Beat Girl

Beat Girl
1960

Directed by Edmund T. Greville
Original story and screenplay Dail Ambler
Music composed and arranged by John Barry

Gillian Hills- Jennifer
Adam Faith – Dave
David Farrer – Paul Linden, Jennifer’s father
Noelle Adam – Nicole, Jennifer’s stepmother
Christopher Lee- Kenny King, club owner
Shirley Ann Field- Dido
Peter McEnery – Tony
Claire Gordon – Honey
Oliver Reed – Plaid shirt
Michael Kayne – Duffle Coat
Anthony Singleton – green pants
Robert Raglan- FO Official
Nada Beall – Official’s wife
Margot Bryant- Martha
Nigel Green – Simon
Norman Mitchell- Club doorman
Pascaline- exotic strip dancer with scarf
Diane D’Orsay- strip dancer in white négligée
Delphi Lawrence – Greta (uncredited)

It’s an odd cast list. Greta is uncredited? She should be about fifth or sixth.

USA TITLE: Wild For Kicks

RELEASE DATES: UK October 1960; USA October 1961

Film companies in the 50s and 60s were obsessed with seedy Soho. No wonder, in that the film distribution and management offices are right in the middle of Soho surrounded by the strip clubs and drinking dens. The executives passed them by … or went in … on a daily basis. Beat Girl has a direct line to The Small World of Sammy Lee and The Party’s Over in theme and location (both linked), and music. As in The Small World of Sammy Lee, the corner of Soho with the coffee bar and Les Girls strip club is a studio set. There is a brief real Soho shot at the end.

The film was one I’d wanted to see for a long time. My local record shop usually had a Beat Girl LP sleeve on the wall. It was the owner’s favourite sleeve, and he usually had another copy filed under soundtracks, and a third under Fifties / Sixties collectables. He confided that he could never resist buying in a copy when he saw one. I know the feeling. I have multiple copies of a few albums myself. As you can see, he sold me one.

It’s not that rare. It was the first British film soundtrack released in full on a vinyl LP and reached #11 in the album chart. It says that all over the net, but as the as usual excellent BFI booklet points out, that’s not entirely true. It was the first 12” LP. There had been a few 10” soundtrack LPs before (three by Tommy Steele alone) … though in the late 50s Decca still called 10” LPs by the initials “MP” (medium play). (It was on replay writing the review).

John Barry had been working with Adam Faith on his hits and was commissioned after Adam Faith had been cast.

Adam Faith’s hits … for those who don’t remember how big a star he was

If the film is mentioned now, it’s usually as the John Barry and Adam Faith breakthrough movie. Adam Faith gets through the film in a short paragraph in his autobiography, and most of that is getting off with Shirley Ann Field and how well she got on with his mum. Adam Faith was a character. He went from film editor to major pop star (two number one hits, nine other top ten hits), then became everyone’s chosen articulate voice of youth. He admitted that he enjoyed pre-marital sex on a TV interview and horrified the nation. Later, he starred as an actor in the 70s TV series Budgie, lost £2 million as a Lloyds insurance “name” and ended up as city editor of the Daily Mail. This was at the start of Margaret Thatcher’s beloved share-owning democracy, when millions had chunks of British Gas and British Telecom shares. Adam Faith was a share tipster. He suggested a share would go up. Thousands of Daily Mail readers bought some. Guess what? It went up. Nice for the tipster who no doubt had a few already. Now we might call it insider trading.

Adam Faith had started with The Worried Men skiffle group at the 2is coffee bar, the one where Cliff Richard & The Shadows had also got their breakthrough. As they descend to the cellar in the film, a poster on the wall advertises the 2is coffee bar. The film is not “about” Adam Faith’s role though. He is peripheral. It’s part of Middle England’s fascinated horror of youth culture and a fear of what they were getting up to in those coffee bars with cellars for music below.

Basic archetype? Cinderella. The most important roles are Jennifer, the “Beat girl” of the title, and her new French stepmother, Nicole. We could add Greta as the (not) ugly sister, Paul as Baron Hard-up (Cinderella’s dad). You’d expect Adam Faith to take the role of Prince Charming, but he doesn’t. There isn’t such a role. Christopher Lee is the villain (boo! Hiss!). The film poster placed Gillian Hills fifth in smaller print, yet she is easily the leading role and star of the film.

Like The Party’s Over two years later, the British Board of Film Censors disliked the film (the worst script we have read for some years), objecting to its original title, Striptease Girl as well as the strip scenes, juvenile delinquency, road racing and playing “chicken” lying on the rails in front of a train. It was given an X certificate, shutting it off from a planned teen market.

