Wild for Kicks

David Farrar has just remarried to Noëlle Adam. His beatnik daughter Gillian Hills doesn't like him or his values or his new wife. She prefers hanging out in coffee houses with her friends Adam Faith, Shirley Anne Field and Oliver Reed ... dancing to John Barry music and talking wacky jive talk. When she discovers that her new stepmom has a connection to a stripper, she becomes involved with strip club owner Christopher Lee. Although this film's depiction of beatnik culture is far from accurate (Adam Faith sings for his friends quite a bit and his faux rockabilly songs don't exactly sound like beatnik fair) it is delightfully over the top and has an amazing cast for such junky fare. I really kind of loved it.

I was a bit disappointed by this film. Some may see the young star as bravely standing up against the cruel older generation, but personally I just found her annoying.

One previous review talks about how her father was completely unable to accept his wife having been a stripper. His initial inability to accept this is only a brief passing stage, and he does accept his wife. After this scene they both work

together to find his daughter, who is allowing herself to be seduced by a sleazy strip-joint owner (Christopher Lee acting extremely well).

My main disappointment with this film is that it isn't as laughable as the cover suggests. There is a small amount of risible dialog, but not enough.

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.

This film is notable for two early appearances: John Barry's (James Bond) first film score and an early role for Oliver Reed as a teenage reveller. In some ways reminiscent of a pubescent La Dolce Vita, the film succeeds for one reason alone - Gillian Hills makes a truly seductive and formidable she-devil in the form of Jennifer.

Yes, the film is dripping in kitsch value, but one can't help but be absorbed the atmosphere, from the milk bar to the cave party, where English Elvis wannabe Adam Faith curls his lip to the drumming of an upturned guitar. Although before my time, I'm sure life in 1960 was never quite this with it, daddy-o.

It's not the greatest film ever made, but the wonderfully sleazy theme by Barry sets the tone nicely, and it rates as one of the best teenage exploitation movies to come out of the UK.

Once upon a time, Channel 9 in New York featured the Million DollarMovie, which ran one movie all day long for a full day, a programming technique that has been copied by modern cable and satellite TV's in their endless repeats of movies and shows.

But in the early 70's, before the invention of the VCR, Channel 9 was a film student's dream in that he or she could watch a movie over and over for one day and really study it.

Beat Girl arrived on Channel 9, a few years after its run in British and, presumably, American theaters. I watched about eight hours of Beat Girl, in the generous, endless loop provided by Channel 9. This movie fascinated the 13-yr.-old me who had never encountered such rebellion and hostility on the part of a school-aged daughter towards her father, who has returned from a trip with a step mother for whom the daughter is unprepared.

At 13, rebellious, unhappy, and edgy, I needed a "bad-girl" paradigm, and this movie supplied me with her. I loved the heroine and despised anyone who would stand in her way. She left such an impression on me that I have been fascinated by "bad girls" ever since.

However, the film is so bad -- or good, depending on your point of view of gritty, early 60s "To Sir, With Love" England -- that you might want to stick around to see what happens to this sullen chick who's accompanied by some stoner boys to some bad jazz music. Or not: this is one low budget film with fairly terrible acting but there is a gritty earnestness to this film.

Look for Oliver Reed, John McHenery, and Adam Faith in secondary roles. As in all of 50/60 flicks. look for a moral -- but look for the moments of rebellion, too. And dig that crazy music.