Toys Are Not for Children (1972)

Directed by: Stanley H. Brassloff | 85 minutes | drama | Actors: Marcia Forbes, Harlan Cary Poe, Evelyn Kingsley, Luis Arroyo, Fran Warren, Peter Lightstone, Tiberia Mitri, NJ Osrag, Jack Cobb, Ronnie Kahn, Ralph Shaw, Robert Hazelton, Salee Corso, Irene Signoretti, Mark Justin

A sick, or at least bizarre exploitation film is the least the viewer can expect when reading the synopsis of ‘Toys Are Not for Children’ or seeing the DVD cover with only a few spread female legs on it, surrounded by toys . And that’s what the viewer gets in both cases. To a certain extent, that is. Because it’s not all as sensational and tasteless as you might expect. In fact, with a more subtle direction and more skilled acting, this could have resulted in quite a good drama. Now it’s just a somewhat depressing, but interesting rarity within the exploitation genre.

What is striking is that the nudity and sex content is very modest, and that the acting is not even that bad, with unfortunately the main character Jamie, played by Marcia Forbes, is the least convincing. Her naivety, petulance and constant nagging about her daddy sometimes get this character a bit on the nerves. Yet identification with her takes place based on her trauma and psychological instability. As a spectator you feel sorry for her and you would prefer to see her happy. After all, she had a difficult childhood because of her absent father and dominant mother. The fact that she asks for her father in bed at the beginning of the film and later wants to get close to him through the profession of a prostitute is uncomfortable but not objectionable. It’s the only way she knows her father, and she knows he only loved his whores, so how else is she supposed to be reunited with him?

Her husband Charlie (Harlan Cary Poe) and prostitute Pearl (Evelyn Kingsley) are also nice to her at first, but later turn out to show a different face. However, Pearl and her pimp Eddie (Luis Arroyo) are well acted, which scenes involving them are often fascinating to watch. For a long time, the bond between Pearl and Jamie also comes across as genuine and authentic. In addition, the editing – with sometimes nice flashbacks and quick cuts – is not without merit. This makes the oversimplified plot and lesser scenes with the hubby, the screaming mother, and Jamie’s strange sexual escapades a little more palatable. All in all not a bad film, this ‘Toys Are Not for Children’. It is admittedly a somewhat strange, Oedipal-tinted work, which can even be called pretentious within the genre, but the film is not entirely without value.