Pascaline’s strip scene in the club with a scarf might even cause problems years later … she pulls the scarf back and forth between her legs before conjuring it into an erect shape in front of her.

THE PLOT

Jennifer is the sulky sultry teenager (Gillian Hills). As the BFI booklet says:

(Gillian Hills) sets the screen alight from the word ‘go.’ As neglected teen Jennifer she sulks, seethes and sideways-glances her way to screen immortality, making her moody manifesto clear from title sequence dance routine onwards, petulantly pouting, tutting, sneering, huffing and puffing, chucking expensive gee-gaws about, rightly dismissive of puffed up Pater.
Vic Pratt, Beat Girl, Dig That Daddio, BFI booklet

L to R: Nicole (Noelle Adam), Paul (David Farrar), Jennifer (Gillian Hills)

Her father arrives home with his new French wife. Paul (David Farrar), the father, is a wealthy architect. The wife is Nicole (Noelle Adams) with a French accent so strong that I think of her as Inspector Clouseau’s sister. She is 24, only a few years older than Jennifer who is “under age” though whether that means she’s under sixteen or under eighteen is not clear. She is referred to as “jailbait” at the strip club, a term I think of as American and years later, but there it is in the 1959 script. Nicole tries to make friends, but ~~Cindy~~ Jennifer is having none of it.

Paul the architect has one great love in his life. No, not his shapely new wife, but his model of City 2000. His dream of the world of forty years ahead (or for us, twenty years ago). It consists of curved tower blocks and looks hideous. Just the sort of 1960 tower blocks that they started demolishing ten years ago.

Paul: Jennifer says it will be like living in a tin can, but I don’t think that’s really true.

Once the newlyweds are safely tucked up, Jennifer gets out of bed (wearing a baby-doll nightie of course) and nips out to the Off-Beat Café to meet her beat pals.

At the Off-Beat Club: L to R: Plaid Shirt- Oliver Reed, Jennifer- Gillian Hills, Tony – Peter McEnery, Dave – Adam Faith

Dave, glued to a guitar is Adam Faith. Tony (Peter McEnery) is posh and talks about his dad, the army general. Tony drinks alcohol, which Dave considers ultimately uncool. Then there’s Tony’s girlfriend, Dodo (Shirley Anne Field). For entertainment they watch Pinky Ross attempting to beat the world drumming record, but he falls asleep at 57 minutes 22 minutes. After a drum solo 57 hours long, all would be relieved.

Dave gets to sing I Did What You Told Me.

I Did What You Told Me – Dave (Adam Faith)

This is a song that would have been rejected by any Elvis impersonator as starting out exactly like Heartbreak Hotel … Well I did just what you told me … / Well, since my baby left me … then putting in extraneous strings. Elvis pastiche in capital letters with a good Scotty Moore imitation by guitarist Vic Flick.

Tony watches Dave playing … notice how the camera can’t help drawing our attention to Plaid Shirt (Oliver Reed)

The next day, Nicole trots elegantly along to St Martin’s School of Art to have a sophisticated lunch with ‘er nu’ stipdotter. She discovers that Jennifer has stood her up, and can be found at the Off-Beat Café. She goes there and her pals take a shine to Nicole. Dave sings The Beat Girl Song.

Nicole reminds Jennifer to attend her dad’s important business dinner. He wants to sell his City 2000 to Brazil (Mmm. It’s called Brasilia). As she leaves, Greta comes in. Greta is a stripper from Les Girls the club next door … a real French club name, which turns up three years later in Cliff Richard’s Summer Holiday. Greta greets Nicole by name, but Nicole cuts her dead.

Greta (Delphi Lawrence) with fellow-stripper discusses Nicole

Greta She’s no pal. She’s just a bitch with a short memory.

A touch of the dialogue of the lads watching Greta at the next table:

Dave When she peels she makes like she’s doing you a favour.
Tony Seventeen shillings. That’s what the suckers pay for seeing her in her birthday suit.

Back home. The snooty foreign officials off to bribe the Brazilians to buy City 2000 are having dinner and talking snootily about coffee bars. What on Earth do they do there? (Drink coffee?)

FO Official’s wife I believe some of those places can be awful. Art students … and dancers!

At dinner with the toffs, Jennifer mentions meeting Greta, stressing that she’s a stripper. Nicole claims she was a ballet dancer with Greta in Paris, but Greta went over to the dark side.

Nicole Poor Greta. I had no idea she had sunk so low.
Jennifer Over 100 dirty old men crowd into a little room to watch her … You must teach me some steps one day, Nicole.
Nicole I doubt there is much I could teach you.

