BEAT GIRL - John Barry - "Wild For Kicks" (1960)

Welcome to Part Two of "Beat Week Down In The D!"

Just  like "The Beatniks,"  "Beat Girl" was a film made in 1960! Go figger what people had on their minds back then!! I want to call it Beat Obsession!!! Besides beat, music, and the year 1960, these two films don't have a whole lot in common except young people trying to live a non-conformist lifestyle either full-time or part-time! One big difference is that "Beat Girl" was made in the UK!

Gillian Hills is Jennifer Linden, the "Beat Girl!" You might remember Gillian from her role as "The Brunette" in "Blow-Up!" Dancing there behind her is Oliver Reed as "Plaid Shirt!" You gotta love the names of the characters in this movie or you'll never get anywhere! This was the second film Gillian was in, and Oliver's 11th!

As "Beat Girl" gets rolling, Gillian's Dad has just brought home his new wife Noëlle (Neither Seen Nor Recognized) Adam as Nichole! The Father is played by David (The Hundred Pound Window) Farrar!

One major problem for stepdaughter and stepmother is that they are not that very much different in age, but boy, are they from different worlds!

And people say it's not cool to wear socks with sandals, who do they think they're fooling?

Jenny's Dad is an architect and the family is quite well off, but at night she changes clothes an sneaks out to be with her low-life friends down at the "Off-Beat Club!"

The "Beat Girl Theme" was written and performed b John Barry of "James Bond" fame and has been recorded at least two other times by The Omega Men, and The Broods, and probably a lot more if I had to guess!

Oliver Reed looks pretty S T O N E D!!

Looks like a lot of fun to me!! Some of the other kids that hang out with Jenny have names like Dodo, Honey, Duffle Coat, and Green Pants!!

The story line builds around the fact that Jenny's Step Mom had a sordid past as a stripper that she has kept secret from Pops, so Jenny ventures across the street to the "Les Girls" club to dig up more dirt on Nichole! That's Nigel (The Face Of Fu-Manchu) there as Simon!

The always marvelous Christopher Lee has the role Kenny King, the owner of the strip club, and Jenny catches his eye immediately!

The multi-talented British sensation Adam Faith has the role of Jenny's friend Dave and performs a couple of very cool songs like "Made You" once again written by John Barry!! Sadly Adam left this world in 2003 at the age of 62, the victim of a heart attack!

More than anything, "Beat Girl" is a movie about music, and all the music is great, and that is good enough for me!!

Jenny has all her friends over for a party while her Step Mom is asleep upstairs! That's like lighting up a cigarette while sitting in the back seat of your parent's car and thinking they're not going to notice!

Me, Tabonga, The Brain, and Skitch Ion had a public access TV show back in the 90's called "Off-Beat," and we had the roles of the Offbeatniks, who were beatniks in space!  Is it all starting to make sense now?

Crazy kids decide to play chicken with a railroad train! Maybe not crazy as much as they were stupid!!

Kenny tries to talk Jenny into doing some dancing for him, but the Kenny and Jenny Show was not meant to be!!

Everything has to come to an end, especially in the movies, I think you know where this disaster is headed!

"Beat Girl" was originally released as "Wild For Kicks," and in the "You Can't Believe Everything You Read Department," No, Jenny never wanted to be a stripper! That tagline is just pure sensationalism, but irregardless, "Beat Girl" is a great film if you dig music and the 60's and unlike a whole lot of other cool flicks we've showcased here, it can actually be found on Netflix among other places, and that's exactly what I suggest you do!!