Autumn Born (1979) User Reviews

Only For Dorothy's Fan

[vghb95a · 4/10 · 1 September 2005]

The only reason this film exist at all is that Dorothy Stratten is in it. Autumn Born has all the finesse of a 70's porn film, but without the sex scenes. Although, I did like the story, An uncle who have his niece kidnapped to brainwash her into signing her fortunes over to him. It is a interesting story, but not fully realized by the writer and by the director of this movie.

In Autumn Born, you get to see plenty of Dorothy Stratten than any other films that she is in. You get to hear her speak with her Canadian accent(she does have a very lovely voice). You get to heard her say "eh" couple of times at the start of the film. You get to see Dorothy in varies states of undress either by another or by herself a lot. What I like about this movie is that you get to see the budding of her acting talent. Now I have seen more than my shares of bad acting in low budget movies, but Dorothy's acting although rough around the edges, still have more room to grow, that is, if she was to allow to develop her skill. It is really a shame that all we get to see of Dorothy Stratten as an actress is in low rent movies like this one.

Plot and acting very weak. Dorothy's body saves the film from "awful"

[bulldrum · 2/10 · 25 January 1999]

All the acting is poor. The plot is weak. The film is merely a vehicle to display Dorothy Stratten's body. On that count, well done. But, even that is not enough to maintain an interest to the end.

Technically Atrocious but Interesting Low-Budget Movie

[mrb1980 · 2/10 · 21 August 2007]

"Autumn Born" marked Dorothy Stratten's first movie role in a career that would only last about a year, until her untimely death at age 20 in 1980. The movie is a Canadian exploitation flick, and to say that it is technically awful is a real understatement. After a few very dated late-1970s disco and office scenes, Dorothy's character is kidnapped and sent to a strict "school of discipline" at a country estate. Her captors throw her into a basement, tie her up, strip her naked, torment, torture, and humiliate her for the rest of the movie. All of these scenes appear to be lit by a single dim light bulb hanging from the basement ceiling. At the end she turns the tables on her tormentors and wins the day.

It's hard to say exactly what the worst thing about this film is. The photography is bad. The acting is bad. The sound quality is bad. The lighting is bad. The script is bad. In particular, the direction is hopelessly incompetent. However, there's something compelling about Dorothy Stratten's mere presence that makes this otherwise forgettable movie worth a look. Some people have said that Stratten had that indefinable characteristic called "star quality"…if so, what might she have accomplished in the past 27 years?

Brilliant!

[Dekko-2 · 20 March 2004]

If you're a fan of the films of Doris Wishman, you have got to check out the first film featuring "Star 80" Dorothy Stratten. It's a torrid tale of a young heiress who's kidnapped and locked in a room until she agrees to give up her fortune. Beatings, torture and really awful acting ensue.

See Dorothy yell at the walls for the awful music to stop! See Dorothy get whipped repeatedly! See Dorothy bond with a wind-up toy mouse! See Dorothy look humiliated as she takes a bath! See Dorothy engage in softcore lesbianism with a woman that looks like Mary Woronov!

Why this film hasn't gotten a cult rep I don't know. Well, here's my shot at trying.

15 seconds worth watching

[caspian1978 · 5/10 · 12 April 2004]

Wow, what a terrible movie! If not for the star of this "movie" nobody would give this story the time of day. Dorothy is very attractive and gives an ok performance of an 18 year old girl being forced to submit. The only problem is that the story drags on with no interesting characters besides Dorothy. Also, the story goes nowhere! The ending is total garbage as the audience is left confused at what is happening. Who wins? What is going to happen? Is this a happy ending? If you are going to make a movie about dominating, show it! The movie teases its audience. Very little nudity for an 80 minute movie. Unless you are a fan of the former Playboy model, this movie is junk.

Just the beginning

[aglasse · 10/10 · 16 May 2010]

Autumn Born was just to be the beginning of Dorothy Ruth Stratten's acting career. Given the circumstances, her acting performance was pretty good, it was a cheaply made film with shoddy direction and sets. She did her best. In response to Ghost-9, Dorothy made 3 feature films, not two. The three were Autumn Born (Fall 1979), Galaxina (June 6 1980) and They All Laughed (Aug 14 1981). With each film her acting got better. Softkitten80 is right, there is a clear ending to Autumn Born, Monica and Tara turn the tables on Uncle Grant and stick him in the solitary confinement room. We assume they get control of the corporation back and everybody lives happily ever after, except Uncle Grant!

