GB
1960
1hr 25mins
Dir: Edmond Gréville
Starring: David Farrar and Delphi Lawrence
An architect’s daughter rebels against her father’s new young wife
This drama about late-fifties youth-rebellion includes a scene with some teenagers undertaking a car race. This involves a railway sequence that starts with them driving under the majestic Welwyn Viaduct then playing chicken at a level crossing. There is an initial shot of an ex-LMS ‘Jubilee’ Class 4-6-0 leaving Elstree Tunnel on an express, but the train at the level crossing has an identity change. An ex-LMS Class 5MT ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0 approaches the group of youths but as it passes it has become a two-coach passenger hauled by a small tank locomotive! The location of the level crossing is not known. The scene with youths lying on the track used real footage, with back-projection cut in where necessary. The original script, entitled Striptease Girl, was submitted to the British Board of Film Censors in March 1959, whose reviewers gave it an ‘X’ rating due to its content. The project was then renamed Beat Girl and although the nudity was reduced, censors still objected to scenes of strip tease, juvenile delinquency, the implication of underage sex and teenagers playing ‘chicken’ by lying on railway tracks before an oncoming train. Ultimately, the film still received an ‘X’ certificate, causing its release to be delayed. Some versions of the released film have cut the original striptease sequences (which included topless nudity), some scenes set in the strip club, the ‘chicken’ game scene and, most curiously, some opening exposition scenes with David Farrar and Noëlle Adam on a train. These scenes feature a stock shot of LMS ‘Royal Scot’ Class 6P 4-6-0 No.6100 Royal Scot on Bushey Troughs. The loco is displaying the cast ‘THE ROYAL SCOT’ headboard from its 1933 North American Tour and this shot crops up from time to time in other films. It can thus be found in Cage of Gold (1950), Escapade (1955), Left, Right and Centre (1959), and Hide and Seek (1964). The carriage interior scene is a set.
