Carroll Baker in Private Lessons. You older guys may remember this, but here's a quick refresher for all. Baker was a sexy mainstream star in the period 1956-1965. Her Lolitaesque character in Baby Doll, in 1956 opposite Eli Wallach, stirred up all kinds of controversy among the moral crusaders. She managed to get roles in some big films like Cheyenne Autumn, How the West Was Won, Giant, and (surprisingly) The Greatest Story Ever Told, a New Testament film in which she played Veronica. That's the one where Max von Sydow, a lanky, blonde, blue-eyed Swede played Jesus. Chuck Heston chewed the scenery as John the Baptist in that film, and Pat Boone also appeared! No, not as the Virgin Mary. Some other virgin. The actual Virgin Mary was another example of laughable casting - Dorothy McGuire. Everybody who was anybody in Hollywood appeared in that film: Claude Rains, Donald Pleasance, Sidney Poitier, Sal Mineo, Roddy McDowell, Martin Landau, Angela Lansbury, Jose Ferrer, John Wayne, Shelley Winters, Ed Wynn, Telly Savalas, Robert Blake, and many more. A famous poet, Carl Sandburg, worked on the script at one point!

Back to the point.

In the final year of that period, the same year she made the Jesus flim, Baker was one of two American actresses to play Jean Harlow in movies entitled "Harlow." Yeah, it was confusing, particularly since both actresses were named Carol. (Technically - Carol and Carroll.)  This one was released only a month after the other. Baker, a beautiful woman but a weak actress, was savaged by the critics, who pointed out that the story line was almost completely false, and that everything seemed to take place in 1965 rather than in the 1930s. The other Harlow film, starring Carol Lynley, fared no better. Both films are both rated 5.3 at IMDb. Somebody should get the necessary rights to issue them both on DVD in a special edition boxed set with commentaries. They are bad movies, but there are great stories to be told!

After Harlow, Baker disappeared into the European film scene for a decade, and did not return to Hollywood until she was old enough to play the mothers of the characters she used to play. For example, you may remember her as the mother of Mariel Hemingway in Star 80. Private Lessons is from the later part of her European phase, so she was already 44 years old, but definitely looked like a red-hot MILF. The nudity is subtle, but there is some.

Two other women from Private Lessons: Femi Benussi, Leonora Fani.

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