If movies have taught me anything at all about life it is this - a lot of young women dream about becoming professional dancers. Some want to be celebrated ballet dancers or Broadway stars. Others dream about becoming high-kicking Rockettes, well-paid strippers or trophy-winning ballroom dancers. In Ted V. Mikels B-movie bonanza Girl in Gold Boots (1968), Michele (Leslie McRae) wants to be a go-go dancer.

Michele is tall, dark and gorgeous. She could be Jennifer Jones’ long lost cousin if she wasn’t so uncomfortable in her own skin. You’d expect to find Michele working behind a makeup counter at Macy’s or modeling swimsuits somewhere but when we’re introduced to her she’s working at a greasy diner with her alcoholic father. When she’s not serving food and pouring cups of black coffee for her customers, Michele is dancing to music on the diner’s jukebox. One sunny day a violent gun-toting thug called Buzz (Tom Pace) walks into the diner and spots our heroine practicing her dance moves. He promises Michele that he’ll be able to make her a star if she travels to L.A. with him. Michele’s a little weary of Buzz but after a fight with her father she leaves the dirty food joint behind and heads west with Buzz in his old white convertible.

On the way to L.A. Michele and Buzz pick up a peacenik biker named ‘Critter’ (Jody Daniels) who likes to write songs on his acoustic guitar. When sparks start to fly between Michele and Critter, Buzz gets angry and tells Michele that she has to make a choice between her budding romance with Critter or going to L.A. with him to become a go-go star. Michele can’t give up on her dancing dreams so she puts her personal feelings for Critter aside and the three misfits continue on to L.A. When they finally reach the big city Buzz’s first stop is at The Haunted House club on Hollywood Boulevard, which is decorated with horror movie props and looks more like some fabulous amusement park ride than an actual dance club. Buzz’ sister Joanie (Bara Byrnes) is the main attraction at The Haunted House club where she and her team of go-go girls dance the night away wearing gold and silver boots while entertaining a mixed crowd of young and middle-aged hipsters as well as sleazy old men.

When Michele sees the girls shaking their stuff in skimpy costumes while the audience cheers them on, she knows that this is the life for her! Later Buzz introduces Michele to his sister and the two girls hit it off right away. Joanie promises Michele that she’ll get her a job at The Haunted House club and proceeds to show her some moves while the management looks on. Even though Michele seems to dance to her own rhythm and appears more than a little awkward at times, everyone in the film is impressed by her dancing skills. Or maybe they just like looking at her curvy body in the skimpy costumes? For whatever the reason, she’s hired right on the spot.

Buzz and Critter also find work at The Haunted House club. Critter takes a janitorial job so he can stay close to Michele and keep an eye on her, while criminal-minded Buzz ends up working for the club owners as a drug pusher. You see, the sad fact is that the swinging Haunted House club is just a front for the management’s drug selling operation. Innocent Michele is unaware of this but she benefits from it on her way to becoming a go-go star. When her mentor Joanie starts to show signs of drug addiction the club owners offer Michele the job of “substitute lead dancer” for the Haunted House club so Joanie can take an unexpected “vacation.” Michele’s a little weary of taking the job at first but she’s also eager to become a dancing star. The sexy new dresses she’s been given as gifts, and the wild parties she’s starting to attend, have offered her a taste of the glamorous life and she clearly wants more.

Critter is smart enough to know that things aren’t what they appear to be at the Haunted House club and after making some extra money by selling some of his songs to the house band, Critter confesses to Michele that he’s a draft dodger and asks her to run away with him. At first Michele refuses to go but when Joanie finally collapses due to her drug use, Michele is forced to face the horrible fact that she’s working at a drug den instead of a legitimate dance cub. Things finally come to a head and Critter ends up in a nasty brawl with the creepy club owners. When it’s all over Michele and Critter leave the Haunted House club together and you hope that they’ll find their fortune and fame somewhere else. Unfortunately all that glitters is not gold in Girl in Gold Boots.

