Beat Girl (1960)

Tagline: SEE: Chicken on the Rails. Here comes the train. Let’s play.

Beat Girl movie storyline. 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.

Beat Girl is a 1960 British film about late-fifties youth-rebellion. The film was later released in the United States under the title Wild for Kicks. The title character of Beat Girl was played by starlet Gillian Hills, who later went on to have numerous small roles in 1960s and 1970s films, such as Blowup and A Clockwork Orange, and became a successful “ye-ye” singer in France. Beat Girl marked the first film roles of British pop idol Adam Faith and actor Peter McEnery, although it was not released until after other films featuring Faith (Never Let Go) and McEnery (Tunes of Glory) had already come out. The film also features Christopher Lee and Nigel Green as strip joint operators, and Oliver Reed in a small role as one of the “beat” youth.

The original music was composer John Barry’s first film commission, and was performed by the John Barry Seven and Orchestra, Adam Faith, and Shirley Anne Field. The Beat Girl soundtrack was the first British soundtrack album to be released on a vinyl LP, and it reached number 11 on the British album charts, paving the way for the release of other film soundtrack albums.

Directed by: Edmond T. Gréville
Starring: Gillian Hills, David Farrar, Noëlle Adam, Christopher Lee, Adam Faith, Shirley Anne Field, Peter McEnery, Claire Gordon, Oliver Reed, Anthony Singleton, Margot Bryant, Nade Beall
Screenplay by: Dail Ambler
Cinematography by: Walter Lassally
Film Editing by: Gordon Pilkington
Makeup Department: Anne Box, Sidney Turner
Art Direction by: Elven Webb
Music by: John Barry
Distributed by: Renown Pictures (UK), Victoria Films (USA)
Release Date: October 28, 1960