Jennifer goes to the strip club to find Greta who denies knowing Nicole. This is where we get the extremely overt strip routine (in full) by Pasaline. They see another girl dressed as a French maid start her first practice routine.

The club owner, Kenny (Christopher Lee) has seen Jennifer’s potential and pushes Greta into talking. He has a two way mirror so he can keep his eye on the club, and we find he is tiring of Greta.

Kenny King (Christopher Lee) and Jennifer

Greta admits that they were both strippers in Paris, and hints that there were “customers” rather than “boyfriends.” Jennifer gets home at 3 a.m. and in the ensuing row reveals a little of what she’s been told.

Nicole goes to the club to warn Kenny and Greta off her stepdaughter, but Kenny threatens that they will reveal all to Paul.

Jennifer and the Off-Beat crowd decide to have a wild party. They go to Chiselhurst Caves. Oliver Reed as the nameless “plaid shirt” (i.e. bloke in a plaid shirt) steals every scene he’s in the background of. You can see his face is camera bait. There are saxophones and drums there naturally and Dave sings Made You.

They have a dangerous two car race. In every Swinging Sixties or Pop Exploitation British film, the mode of transport is standing up in the back of open top cars. When stopped at a level crossing, they decide to play chicken by lying with their heads on the rails as an express train approaches.

Do not try this on your neighbourhood railway line

Jennifer is the last to leap out of the way. Fortunately, the electrification of British Rail had not then started. Jennifer and Dave are competing in the dares.

It’s Legal: Dodo (Shirley Anne Field) with Tony

It’s all back to mine to continue the wild party as dad is out of town. Shirley Anne Field gets to sing It’s Legal – an unusually explicit lyric. Probably the most impressive song in the film, except that “I won’t be bad no more” doesn’t work in her RP accent.

Nicole is asleep upstairs (how?). Jennifer starts a striptease and gets down to her underwear before Nicole appears and stops her. Dave protests but gets a hearty slap round the face from Nicole. Paul arrives back and throws them all out.

Paul Get out! You jiving, drivelling scum!

Jennifer reveals all – the “customers” to dad. Nicole admits it’s true, but she was starving and penniless. Paul forgives all.

Paul But you never told me …
Nicole That I accepted the rent money instead of a bunch of roses?

Jennifer returns to the café but is bored. She goes to Les Girls where Kenny suggests he will take her to Paris and teach her to be a star stripper. Greta is told what Kenny’s plans are. She’s no longer his girlfriend or his star act.

Some teddy boys had followed Jennifer out of the club. It looked like they were about to attack her, but she went into the club. Instead they smash up Tony’s car (well, that’s what synopses say, but Dave was driving it in the car chase scene) Dave and Dodo come out. The teds grab his guitar and smash it. Dave declines to fight.

Dave: Fighting’s for squares. It’s not worth a bundle. Come on.

Paul and Nicole arrive in his lovely white Mark IX Jaguar. Large Jaguars appear in all Soho scenes in British films. It’s a rule (I expect Jaguar sponsored them, or at least loaned the cars).

Kenny: Two tickets to Paris … last plane, Saturday night.

Kenny makes a play for Jennifer in the office, and then topples forward onto his face, a letter opener knife sticking out of his back. The club staff break in, grab Jennifer and call the police. As Jennifer screams her innocence, Greta emerges from behind the curtain. She did it.

The police are dragging a hysterical Jennifer out. Nicole and Paul take her home. Dave ruefully finishes:

Dave Funny only squares know where to go.

OVERALL

It has its moments, mainly from the Gillian Hill interaction with Noelle Adam and Christopher Lee. What lets it down is the allegedly “hip talk” and poor Adam Faith gets it in every line of his script:

You’re such a notch, aren’t you?
Did this, and dig this real.
Sing, dad, sing!
Great dad, straight from the fridge (i.e. it’s cool)
Drink’s for squares, man

BLU RAY / DVD

BFI (British Film Institute). 2016.

Three variations on the release.

Shorts:
Cross Roads (1955) with Christopher Lee 25 minutes
Beauty in Brief (1955) a 4 minute striptease
Goodnight with Sabrina (1958) 3 minutes

An interview with Gillian Hills, 2016

SOUNDTRACK (UK #11)

Beat FGirl: OST, John Barry, Adam Faith, Shirley Anne Field, Columbia 1960

It made John Barry’s name.

Adam Faith gets three songs I Did What You Told Me, The Beat Girl Song (with a nice semi-spoken voice section) and Made You. Made You was coupled with When Johnny Comes Marching Home as a single, but the charts list When Johnny Comes Marching Home (UK #5).

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