Unlike countless other films about would-be dancers trying to fulfill their dreams, Girl in Gold Boots ends on a low note. Michele gives up her dreams of becoming a professional go-go dancer to become Critter’s “war-bride” after he reenlists in the military. The former draft dodger and go-go girl finish the movie singing a downbeat song that contains the following lines:

“You can dance on the rim of a rainbow. Walk a tightrope across the sky
But you must come down, put your feet on the ground bye and bye.”

As depressing as the ending is, the young couple seems content so I guess the audience is supposed to be happy that they let go of their dreams and joined the war effort. I personally suspect that the future doesn’t hold much promise for Michele and Critter. I’ve always thought that peace loving Critter would probably get killed in Vietnam and Michele would end up back in L.A. working on Hollywood Boulevard as a go-go dancer and strung out on drugs just like her mentor Joanie.

Girl in Gold Boots is obviously not your typical dance movie but that’s why I enjoy it so much. It’s elevated by a terrific jazz influenced score by composer Nicolas Carras who created music for many of Mikels’ best films. The movie also features music by Chris Howard and The Third World and the renowned bongo player Preston Epps, who all make a brief appearance in the movie. The wild dance scenes were shot inside a real Hollywood night spot and they’re creatively edited and full of energy even though the go-go girls seem to have rather amateurish moves. This trashy low-budget dance movie is an entertaining way to spend 90 minutes if you’re looking for something fun to watch that doesn’t require very much from its viewers. Over at IMDb.com audiences have called Girl in Gold Boots “The bane of dancing films everywhere” and “worse than any other bad bad BAD movie you’ve ever seen” but don’t let the negative press discourage you from watching it. Believe me when I tell you that there are far worse movies you could spend 90 minutes with besides Girl in Gold Boots. Ted V. Mikels is one of my favorite American B-movie makers and if you haven’t had the opportunity to experience a Ted V. Mikels film yet do yourself a favor and see Girl in Gold Boots or one of the films Mikels made with Tura Satana such as The Doll Squad (1973) or The Astro-Zombies (1968).

The director is almost 80 years old but he’s still making movies. If you’re interested in buying yourself a copy of Girl in Gold Boots or want to know more about Mikels I highly recommend visiting Ted V. Mikels Official Site. The director currently sells autographed copies of the film on DVD for only $10.95.

If you’d like to see more images from the movie please see my Girl in Gold Boots Flickr Gallery

My look at Girl in Gold Boots was inspired by Ferdy On Films‘ Invitation to the Dance Movie Blogathon, which ends today. Be sure to stop by the blog and check out all the other dance inspired submissions.

Top: David Hemmings and Steve Marriott
Bottom: Jennifer Moss and Heinz Burt

I recently watched two entertaining and important musicals directed by British B-movie maven Lance Comfort called Live It Up! (1963) and its sequel Be My Guest (1964), which are currently available on DVD from Guillotine Films. After my failed attempts at finding any good articles about these films available online I figured I’d try and compile something for Cinebeats. I hope readers will find these films as interesting as I did and enjoy the results of my rather lengthy investigation into the mod musicals of Lance Comfort.

Director Lance Comfort is mostly known for the dark melodramas, crime pictures and low-budget thrillers he made in Britain during the ’40s and ’50s but late in his career he was hired to direct two films that shined a spotlight on some of Britain’s up and coming musical acts. These films also showcased some of the fashions, style and stars that would go on to shape and influence pop culture for decades to come.

