Cool it Carol! contrasts two images of London belonging to two different generic representations – the ‘Swinging’ London of 1960s British cinema (‘This is what I thought it would be like,’ says Carol as they nearly get run over by a London bus) and the vice-ridden London of sexploitation. Carol and Joe (Robin Askwith) travel to London in search of the former and, instead, find the latter.
Leon Hunt, British Low Culture: From Safari Suits to Sexploitation (London, Routledge, 1998), p. 101.
[Cool it Carol!] develops an ambiguous and unsettling moral vision. Aptly described by David McGillivray as ‘a glossy and entertaining morality tale’ and a ‘stylish and attractively witty film of our times,’ the film simultaneously exploits and exposes the commodification of sexuality.
Jim Leach, British Film (Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 134.
The final section of Cool it Carol! doesn’t quite know where to go, dissolving in a sea of jokey Keeler/Profumo references and retreating from its extraordinary middle section. […] This lack of a punitive or morally educative ending annoyed the The Daily Mirror’s Dick Richards: ‘Mr Walker, do you really believe that this ‘happy’ ending pays off for all the nudity, sex and trashy innuendo in your film? Who are you trying to kid?’ (19 November 1970).
Leon Hunt, p. 103
