Beat Girl

Beat Girl
UK film poster
Directed byEdmond T. Gréville
Screenplay byDail Ambler
Produced byGeorge Willoughby
Starring
CinematographyWalter Lassally
Edited byGordon Pilkington
Music by
Production
company
Willoughby Film Productions
Distributed byRenown Pictures
Release date
  • 28 October 1960 (1960-10-28)
Running time
87 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£79,840[1]

Beat Girl is a 1960 British teen exploitation drama film directed by Edmond T. Gréville. The film was released in the United States under the title Wild for Kicks.[2]

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 (1966) and A Clockwork Orange (1971), and became a successful "ye-ye" singer in France.[3][4][5][6] 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 (1960))[7] and McEnery (Tunes of Glory (1960))[8] 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.[9][10][11] The Beat Girl soundtrack was the first British soundtrack to be released on a vinyl LP.[12] It reached number 11 on the UK Albums Chart, paving the way for the release of other film soundtrack albums.[10][13]

  1. ^ Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 359
  2. ^ "Beat Girl". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  3. ^ Deluxe, Jean-Emmanuel, Ye-Ye Girls of '60s French Pop. Feral House, 2013. ISBN 9781936239726.
  4. ^ Gallagher, Paul. "Gillian Hills: Keeping Time With the Beat Girl." dangerousminds.net, 28 June 2011, accessed 12 Mar. 2015.
  5. ^ Cotter, Robert Michael "Bobb". The Women of Hammer Horror: A Biographical Dictionary and Filmography. McFarland & Co., 2013, p. 102. ISBN 978-0-7864-7208-6.
  6. ^ Hennessey, Mike. "News from the Music Capitals of the World: Paris." Billboard, 3 Apr. 1965, p. 22.
  7. ^ Glynn, Stephen. The British Pop Music Film: The Beatles and Beyond. Palgrave MacMillan, 2013, p. 40. ISBN 978-0-230-39222-9.
  8. ^ According to the Internet Movie Database, Tunes of Glory in which McEnery played "2nd. Lt. David MacKinnon" was released in UK in August 1960, while Beat Girl, in which McEnery made his cinema film debut, was released in Finland and West Germany on 9 Sept. 1960, and in UK on 28 October 1960.
  9. ^ Perone, James E. Mods, Rockers, and the Music of the British Invasion. Praeger Publishers, 2009, p.31. ISBN 978-0-275-99860-8.
  10. ^ a b Fiegel, Eddi. John Barry: A Sixties Theme: From James Bond to Midnight Cowboy. Faber & Faber, 2012, p. 71-72.
  11. ^ Davis, Sharon. Every Chart Topper Tells a Story. Mainstream Pubs. Co., 1997, p. 1912. ISBN 1-85158-836-1.
  12. ^ Film music had been released on shellac 78s as far back at Things to Come in 1936.
  13. ^ Glynn, S. (7 May 2013). The British Pop Music Film: The Beatles and Beyond. Springer. p. 41. ISBN 9780230392236. Retrieved 18 December 2018 – via Google Books.