I’ve only seen a few other Lance Comfort movies myself so my experience with the director’s work is minimal at best, but from the accounts I’ve read and the informative commentary made available on the DVDs by the film’s executive producer, it seems that Lance Comfort was mainly acting as a “director for hire” on these films even though he also helped co-produce them. Live It Up! and Be My Guest were both low-budget promotional films created by the Film Music division of the British entertainment company known as The Rank Organisation. At the time it was run by producer Harold Shampan who made these movies in an effort to sell more records. Much like the music videos found on MTV today, during the late ’50s and early ’60s numerous bands and musical acts appeared in similar films with the hope that it would give them an opportunity to be heard by a much larger audience. In 1963 BBC Radio ruled Britain’s airwaves with an iron fist and it only offered listeners minimal access to popular music. These films often provided young audiences with their first opportunity to see and hear new recording artists.

Top: The Outlaws (with Ritchie Blackmore)
Bottom: The Nashville Teens

The groundbreaking British record producer and songwriter Joe Meek was the real driving force behind Live It Up! and the film features many of Meek’s original songs as well as live performances by some of the artists he produced including The Outlaws (featuring Ritchie Blackmore), The Saints, Kim Roberts and Sounds Incorporated. The film also features Meek produced recording artists Jennifer Moss and Heinz Burt who both have lead roles in the movie. At the time Joe Meek was rather obsessed with the tall blond German born musician Heinz Burt. Burt had been a member of the Joe Meek produced band The Tornadoes but Meek thought Heinz Burt was worthy of a solo career and he was spending a lot of his time and energy focusing on launching Burt’s career at the time that Live It Up! was made. After Joe Meek’s unfortunate suicide in 1967, rumors about Meek and Burt’s romantic relationship spread but they were always denied by Burt, which probably had more to do with the social pressures placed on both men in the early ’60s than the actual truth.

Live It Up! also features memorable performances by trad jazz artist Kenny Ball, popular singer Patsy Ann Noble and American rock and roll pioneer Gene Vincent. Gene Vincent had recently moved to England after facing tax problems in the U.S. and he was enjoying a sort of career revival there among British youth who were still excited by early American rock and roll. Dave Clark (of The Dave Clark Five) also makes a brief appearance in the film but he doesn’t perform any songs.

Besides showcasing various styles of popular music, Live It Up! also features cutting-edge fashions by important designers of the period such as Mary Quant and John Stephen who had both recently opened up shops on London’s infamous Carnaby Street. Even the hairstyles in the film were provided by Vidal Sassoon whose modern recreation of the “bob cut” would become a staple of sixties fashion. The young people in Live It Up! are also seen driving scooters and motorcycles, which became popular modes of transportation associated with the mod and rocker scenes in Britain.

Live It Up! provides viewers with a brief but unforgettable glimpse of a more innocent time just moments before pirate radio, drugs, shorter skirts, Beatlemania and the merseybeat sound would transform the capital city into “Swinging London.” From pop music to beat, trad jazz and American rock-n-roll, Live It Up! is a fascinating concoction of sounds and styles aimed at Britain’s youth during a pivotal point in pop culture history. Soon after Britain’s youth culture would begin to fragment more into different groups (rockers, mods, hippies, etc.) with different haircuts, different fashion sensibilities and different social concerns and attitudes. Of course most individuals during this period combined their various interests in music and fashion and rarely fell into easily defined categories usually created by the media in order to sell newspapers and magazines.

Female Reporter: Are you a mod, or a rocker?
Ringo Starr : Um, no. I’m a mocker.
- from A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

Be My Guest is a little less interesting than its predecessor but it’s still well worth a look. The film’s musical score was compiled and co-written by the celebrated American producer Shel Talmy who’s mostly known now for his groundbreaking work with British bands like The Kinks and The Who. The film contains some worthwhile musical performances from acts that Talmy worked with including The Zephyrs, Kenny and the Wranglers, The Plebs (featuring Danny McCulloch from The Animals) and most notably The Nashville Teens and American rock-n-roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis, who just about steals the show with his performance of “No One But Me.” Like other American rock-n-roll artists such as Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis was enjoying a career revival in Britain at the time and he really kicks the film into high gear with his energetic performance. The talented composer John Barry also provides some of the songs and background music in Be My Guest, including a quirky pop song called “Gotta Getaway Now” that is sung by the singer and dancer Joyce Blair.