Just for Dorothy

[nb2 · 7/10 · 17 May 2006]

Utter rubbish really but it serves as one the rare appearances on celluloid in her tragically short young life. Look at her!! She's gorgeous!! Poor Dorothy gets kidnapped, taken off to a "school" where she gets the cane for being naughty, amongst other torments. It's just nice to see her beauty - now preserved for ever on DVD. An all Canadian affair, appropriately enough since Dottie was a Canadienne. Shot in and around Winnipeg the movie does feature a nice performance from Jocelyn Fournier as the sapphic Headmistress with a penchant for smacking bottoms and "assisting" Tara (Stratten) in her bath! But really it's just a movie made about and for Dorothy. She has a sweet voice with her Canadian accent and great physical appeal, made even more delightful since she was all natural and not "enhanced" like many of today's starlets. Thank you, Dorothy.

Excellent acting by Dorothy

[SoftKitten80 · 6 January 2005]

Many elements of this movie went into Bob Fosse's film. He watched this movie and took a lot of its music, other things like that for his film. There are many campy elements that Fosse picked up on that have made this a cult movie. Dorothy driving a (I think) Rolls is a beautiful shot, you wish you were blonde and rich in 1979. Dorothy's talking style is similar to many of us girls when people have accused us of talking wooden or stilted when it is our natural speaking voice, which makes a girl feel better that we talk as good as an actress. When she tells the other girl "you're a really nice person" my friend said, she says it just like you and then I knew it wasn't really wooden.

The other actors are quite interesting in their delivery, and there is a weird little music that plays over the intercom. Dorothy yelling, stop playing that bloody music is a high point and makes you feel comfortable, if you grew up hearing people yell bloody fool and things like that.

She looks her stunning self in every scene. The end is quite clear, the uncle is trapped and they will all live in the mansion with the uncle in the little room.

The best campy line is the woman saying, when Dorothy is about to paint her toes, Oh no, I detest that rustic shade! All the elements make it a bizarre, high camp movie. But for soome reason easygoing, tolerant people can barely sit through it once.

Beautiful Dorthy Stratten!

[ghost-9 · 8/10 · 22 November 2006]

It's really much too bad that Dorthy Stratten, who was probably one of the prettiest females to grace this planet, wasn't around longer to make more and better movies. We are left with Galaxina and Autumn Born, the former being the much better known of her two movies. This movie Autumn Born is good at what it is, which, in addition to being a "sexploitation" movie, is almost a perfect, text-book account of how to brainwash someone. Though certainly an unpleasant subject, people should realize that this is a real technique that is used upon unwilling people to cause them to be subjective to other people "the masters". It's a fairly well-made film, for a low-budget feature and one of the only two movies you'll find Dorthy Stratten in, so if your a Stratten fan or interested in brainwashing, then go for it.

Atmospheric oddity

[Falconeer · 7/10 · 22 September 2016]

There were apparently a lot of films from around this time, that were heavily influenced by the movie "Story of O," and "Autumn Born" is definitely one of them. A young and beautiful heiress is kidnapped, and taken to a strange "school of discipline," in an effort to torture her into relinquishing her inheritance, which includes control over a family empire, to her corrupt uncle. Dorothy Stratten is so stunningly beautiful that it is sometimes difficult to notice anything else. But "Autumn Born" is actually a bizarre, and atmospheric film, filled with some beautiful and surreal imagery. As someone else mentioned, this is a textbook study on the art of brainwashing, which some will consider very unpleasant subject matter. The heiress, Tara is subject to random whippings, and other sexual humiliation, as well as some real psychological torture. At one point she is raped by her captors, who she later wins over to her side, with her charm and innocence. When she starts to become unhinged, Stratten actually shows some competent acting skills; she is so much better in this film than I thought she would be. She had definite screen presence, and would surely have gone on to make more films, had her life not have been ended so soon. She had that same ethereal and innocent quality as Marilyn Monroe had on camera. "Autumn Born" is surely an odd film, as well as a fascinating late 70's time capsule, made even more interesting by the story around the film and the actress. It is a must-see for fans of cult cinema and erotic films from that period. It was also nice to see that there is actually very little nudity and sex on camera, which means that Miss Stratten wasn't really 'exploited' in the making of it. It is also interesting to note that "Autumn Born" is rated as a better film here, than the more well-known "Galaxina." Recommended, if you can actually find a copy..

Surrender, Dorothy...

