Beat Girl (1961)

Before swinging London and the rock & roll explosion took over English youths, Britain's first teen rebel didn't have much of a cause but plenty of attitude. Pouty art-school student Jennifer (teen sex kitten Gillian Hills, looking very much a British Bardot) is the Beat Girl of the title, an alienated teenager who hangs out in coffee shops and underground clubs with beatniks and teddy boys. When her self-absorbed father returns home with a sexy French bride, the picture warps into lurid melodrama as Jennifer tracks a suspicion about her stepmom to a sleazy strip club managed by an even sleazier Christopher Lee, whose salacious desires she realizes too late. Director Edmond T. Greville, a craftsman of the old school, brings an unexpected, edgy grit to the low-budget picture, injecting the callow clichés of lost youth with a nervous energy and a genuine sense of desperation. John Barry's growling score gives the film a rumbling undercurrent, and the cheap, claustrophobic sets (often hiding in darkness) only enhance the sleazy atmosphere. The mix of teenage desperation, rock & roll music, and lurid sensationalism (complete with teasing nudity in the strip club) creates a strange hybrid: a teen exploitation film with a film noir soul. Costar Adam Faith sings a couple of songs and Oliver Reed appears in a few scenes as a drugged-up, funked-out teddy boy. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

Beat Girl deserves better!

This is one of My all-time favorite movies featuring Christopher Lee, Oliver Reed, Adam Faith and the drop-dead sexy Gillian Hills! Unfortunately this DVD delivers a sub-standard transfer and no extras but a trailer. Beat Girl deserves a far better treatment!

Two stars because it at least has been made available! August 17, 2008

Put back deleted scenes from Beat Girl

I have found reviews by others to be true in that stripper scenes from the movie were cut in the re-release of this film--other films have deleted scenes included, and I doubt if any of this equal other films with partial nudity in them. March 18, 2008

A Look at '50s British Youth Subculture

While Beat Girl can easily be "read" as an "youth-ploitation" film in the Chalkboard Jungle mold, it is better than most from the era in how it delves into some of the undercurrents in British youth subculture of the time. Rumor has it that a new British edition will be coming out soon -- hopefully, it will contain the footage that is missing from this edition, and will come from a cleaner print (with fewer awkward splices). Adam Faith may have had virtually all his hit singles sugar coated with orchestral strings--thereby making them more middle-of-the-road pop than rock--but in "Made You," which he sings in this film, proved that he could also rock out. Gillian Hills shows the fire that would make her a star, and John Barry's theme music--which is heard a tad too often throughout the movie--puts rock and roll into jazz in a way that few composers were doing in 1960. February 22, 2008

Not Bad But Uncut Version Now Unavailable

BEAT GIRL is a surprisingly good (good as in sleazy, corny and entertaining) JD film from England. John "James Bond" Barry did the music and a young Oliver "Curse of the Werewolf" Reed makes a fool of himself along with Brit pop star Adam Faith. But the two stars of the show are Christopher "Count Dracula" Lee as an ultra-sleazy strip club owner and that force of nature Gillian Hills as Jenny, the restless rich teen with attitude problems. Lee is good as usual in what could have been a total waste of a role, but Hills is SMOKING beyond belief. Like other reviewers have stated, I can't see HOW this girl never became a star. You can't take your eyes off her when she is in the frame. Sadly, all current versions available of the film are edited except for the Kino Video VHS tape which is now out of print (but still available used here on Amazon). There was supposed to be a DVD from Kino but it seems it was canceled. *sigh* Worth a look either way. September 24, 2007

BEAT GIRL BAD GIRL IS GOOD GIRL.

Tremendous fun. Tries to say that the Kids growing up in England after WWII all went off the rails but oh my how innocent it all was and it all works out that Mummy and Daddy know best!!!!!!!!! Noelle Adam plays a Frenchwoman who may have had a shady past before she marries the Rich Daddy of :BEAT GIRL: JENNIFER{A dead ringer for the 1950,s version of Brigitte Bardot} Jennifer hangs in the Beat clubs with her friends played by many of Englands VERY young and up and coming young stars. Sally Ann Field, Oliver Reed and Peter Mc Enery, Best known in the US for giving Haley Mills her first screen kiss in Disneys "THE MOONSPINNERS. Was Daddys new wife a stripper?And can I be one too. And just what does the Owner of the strip club { CHRISTOPHER LEE} have on his mind? He obviously likes biting necks even without fangs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! January 4, 2007

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