Both Live It Up! and it’s sequel Be My Guest star a very young David Hemmings as a guitar playing lad named Dave Martin along with a very young Steve Marriott as a drummer named Ricky. In the films they play friends and bandmates who are trying to form a beat band called The Smart Alecs and make it big in Britain’s burgeoning music scene. Both men started acting early in life and had previously appeared on stage in musicals before making Live It Up! together. David Hemmings’ first role was in Benjamin Britten’s well-received 1954 opera The Turn of the Screw, which was based on Henry James original story. Steve Marriott’s first big break came in 1960 when he got the role of the Artful Dodger in the extremely popular British musical Oliver!, which was later made into a film by director Carol Reed. The role of the Artful Dodger was played by many talented British boys who would later go onto bigger and better things including Genesis’ Phil Collins and The Monkees’ Davy Jones. But it was young Steve Marriott who was asked to provide vocals on the Artful Dodger’s songs for the original stage recording and it’s easy to understand why. Right after filming Live It Up! and Be My Guest Steve Marriott would go on to help form one of the most important and influential bands that has ever come out of Britain, The Small Faces. Phil Collins and Davy Jones are both good vocalists and by all accounts they were also impressive child actors, but neither of them could match Steve Marriott’s powerful vocal talents when he was at his peak.

David Hemmings has been one of my favorite actors for many years and I’ve seen most of the films he made after 1966, but I had only previously had the opportunity to see one of his “pre-Blowup” films (Eye of the Devil, 1966). Even as a young man Hemmings was clearly a better actor than the material he’s working with in Live It Up! and Be My Guest, where he spends a majority of his time arguing with his fictional mum and dad. Hemmings’ youthful enthusiasm is extremely appealing in both films. He projects an easygoing personality on screen, which makes him appear very modern and just plain cool in the role of young Dave Martin. The actor seems to sum up everything that was wonderful, carefree and even dangerous about British youth at the time. It’s easy to see why Michaelangelo Antonioni would cast Hemmings in his seminal film Blowup (1966) just a few years later where the actor’s good looks and natural charm made him perfect for the role of a British photographer working in swinging London. It’s hard to measure the impact that Hemmings’ character in Blowup had on a generation of British youth but it’s safe to say that he’s one of most important style icon of the ’60s. His defining roles in films like Live It Up! and Be My Guest undoubtedly helped shape public opinion about popular music and fashion during that decade. And they also helped make David Hemmings the important pop culture figure he became a few years later after starring in Blowup.

I was unfamiliar with Steve Marriott’s early film roles before watching Live It Up! and Be My Guest, but Marriott is very good in both movies and incredibly cute with his big eyes and wide smile. He seems to enjoy playing comedic scenes and acting like a clown whenever the opportunity presents itself. His natural charisma is impossible to overlook. It’s a shame that the talented singer was forced to act as if he was playing the drums in both films and wasn’t given an opportunity to show the world his amazing vocal abilities. But if you’re a Marriott fan these films are an absolute must see just to get a glimpse of young Steve before he formed The Small Faces and made music history.

The young female stars of these film are often reduced to girlfriend roles or nonspeaking parts, which is unfortunate considering some of the talented women involved with both movies. As I mentioned above, Live It Up! features the talented Australian singer and actress Patsy Ann Noble (aka Trisha Noble) as well as Jennifer Moss who later gained recognition on the popular British drama Coronation Street. Patsy Ann Noble has no dialogue in the film and Jennifer Moss isn’t given much to do as David Hemmings’ girlfriend. Moss spends most of her time moping over the fact that Hemmings’ character shows little interest in her and seems to prefer hanging out with his bandmates. The female actresses don’t fare much better in Be My Guest, which features a little-known cute and spunky American actress named Andrea Monet who doesn’t do much except kiss David Hemmings. Joyce Blair has a somewhat meatier role in the film as a bad girl called Wanda who seems to enjoy using her sexual prowess to get ahead in life but overall the women in these films are reduced to playing stereotypical roles or providing some occasional eye and ear-candy.