[EyeAskance · 14 August 2011]

Dorothy Stratten is a haughty, self-absorbed girl who spends recklessly and goes to discotheques in the middle of the day. She's going to turn 18 in a few months...at that time she will accede authority in her late father's financial empire, much to the chagrin of her uncle who is currently in-charge. He concedes that the only way to avoid her interference in the family business is to have her drugged and swept-off to a covert and very pricey corrective obedience-training facility overseen by a hatchet-faced lesbian and her deranged lackeys. Gradual disempowerment through physical, sexual, and psychological torment proves successful. The girl's spirit is broken, rendering her a docile and obedient subordinate(with a "thing" for the "ladies"). Surprise! She also gets the family fortune.

Ms. Stratten was a stellar beauty, and that beauty is showcased here in a multitude of ways...we see her helplessly tethered, trussed, and fettered, and donned in a variety of lingerie, corsets, and slinky dresses(when she's not nude, of course). It shouldn't surprise that her presence is the cynosure attraction of AUTUMN BORN, and that the production itself is patternedly frugal. This is not to say it's a BAD picture, just that it's traveling noticeably light in several departments. And, as is often the case with erotic cinema, it's pitched with that recherché, pseudo-European sfumato-softness...an obvious effort to veil the film's sleazy soft-porn bedrock beneath a gauzy layer of feigned Left Bank delicacies and specious artistic intent.

Not too bad of its type, actually, and with Dorothy on board, any old thing becomes watchable(even the otherwise abortive GALAXINA).

4.5/10.

Morbid exploitation

[lor_ · 29 January 2023]

My review was written in July 1983 after watching a Monterey video cassette.

Made in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1979, "Autumn Born" is an unreleased softcore pornography feature which would have undoubtedly have remained in the vault except that it toplines the late Dorothy Stratten, former Playboy playmate and victim of a sensational murder. Of obvious curiosity value, this amateurish film is currently circulating on the home video market.

Already the subject of a tv biopic starring Jamie Lee Curtis and an upcoming Bob Fosse-helmed biopic starring Mariel Hemingway, Stratten is featured here in the film's lead role, that of heiress Tara Dawson, who is kidnapped on her uncle's orders and taken to Morgan Estates, an "obedience" school for girls.

Tedious picture lamely attempts to present Victorian-era porno in modern guise, with poor Stratten subjected to frequent birching and sensory deprivation in four months of isolation, in order to break her spirit and have her sign over her inheritance to the uncle. Bondage motifs and a stock lesbian head mistress of the school are the primary diversions of the repetitive, uneventful footage.

Though there are some nude scenes. The sexual content of "Autumn Born" is quite tame by contemporary standards. Stratten is literally on display in her undergarments for voyeuristic purposes, but the device ultimately becomes fetishisticl Amidst generally awful, one-take acting by the cast, her transition from sexy 17-year-old to submissive little girl is earnestly portrayed and projects some of the appeal shown in her smaller role in Peter Bodganovich's "They All Laughed" and far more interesting than her walkthrough as a robot in her other film "Galaxina".

Ragged editing, sloppy sound and a dull keyboards musical score create a dull film, which is heavily padded by opening and end creidts to reach a 75-minute feature length.

aka "Wednesday's Child"

[PILBOW · 23 February 2005]

The fictional filming of this movie is shown in the Bob Fosse film STAR 80, which is about the death of Dorothy Stratten, and is called "Wednesday's Child" instead of "Autumn Born". In STAR 80, Dorothy Stratten, played by Muriel Hemingway, is being slapped by an actor, and she bites into a blood pellet too soon, and the director gets mad at her. And then Eric Roberts, who plays Strattens crazy boyfriend/husband Paul Snider, calls her up and gets her to cry on the set. That's in STAR 80 and the movie "Wednesday's Child" is really this movie, "Autumn Born", and it's plain awful. It looks like a porno, has acting like a porno, has music like a porno, but doesn't pay off at all... There is lesbianism involved but they kiss each others noses and that's it... The sex is all edited out for the most part, and all that's left is horrific acting... They cut out so much sex that it doesn't even seem as if this movie deserves an R rating... It's awful, but somewhat fun to watch I guess. In one scene, Stratten falls in love with a wind up mouse (!!!), and then she hears voices in another room singing the Three Blind Mice song, about the farmer's daughter cutting off the mouse's tail, and Stratten begins crying and trying to hide the mouse inside the walls. Since this film mainly deals with lesbianism, they should have at least shown some real kissing, or something other than badly edited nose pecks. To note: other films mentioned in STAR 80 that in real life starred Stratten are "Ballbearings" that is really "Skatetown USA", and there's the movie "They All Laughed" shown, but that title isn't mentioned in STAR 80. Anyhow, since the Fosse film is one of my all time favorite movies, I checked out this one, "Autumn Born", aka, "Wednesday's Child", and I wish I hadn't, because it was a big tease and nothing more.