14 and Under (1973) User Reviews (2)

Surprisingly Moralising

[SMK-4 · 6/10 · 3 November 2002]

This episodic film is a close relative of Wolf Hartwig's schoolgirl report movies, made by the same people, in a similar style, around similar topics. However, this one specifically focuses on the coming-of-age aspects, to an extent that it also touches on delicate issues such as paedophilia.

The schoolgirl report movies had the habit of occasionally subjecting its audience to some moralising, with the basic message that today's youth was more misunderstood than depraved. This was typically delivered in a sometimes fairly and sometimes utterly patronising style - in the former case by the reporter and voice-over, and in the latter case by the character "Dr. Bernauer" (alias Günther Kieslich). I always had the impression that this moralising was complete bogus, merely a gimmick to pacify censors or press.

Watching this movie though made me think again because the moralising aspects suddenly take centre-stage, to an extent which surely must have annoyed the film's most likely audience - the raincoat brigade. Thus the makers apparently believed in their message after all, even if the message does not come across very convincingly.

As a result, some of the episodes are a strange mixture of run-of-the-mill exploitation stuff with issues concerning good or bad parenting. For example, in one episode Elise (Marie Luise Lusewitz) has Sunday morning sex with her husband, unaware that her young children are already awake and watching them through the bedroom's keyhole; her hubby finds the subsequent inquisition by the kids regarding the technical details of this weird wrestling match too hard to take and reacts in a way that gives the commentator ample opportunity for more moralising criticism.

But other episodes are just bizarre. One episode of rather dubious taste sees a mother (type: loser, white trash) accidentally discovering that spanking her (approximately 11 year old) daughter appears to re-awaken the waning sexual interest of her boyfriend in her - and she exploits that observation like a free Viagra prescription. When the mother later discovers that his sexual interest extends to the daughter as well she blackmails him into marrying herself.

Unofficial "Schulmädchenreport" entry, quality-wise on par

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 17 September 2016]

"Frühreifen-Report" or "14 and Under" or "Early Awakening Report" can be seen as a half-entry to the famous German "Schulmädchen" film series. The director is Ernst Hofbauer and the writer is "Günther Heller" and fittingly both worked on many "School Girl" films. The focus here is on even younger girls than in these other films. And quality-wise, it is approximately on par with the films I already mentioned, maybe slightly better even. Yes the message the film is trying to send is pretty ridiculous once again as always, but there are quotes that actually make sense, for example the question on why we want young people to be smarter at an early age, be able to learn languages at an earlier age, but not accept their sexuality at an earlier age. Of course, you don't see very young children naked in here. All the actresses are considerably older than the characters they portray, at least when they have nude scenes. A bad example of the message I already mentioned is at the very end. The way the conflict is solved between the girl and her mother (about her older sex friend) has really nothing to do with reality and feels fake and rushed in to quickly end the movie on a happy end. But it has absolutely nothing to with realism or convincing story-telling. As a whole, you can check this film out if you like the Schulmädchen films. It's probably unlikely you have not seen any of these and consider seeing this one. But all in all, I definitely five this one a negative verdict. Yes some of the chicks are hot and it's definitely a better watch if you are horny, but completely aside the erotic component, this film has almost nothing to offer. Thumbs down.