DEBBIE OSBORNE IN CINDY AND DONNA

year: 1970 cast: Debbie Osborne, Nancy Ison, Cheryl Powell, Alice Friedland, Max Manning  rating: ***1/2

The title CINDY AND DONNA is somewhat misleading. The real story centers almost entirely on chaste, naïve teenager Cindy, played with vulnerable meloncholy by cult starlet Debbie Osborne, and her curious peaks into the big bad fun world outside.

Her older half sister Donna couldn’t be more different. Whether getting loaded or laid in her boyfriend’s car, taking nude pictures or even sleeping with her drunken step-dad, the term “free spirit” fits her like a glove.

Debbie Osborne shows Cheryl Powell a dirty magazine

But Cindy’s anything but free, holed up in her bedroom, keeping her naked body to herself, and only sneaking out whenever Donna’s up to her promiscuous shenanigans.

Cindy’s parents are another story altogether: mother’s a bitter lush and dad’s love with a call girl named Alice (played by KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE dancer Alice Friedland). The parent’s booze-laded existence counterbalances the teenager’s hazy opulence in an effective, and never forced, manner – a juxtaposition that works.

Sharon Osborne as Cindy in CINDY AND DONNA

For low budget exploitation this is an involving and entertaining piece of grindhouse where the faults, like a constantly jarring soundtrack ranging from psychedelic rock to harmonica folk to game show jazz, or the acting that, at times, feels like gateways to porno scenes… but the performances can also be surprisingly decent...

Especially Osborne – her cherubic face and wistfully downcast expressions, mixed with a lithe gentle beauty you won’t find in many exploitation movies, not only fits the part but makes the story work.

This is Cindy's world even though, as she's writing forlorn letters to a long lost beau or hanging out with her best friend, she’s got little to do with the darker realm. Yet the intriguing aspects are how far she ventures outside her boundaries, providing a Pandora’s box with something valid (and perhaps even dangerous) within.

Pictures of Debbie Osborne in CINDY AND DONNA

Alice Friedland: "Wow, I remember nothing about this movie."

Nancy Ison as older sister Donna

Debbie Osborne in CINDY AND DONNA

Cult starlet Debbie Osborne peaks into the other side...