The Weekend Video

Beat Girl is a 1960 British film about late-fifties youth-rebellion. The title character is played by starlet Gillian Hills, who later went on to have numerous small roles in 1960s and 1970s films, such as Blowup and A ClockworkOrange.

The music was done by a seven-player group of John Barry, who was then managing the star, Adam Faith . It was the first British soundtrack album to be released on an LP. John Barry went on to fame as the man behind the James Bond theme and movie scores. (He also won the heart of Jane Birkin at a time when I... oh, never mind!)

Beat Girl also features Christopher Lee as a strip-joint operator, Oliver Reed and Nigel Green. It wasthe film debut of both Adam Faith and Peter McEnery.

The film was, however, crap, in spite of some of the people involved.

Walter Lassally, whose over a hundred credits as cinematographer include such masterpieces as Zorba The Greek, Tom Jones, A Taste Of Honey and a personal late-sixties favourite of mine, Joanna, delivered the moody black-and-white.

Presumably the choreographer was shot!

But the music shows promise of what was to come.