Patsy Ann Noble and Joyce Blair

Both films are very formulaic and director Lance Comfort didn’t make many creative directing choices while he was behind the camera. But the movies do include some nice exterior shots and the musical performances have a lot of energy considering that the artists had to pretend that they were performing live. There are also some nice set designs, which should probably be credited to the talented art director Jack Shampan who is better known for his work on films like Modesty Blaise (1966) and popular British television shows such as Danger Man (1964) and The Prisoner (1967). My fellow film buffs might also get a kick out of seeing the outside and insides of legendary Pinewood Studios in Live It Up! since the British studio is used a lot in the film. In the ’40s Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger shot many of their most celebrated films at Pinewood Studios and in the ’60s the James Bond films were shot there. Interestingly enough, the second Bond film From Russia with Love (1963) was being filmed at the studio at the same time that Lance Comfort was shooting Live it Up!

If you’re familiar with Franc Roddam’s film Quadrophenia (1979) you might be as surprised as I was to discover how much Live It Up! and By My Guest may have influenced that film. Quadrophenia was based on the 1973 rock opera written by Pete Townshend and The Who. It chronicled a few days in the life of a mod youth during the infamous mods vs. rockers fight known as the “Second Battle of Hastings” that took place in 1964. Live It Up! and Quadrophenia both feature young men working as mail carriers or company “runners” who want something more out of life and it seems impossible that anyone could watch lanky Heinz Burt playing Ron in Live It Up! and not be reminded of Sting’s character Ace Face in Quadrophenia. The bleached blond hair and leather coats obviously link the two memorable characters together but I seem to be in the minority since I haven’t been able to find any other critical information about these films that connects them to Qaudrophenia. It’s also worth noting that Be My Guest was made in Brighton in 1964 where the real “Second Battle of Hastings” happened. I don’t know if the film’s crew or cast was aware of the events but they must have taken place around the same time that Lance Comfort started shooting Be My Guest. As I mentioned earlier, The Who’s one time producer Shel Talmy helped write and compose music for Be My Guest so I’m sure members of the band must have been familiar with both of these Lance Comfort films before they wrote and recorded Quadrophenia.

Live it Up! and its sequel Be My Guest make for a fun and entertaining double feature if you happen to enjoy music, fashion and pop culture from the early ’60s as much as I do. Both films were released on DVD in late 2005 from Guillotine Films with interesting commentary tracks from the film’s executive producer but they’re currently out of print. You can still find used copies of both films selling at Amazon for about $10 (or $5 a piece) and the movies are also available for rent from Netflix.

Some Recommended Links:
- My Live It Up! Flickr Gallery
- The Joe Meek Appreciation Society
- Steve Marriott’s Official Site
- David Hemmings, Brit Boy of the 60’s
- Tribute to Heinz
- The Mods and Rockers
- Lance Comfort Profile at BFI Screenonline
- The Patsy Ann Noble Fan Site
- The Nashville Teens Official Site

Way back in early May of this year I reviewed the mod musical Gonks Go Beat (1965) directed by Robert Hartford-Davis, which had recently been released on Region-2 DVD in the U.K. and I’m happy to report that Gonks Go Beat has finally been released on Region-1 DVD in the U.S. today from Televista. Now American audiences can enjoy this rather silly, but fun musical for themselves.

If you’d like to learn more about the movie please read my previous review of Gonks Go Beat. I also recommend checking out the review for Gonks Go Beat at Cinedelica.

The quality of the Televista releases often leave a lot to be desired, so please be cautious if you decide to purchase it on DVD. Gonks Go Beat has been a really hard to find film and this release marks the first time the movie has been made available in North America in any form, so even though the quality of the DVD may be questionable, Gonks Go Beat is my DVD Pick of Week.

