Beat Girl

Starring:NoÃ«lle Adam, Nade Beall, Margot Bryant, Adam Faith, David Farrar, Shirley Anne Field, Claire Gordon, Nigel Green, Gillian Hills, Michael Kayne, Christopher Lee, Peter McEnery, Norman Mitchell, Pascaline, Robert Raglan, Oliver Reed, Anthony Singleton, Christina Curry (II), Carol White, Delphi Lawrence
Director: Edmond T. GrÃ©ville
Studio: Crash Cinema Media
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

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

Customer Reviews:

BEAT GIRL BAD GIRL IS GOOD GIRL........2007-01-04

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Strip Like a Frenchie.......2006-05-31

Five stars if the DVD were put right.

This is the first DVD I've ever seen that is clearly an expurgated TV version. Not only are there the scenes missing, as mentioned in other reviews here, there is even a curse word blanked out near the end. Urg. And no one seems to have mentioned that the film is presented full-screen when it is clearly not that originally (since the credits are presented in something like 1:1.66 aspect ratio). Don't believe Amazon when they say it is widescreen.

And who would care except that this is a delightfully awful youth movie, perhaps the best ever made. It deserves the Criterion treatment. It is every bit as memorable as Band of Outsiders. And the musical sequences aren't any goofier than Pierrot le Fou.

In fact the musical number It's Legal is wonderfully silly. And I would like to correct another review here. The woman doing the lip syncing, Shirley Ann Field, was no more than twenty-two at the time, not at least thirty. Shirley appeared in significant roles in two truly great movies the same year she made BG, Saturday Night Sunday Morning, and The Entertainer. But in this movie she gets to bravely deliver most of the hilarious beat slang. And "Strip like a Frenchie!".

I would also point out that Oliver Reed cannot possibly be mistaken for a Ted in that flannel shirt. Half way to Grunge styles, if anything.

The film is a great antidote to all that nonsense about the same era that was made later, like American Graffiti and Grease, awful stuff that. Where were you in '62? Well, as Adam Faith says in the closing line of Beat Girl, "Only squares know where to go." Half way to Punk sensibilities, if anything.

Beat Girl - my thoughts.......2004-11-02

It was great to see this film becoming available again on DVD. The movie is a classic featuring a British perspective on the beat era with lots of cheesy "hep" talk and is a real must for collectors of 1960's British black & white classic's. The one issue I have with the movie is that the DVD re-issue is missing the amazingly erotic strip scene from the original cinema release- a bit of a disappointment really. If however you have not seen the original movie then enjoy!

TO STRIP OR NOT TO STRIP............2004-04-26

Lurid, low budget British exploitation JD flick about Jennifer (pouty Gillian Hills) a teen-age "beat girl" who is waiting to go completely wild. She's already sneaking out at night to join her beat friends much to the chagrin of her "square" archtitect father. But when Daddy brings home a much younger French wife named Nicole (Noelle Adam), Jennifer bristles like a porcupine. There's a strip club called Les Girls across the street from the Beat Club where Jenny's gang hangs out and it isn't long before she finds out that stepmom Nicole used to do something sleazy back in Paris. She gleans this information from a burned out stripper at Les Girls who used to "work" with Nicole. And it isn't long before Jenny wanders in to Les Girls and draws the attention of the sleazy owner (Christopher Lee, who's properly oily). Nicole frantically tries to prevent Jenny's father from finding out about her past and also to keep Jenny out of Lee's clutches. But, as plot lines go, things get out of hand. "Beat Girl" offers much in the way of cheesy entertainment. There's blaring music, a "chicken" drag race, cheap girls, lousy "rock-a-billy" songs, a wretched, obviously lip-synched number called "It's Legal" performed by pretty Shirley Anne Field ("Horrors of the Black Museum" and "Peeping Tom") who's one of the gang, some teasy strippers and an awful performance by French actress Noelle Adam who is obviously struggling with her English. Some familiar faces like Adam Faith and a young Oliver Reed as a beat guy called "Green Shirt" are here as well. Faith plays Jenny's wanna be boyfriend and he's responsible for the rock-a-billy numbers done ala Elvis. Frankly, you couldn't ask for a cheesier movie even though the film jumps in spots as though it were cut or censored. The print is pretty scratched up, too, but it's watchable. But I really liked Bardot look-a-like Hills as Jenny. She was perfectly snooty, catty and irritating to the point you couldn't wait to see her come to a bad end. If you're patient with the flaws, "Beat Girl" is a lot of trashy fun in the JD genre. As Jenny says, "Dig this and dig it real...". Enjoy.

Aussie Amazon Customer.......2004-04-01

It's a great film sure enough, but a terrible DVD. The print looks as though it was retrieved from a trash can and there are 12 important mintues missing. There is some important dialogue missing from the first scene with Christopher Lee. Next, the stripper scene is missing altogether. Then the ending is all but obliterated. Not good at all and detracts from the overall story.

Average customer rating:

Girl Beat - Power of the Drum

Manufacturer: Customflix
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

amazon.com

Girl Beat, Power of the Drum, takes us into the lives of three members of the all-girl music group Banda Dida in Salvador, Brazil. Vivian, 24, a singer and director of the band; Joice, at seven the youngest member; and Meire. who plays the marcacao, the big drum--all three show us what it means to find your voice. Featuring never-before-seen footage of Afro-Brazilian Candomble rituals, and music performances by Banda Dida, now a world-famous band, Girl Beat takes the viewer to places never before seen on film.

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