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!!

ESCAPE FROM GALAXY 3 / Cimate Film - 1981

It's Freak-Out Friday with Blogger and Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. First of all, Blogger has upgraded our photo browser and thrown the universe a bit off kilter. Secondly, I'm redoing a previous post because I didn't realize that this flick is STARCRASH II with it's original title... But, I'm a goin' for it anyway!..

Eegah!! sent over a nice little soundclip for our pleasure, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there by the neclear oven, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's our audio offering for... ESCAPE FROM GALAXY 3!

This movie is classic Euro Sci-Fi Trash from Italy, it's about the people of a giant space ship who confront an evil space dude out to rule the universe! Those are the good guys there.

The similarities between this and the original STARCRASH are the outdated space models and special effects, they either reshot original models or just reused the original footage, besides, who in the Hell would ever know?!

Here's hard-boiled flamboyant bad guy Oraclon and our ever-dorky love interest, Lithan.

This shot gets me hot!.....

Looks like a freakin' transformed Rock Lord! The lovers spend some time on a primitave planet, trying to escape Oraclon's evil clutches.

Lithan and Belle Star inside their spaceship.

Here's a twist on the old walking-the-plank gag.

Sherry Buchanan is great topless in this bath/shower scene, and, lucky Lithan gets to check it all out, no probs!

And, I think these last two photos go together rather nicely!..

THE BEATNIKS - Paul Frees - "Crazy, Huh?" (1960)

Well, it's time for "Beat Week Down In The D With Eegah!!" And to get us going is tonight's feature presentation, "The Beatniks!" Now I really wish I would stop renting movies from Netflix to only later find out I could have downloaded them for free at The Internet Archive, but oh, well, better late than never as they say! At least it makes life easier for all you crazy cats and kittens out there "living by the code of Rebellion and Mutiny!"

Now I like this movie, but I do have one ax to grind, and that is with the title! By my standards, the people in this movie are not beatniks, but just a bunch of punk 1950's thugs! I mean like, you'd never find Maynard G. Krebs acting like this, and there's no coffee, no acoustic guitars and no dripping candles or beat poetry either!

"The Beatniks" was pop culture genius Paul Frees only attempt at writing and directing a movie! We've gone this route before, but I'll tell you again, that life would not exist today as we know it without the work of Paul Frees! Now most of Paul's work was as a voiceover artiste, but the scope of his work spreads far and near! There's no place to start or end so I'll just hit some of the high spots! In the cartoon world, Paul Frees was the voice of Bozo The Clown, Ignatz Mouse, Barney Google, Boris Badenov, Captain Peachfuzz, Barney Bear, and Wally Walrus! In the 1960's Beatles' cartoons, he was the voice of John Lennon and George Harrison! He was the the voice of Francis the Talking Mule in "Francis In The Haunted House," and he was the voice of The President in "When Worlds Collide," the voice of the second radio reporter in "War Of The Worlds," the voice of the Alien in "Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers," the voice of the Police Chief in "Rodan", the narrator in "The Monolith Monsters," he overdubbed several voices in "The H-Man," he was the narrator in "The World's Greatest Sinner," and he dubbed several voices in this movie, and that's only up to 1962! Paul worked until 1987!!!!

This shot is nothing more than a shout out to our pal Charlie!

This gang of "Beatniks" is so uncool, they keep robbing the same little Mom and Pop store over and over!

Personally I make a point of avoiding people who talk to you with their head cricked over to one side like this! I find it terribly disturbing and annoying! This is Peter (THE CRAWLING HAND) Breck as gang member Mooney!

The leader of this gang of "Beatniks" is Tony Travis as Eddy Crane! Where's the shades, the goatee, and/or the Beret? Even though he was the star of this film, Tony's a difficult guy to find out much information about!

Eddy belts out a little number called something like "Sideburns Don't Need Your Sympathy" to his girl Karen (IT CONQUERED THE WORLD) Kadler as Iris!  Charles (THE THIRTEENTH HOUR) Delaney as Talent Scout Bayliss catches Eddy's karaoke routine and thinks he just might have some talent worth cashing in on! The songs in "The Beatniks" are all written by Paul Frees, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he is actually the one singing them! Another one of Paul's credits was he sung "The Darktown Strutters' Ball" in "The Abominable Dr. Phibes!"

So here's the whole gang: Peter (112 Episodes of The Big Valley) Breck as the crazed Mooney, Karen (13 Demon Street) Kadler  as Iris, Tony (Jamboree!) Travis as Eddy Crane, Sam (Between Heaven And Hell) Edwards as Red, and Bob (The Obligatory Decapitation Finale) Wells as Chuck!

Eddy goes on Channel 5's popular TV show, "Rocket To Stardom" in L.A. and the kids really go crazy for his schmaltzy style! Next thing you know, it's record contract city!!

But Mooney and Iris and the rest of the guys ain't taking it that swell. They think Eddy's going to bug out on them!

I just happen to like this transition shot from inside and outside of the Hollywood Inn where the gang is living it, and tearing it up, all at Eddy's expense!!

Even though Eddy was perfectly content to just sit in the hotel room and drink a couple of beers, the gang guilt trips Eddy into going out with them and raising some Hell just like the good old days, and Mooney's big mouth gets them in a lot of trouble with the Charlie the local barkeep!

First Mooney sucker punches Charlie with a liquor bottle............

.............then he ends up murdering the poor bastard!!! So much for Eddy's career! Moral of the story? Don't have asshole friends!!

Eddy had fallen for Bayliss's dollface secretary Joyce (The Neanderthal Man) Terry, and tries to tell her that he's just no good, and that their hope for a relationship and a normal life was a rocket to oblivion from the start!

Back in the hotel room, it's all doom and gloom, Iris is starting to get the idea that Eddy doesn't dig her that much anymore, Red got shot by that barkeeper, Eddy doesn't know Mooney killed the guy, and he's scheduled to cut a record the next day!! What a mess!! Wow, just look how far that boom mike is hanging down into the scene!

In the studio everybody's buzzed about how popular Eddy is going to be since they have no clue what deep shit Mooney has gotten Eddy into! The photo on the right shows "Love Is A Thief" being cut directly onto acetate!

While the recording session is going on, Bayliss volunteers to go back to the hotel room to try and talk some sense into Eddy's friends, but instead ends up getting shanked by Mooney!

After that little incident, Mooney flips out completely, and goes on the lam to nowheresville!

Eddy is pretty dense, but he finally sees the light, and tracks Mooney down where they have the final rumble! Eddy kicks Mooney's worthless ass and then gets hauled off by the cops! Life just ain't fair!