The new Gonks Go Beat DVD is currently available from Amazon for $16.99 and as far as I know it comes with no extras and runs 90 minutes. It should also be available for rent from places like Netflix and Greencine soon.

Lets’ Go Gonk!

The Who, 1966

I don’t often talk about new cinema here at Cinebeats, but an exciting trend in modern filmmaking is occurring this year that is impossible to ignore. It seems like every month I read something about a brand new band documentary or biopic about the life (or lives) of a musician that’s being released. I’ve been posting a lot of news about these films over at Cinedelica in recent months, but I couldn’t resist sharing some info about them at Cinebeats too. Many of the bands and artists featured in these films are personal favorites who all started their careers in the sixties or mid-seventies, so I figured it wouldn’t be too off topic to share my enthusiasm for some of these new films here.

Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (2006)
Like many people, I’m fascinated with the talented and enigmatic Scott Walker. He started his career in the sixties as a great pop crooner, but his current and more experimental albums feature some of freshest and most exciting music I’ve heard in years. I’m really looking forward to seeing the documentary Scott Walker: 30 Century Man whenever it gets a proper theatrical release or finally makes it’s way onto DVD in the U.S. The film was actually released late last year and is available on DVD in the U.K., but it’s currently still playing the festival circuit in North America.
- Official Site for Scott Walker: 30 Century Man

I’m Not There (2007)
It’s impossible to ignore the hype surrounding Todd Haynes’ new film I’m Not There, which is a biopic about the legendary Bob Dylan. I’ve been fascinated with Todd Haynes’ films since first seeing Poison way back in the early ’90s so I’m really looking forward to his latest effort. Haynes has never been a typical filmmaker interested in telling straightforward stories and I personally think his approach should work well for exploring the life of Bob Dylan. Reviews have been mixed, but Todd Haynes has always received mixed reviews for his work so I’m not surprised by the reactions his latest film is receiving. I’m Not There should officially open in November in selected theaters in the U.S.
- Wikipedia page for I’m Not There (as far as I know there is no “official site”)

Control (2007)
As a teenager in the ’80s it was impossible to not come in contact with the work of the talented photographer and director Anton Corbijn. The man created many amazing music videos and album covers for some of the best bands and artists of the period such as Depeche Mode, U2, Art of Noise, David Sylvian, Echo and The Bunnymen, Front 242, Morrissey and Joy Division. It’s only natural that he would take his passion for music and focus it on making feature films and his first feature-length movie is Control, a biopic about Joy Division’s tragic front man Ian Curtis. The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive for the film and many have complimented its look, which isn’t a surprise since Anton Corbijn’s music videos have always been impressive to look at. Control is currently playing at many film festivals and should get a limited theatrical release sometime in October.
- Offical site for Control

Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007)
Another director who’s name should be familiar to anyone who grew up in the ’80s is Julien Temple and his latest film is a documentary about The Clash front man Joe Strummer, who passed away much too young in 2002. Besides creating some of the best music videos of the ’80s for artists like David Bowie, ABC, The Stray Cats, Culture Club, Depeche Mode and Duran Duran, Temple has also directed many good feature-length films and documentaries including The Great Rock And Roll Swindle (1980), Absolute Beginners (1986), The Filth and the Fury (2000) and Glastonbury (2006). Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten is currently playing the festival circuit and getting great reviews. Hopefully the film will get a wider release soon.
- Official site for Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten

Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who (2007)
Seeing The Clash perform live with The Who in the early ’80s was one of the best live performances I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing, and I’m happy to see that Joe Strummer and The Who are both the subjects of new documentaries this year. Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who was authorized by the remaining members of The Who (Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend) and claims to be the “definitive” documentary about the band so it should be an interesting film. Recent reviews coming out of the Toronto International Film Festival have been really positive. This two hour film is being released on DVD in November.
- Official site for Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who

Scott Walker, Bob Dylan, Joy Division, The Clash and The Who are some of the greatest musical talents to come out of the sixties and seventies, so it’s wonderful to see that their work is still as vital as ever and inspiring filmmakers to take a deeper look at their lives and music. I really love music and good documentaries, and these are the new films that I’m most looking forward to seeing this year.

