Leofwine_draca BEAT GIRL is another film to explore the then-popular craze for Beatnik culture. Like THE PARTY'S OVER, it features Oliver Reed strutting his stuff in various dated dance scenes, and is interspersed with dialogue which sounds incredibly cheesy thanks to the way in which it has dated.Unlike THE PARTY'S OVER, it's an attempt to provoke censors and audiences with plenty of 'sensation' drama, as in the American quickies. One of the main characters is a former stripper and indeed striptease sequences play a big part in the proceedings; one particular exotic dancer, all the way from Hawaii, perhaps one of the most explicit teases I've ever seen despite the lack of nudity. It must have been incredible for audiences back in 1960.BEAT GIRL is actually a pretty decent little story. The youthful - and extremely attractive - Gillian Hills plays the girl who discovers her dad's new flame used to be a stripper, while at the same time she immerses herself in Beatnik culture. Most of the film is shot and set around a club in which Nigel Green and Christopher Lee play various sleazy characters. There's plenty of music here too, some of it courtesy of pop sensation Adam Faith, and despite the dating of the cultural material, it's never less than an engrossing - and surprisingly sexy - piece of film-making.

malcolmgsw This film is quite a contrast.On the one hand you have David Farrar who is almost at the end of his film career,on the other you have Oliver Reed ,Adam Faith,Christopher Lee,Shirley Ann Field and Nigel Green on the way up.So there is a great contrast on acting styles,which don't really reflect well on the actors concerned.Gillian Hills as the teenage daughter,Nicolle Adams and Adam faith seem to have immobile faces and monotone delivery.Farrar was a lot older than Adams and there is no chemistry whatsoever between the two.From a dramatic point of view their inability to register any emotion kills this film stone dead.Just compare Adams performance with that of Simone Signoret in "Room At The Top" and you will see what I mean.This film was clearly meant for the exploitation market and earned itself an X certificate,now days it would probably warrant no more than a PG.No doubt this still fondly remembering this era and its music will be most interested in it.

johne23-1 What we've all been waiting for... Yes! It's another Christopher Lee strip-club!Hooray!Hurrah! But there's much more here. We have a (actually) 14 year-old Gillian Hills (later in Blow Up, when she'd reached the ripe age of 21), Jon Barry (and his Seven) doing the music and dreaming of James Bond, Adam Faith playing a beatnik-type-coffee bar-teenage-dreamboat... Everyone goes around saying "Daddio" and "Go, man, go" and "I'm real gone, man" and "Get out, you drivelling, jiving, beatnik scum" (honestly!), and not much happens... ..so they all go and play by having a drag race and then lying on a railway line and playing chicken...And Then!Someone called Laya Raki does an unbelievable striptease that will make your eyes water, (hers obviously did)...And Then!!Oliver Reed Starts Dancing!!...Sorry, I need to go and lie down for a bit...

bob the moo Architect Paul Linden has been travelling away in Europe for over three months and returns with new, much younger French wife Nicole in tow. Nicole's first challenge is Paul's sixteen year old daughter Jennifer, who is going through a typically teenage difficult period of being rebellious as she discovers her new sexuality and has places where her and her friends can hang out away from adults and squares. When Nicole starts trying to get to know her better, Jennifer reacts by digging for dirt on her stepmother.This film got a rare screening on BBC4 recently so I watched it out of retro-curiosity. For my money Beat Girl turned out to be a surprising good film, partly because I was watching it on its own terms. What I mean by this is that I quickly accepted that this was not going to be a sharp examination of teenage alienation but rather a bit of an exploitative b-movie of rebellion, beatniks, stripping and jive music. In this area it works really well and is actually one of the better "troubled youth" b-movies that I've seen. Sadly this is not because it gets the adult characters right – because where it matters, it doesn't. The parents are clunky authority figures and Nicole is little more than a plot device.No, where Beat Girl works is in creating an enjoyable sense of grimy rebellion and sass that is what these films is supposed to be all about. The locations and music are a large part of this because it does give the film an authentic feel to be in seedy strip-clubs and laidback coffee houses, while the music is roundly cool and of the period. One of the main things that the film is worth seeing for is a wonderful turn from Gillian Hills in her debut film role. She is sexy with genuine fire behind her eyes and a great attitude – I'm not really into bad girls but I fell in love right here! Only marginally sexier is dancer Pascaline who does a strip so hot that I had to check two things: the first being that this was made in 1960, the second being my watch, to confirm that, yes, BBC4 were screening it before the watershed! Anyway, back on Hills, she is great and drives the film with her harsh and convincing teenage girl. Alongside her Adam and Farrar are a bit clunky while her various peers seem quite clichéd and dated in a way that Hills' fire prevents. Lee has a real sleazy menace and there are appearances from Reed and Faith to increase the "oh look its" count. Overall Beat Girl is a dated and slightly trashy rebellious teen b-movie. In terms of message and plot it is not great but it is worth a look due to the cool points that the locations, direction, music and very hot Hills give it.