Little Mother

Little Mother (1973) is a Radley Metzger film, but more serious than many of his efforts. It tells the story of Little Mother (Christiane Krüger), wife of the president of some eastern European nation, who has just found out she is dying. Her hopes of being Vice President are shattered both because of her illness, and because the military won't accept a female leader. So she decides she wishes to be canonized a saint to earn her permanent popularity. Just one small problem with her plan. Her climb from poverty to her position involved doing things that were not very saintly, so she makes a concerted effort to erase some of her past.

NUDITY REPORT

Her sexual exploits are depicted in flashbacks, and we get frequent views of her breasts, as well as a lengthy scene with all three Bs

Among her small peccadillos are murder, prostitution, sleeping her way to the top, giving her virgin girlfriend to a bunch of drunken officers to deflower at a party, and torturing her enemies to get her way. Some think it was based on the life of Evita Peron.

DVD info from Amazon.

The new DVD release is mastered from a recently discovered 35 mm print in pretty decent shape, but is still not the best quality.
widescreen letterbox, 1.85

Scoop's comments:

Of all the men who ever directed soft-core porn for a living, Radley Metzger was probably the most savvy about the history of film and avant garde literature.

Lickerish Quartet is basically a Pirandello homage. Little Mother is a roman a clef about Evita Peron in the structure of Citizen Kane. Radley was also able to affect the styles of European arthouse favorites like Fellini and Bergman.

So imagine how he stood out when he later turned to hard-core! (He directed The Opening of Misty Beethoven under a pseudonym.) Radley is still around and isn't that old - 70 or so, but he has't directed since 1984.

The Critics Vote

no reviews online

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 6.1/10

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C+. The noise, darkness, and lack of saturation, as well as some audio problems, detracted from the film, but I found it engrossing even with the problems.