Beat Girl (1960)

AKA: Wild for Kicks

Director: Edmond T. Greville

Writer: Dail Ambler

Composer: John Barry

Starring: David Farrar, Noelle Adam, Christopher Lee, Gilliam Hills, Adam Faith, Shirley Anne Field, Peter McEnery, Claire Gordon, Oliver reed, Michael Kayne, Anthony Singleton, Robert Raglian, Nade Beall, Margot Bryant, Nigel Green, Norman Mitchell, Pascaline, Christina Curry, Diane D'Orsay, Delphi Lawrence, Carol White

More info: IMDb

Tagline: My Mother was a stripper...I want to be a stripper too!

Plot: Paul, a divorced architect, marries Nichole, a woman from Paris. His teen daughter Jenny has fallen in with the English beatnik scene and likes to hang out in cave-like clubs to listen to jazz and rudimentary rock'n'roll. Jenny takes an immediate dislike to her step mother, who is not that much older than she, and goes out of her way to make life miserable for Nichole. When Jenny discovers that Nichole is a friend of one of the strippers from the dance hall across the street, she investigates and uses Nichole's sordid past to embarrass her father. Meanwhile Jenny attracts the lecherous eye of Kenny, the owner of the dance hall.

My rating:  7/10

Will I watch it again? Yeah.

Juvenile delinquent films from the 50s and 60s can be fun.  This is one of them.  There's a lot to like.  Christopher Lee runs a strip club (!!!!) and his right hand man is Nigel Green?  That's all you need to know.  But wait, there's more.  Oliver Reed's hanging around in the background as one of the beatnik kids.  But wait, there's more.  John "007" Barry did the score (his first or second score gig).  I'm a HUGE John Barry fan.  I'd heard the theme from this thirty years ago but I'm only just now getting around to seeing the picture.  That theme gets used a tad too much.  Once or twice is fine but then it starts to wear thin.  it's still a fun tune but, you know, too much of a good thing.  The wildest and one of the best parts of the picture is Layla Raki's striptease!

Is that fucking hot or is that fucking hot?!?!!  The movie's worth watching just for that. The performances are good (especially Lee who is deliciously sleazy and classy all at once).  The movie isn't all that bad and it does have moments of fun and cool but there are some slow spots and some extended music/dancing scenes that were tossed in just for the kiddies.  I can do without some of that but do treat yourself and check this out and the ending gets dark.  Hee hee hee.  The whole film is on YouTube but it's an edited version that omits (at least I couldn't find it) the amazing striptease number.