Jeunes filles impudiques is one of the softcore movies Jean Rollin made in the early 70s, because even film-makers have to eat. In English-speaking markets it was given the title Schoolgirl Hitchhikers although there are no schoolgirls in it and properly speaking no hitchhikers either. But it is the kind of title that distributors of exploitation movies tend to like.

These movies are often contemptuously dismissed even by keen Rollin fans. In the case of Bacchanales Sexuelles, made a year later, that’s rather unfair. Bacchanales Sexuelles is quite an interesting movie and it has plenty of Rollinesque touches and the sort of surrealist vibe that Rollin fans love so much. Jeunes filles impudiques is perhaps not quite so ambitious.

Monique (Joëlle Coeur) and Jackie (Gilda Arancio) are on a hiking trip in the woods. They come across an abandoned villa which seems like the ideal place to spend the night. Much more comfortable than sleeping in a tent. It might have been wise to check first, to make sure the villa really was abandoned, but the girls were too anxious to engage in some hot bedroom action with each other to waste time on such precautions.

In fact the villa is occupied, by gangster Fred (Willy Braque).

The girls are not too worried when they discover they’re not alone in the house. They introduce themselves to Fred, by immediately having sex with him. That’s always a good way to break the ice in awkward social situations.

The three of them have a lot of fun and the following morning the girls leave, to resume their camping trip.

There is however a complication. Fred’s boss Béatrice (Marie Hélène Règne) shows up. She’s come to collect the stolen jewels stashed in the safe. But when the safe is opened the jewels are gone. The gangsters jump to the obvious conclusion that the two girls stole the jewels. Fred sets off in pursuit.

Catching the girls is easy. Béatrice tortures Jackie but can’t get any information out of her. Jackie denies any knowledge of the whereabouts of the jewels.

Béatrice is the sort of woman who likes torturing girls. She never goes anywhere without her trusty cane. Meanwhile Monique makes her escape and sets off to fetch help. For some inexplicable reason she doesn’t go to the police, she goes to a private detective named Harry (Pierre Julien).

Harry regards her story with scepticism but he can’t afford to refuse a client, and Monique seems like a nice girl. He’d like to help her. He thinks the gangsters (assuming they exist) have probably left but they might come back. So he’ll stake out the villa. In fact three of them – Monique, Harry and Harry’s pretty young female secretary (played by Reine Thirion) – will be in on the stake-out. Harry has a gun, as does his secretary (she acts more as his partner than his secretary and she knows how to handle a gun).

The gangsters do return and things get complicated. Just about everybody (good guys and bad guys alike) ends up being taken hostage at some point.

It’s played strictly for fun. It’s more like a classical farce than a hardboiled crime thriller. And it is fun.

Marie Hélène Règne’s performance as Béatrice is spot on – she plays her as a sinister sexy kinky melodrama villainess which is exactly the way she needed to be played.

Joëlle Coeur made several movies for Rollin and she’s very good. The acting overall is effective, once you understand that the whole thing is not meant to be taken seriously.

Rollin himself plays a minor rôle.

There’s a lot of gunplay including a full-scale shootout that wouldn’t be out of place in a western. But nobody gets hurt. This is a good-natured movie.

Jeunes filles impudiques achieved its objective. It made a lot of money and got Rollin back on his feet financially.

It’s a movie that offers some action, a lot of light comedy, lots of nudity and lots of simulated sex. The fact that the three actresses who disrobe – Joëlle Coeur, Gilda Arancio and Reine Thirion – are very hot doesn’t hurt. And Rollin makes the sex scenes genuinely erotic – these people really do convince us that their characters are having a good time.

The Maison Rouge Blu-Ray offers an acceptable transfer although there is some very slight print damage.

If you want to check out Rollin’s softcore films then Bacchanales Sexuelles is a better place to start since it feels more like a real Rollin movie (and it really is worth seeing). But Jeunes filles impudiques is enjoyable as silly sexy fun. Recommended.