out the way she has. Still it makes for a great example of exploitation cinema from its heyday at the time. Fans of that genre will want to check it out and perhaps add it to their collection.

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