“I could never walk on the streets. I had to wear a veil.
They used to go berserk when they saw me.” - Helen

I’ve been feeling rather awful about forgetting to include any of my favorite Bollywood films such as Jewel Thief (1967) and Gumnaam (1965) when I wrote up a list of Favorite Foreign Films recently so in order to rectify that I thought I would do something that I’ve been eager to do for awhile and that is celebrate the work of my favorite Bollywood star, the stunningly beautiful and incredibly talented Helen.

Helen is known to Bollywood fans by one name and one name only, but she was born Helen Richardson-Khan on October 21, 1939 in Burma to a Anglo father and a Burmese mother. By all accounts Helen’s early life was not easy and after her father died during WWII her mother was forced to leave Burma and flee to India with little Helen and the rest of her children. Helen’s mother could not earn enough money on her own to support her family, so Helen left school and started working in films to help with the family’s financial burden. By age thirteen Helen was getting small roles in Bollywood films as a chorus girl or back-up dancer. In 1953 she started to gain recognition for her dancing skills and Helen began performing solo dance numbers in musicals like Alif Laila (1953). As Helen grew into a beautiful young woman casting directors started offering her more adult roles and her big breakthrough role came in 1958 when she was only 16 years old in the popular Bollywood film Howrah Bridge (1958).

Like most Bollywood stars, Helen did not sing her own songs. Her vocals were provided by some of the industry’s greatest female playback singers such as Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar, but Helen managed to infuse her musical numbers with her own exotic charm and lots of energy. As the sixties approached she was becoming a recognizable name in the Bollywood film industry and in the following two decades Helen was offered plenty of opportunities to showcase her stunning beauty and impressive dancing abilities, as well as her great comedic timing. She is said to have appeared in over 500 Bollywood movies during the height of her career, which is an amazing accomplishment for any performer.

Helen was known for wearing very revealing and sexy costumes in her films as well as various wigs and colored contacts. This made her easily standout and combined with her beauty and talent, it was easy for Helen to steal just about any scene she appears in even though she was never a huge Bollywood star in the traditional sense. In many movies Helen was reduced to being the bad girl or “other woman” who was often rejected at the end of the film by the handsome male star for a less interesting good girl that he could bring home to mother. She also plays a bit of a lush in many films who enjoys drowning her sorrows and forgetting her cares with a drink or two. Helen could be called the “Queen of Bollywood Bad Girls” as well as “Queen of the Nautch Girls.”

Helen in Teesri Manzil (1966) and Don (1978)

Most of my limited knowledge about Helen came from the wonderful, but all too brief Merchant & Ivory documentary called Helen, Queen of the Nautch Girls, which is available as an extra feature on the DVD for their full-length film Bombay Talkie. According to the documentary and various online sources Nautch Girls are traditional Indian dancers who perform for the pleasure of human beings instead of performing solely in Hindu temples. Helen is also what would be called a “Cabaret Dancer” in Bollywood films or “Cabre Dancer.” Cabre is a type of Bollywood dance that combined traditional Indian dancing with more modern and vigorous beat driven dance moves inspired from Hollywood musicals and no one could out dance the seductive Helen during her heyday in the sixties and early seventies.

Helen semi-retired in the early eighties and now she only occasionally appears in Bollywood films or television dramas. She’s almost 70 now so instead of wearing skimpy costumes and seducing her male co-stars, she’s often playing mothers and grandmothers in her more recent films, but she’s still as lovely as ever.

Many of the early Bollywood films featuring Helen are often crime thrillers or secret agent spy dramas clearly inspired by the worldwide success of the James Bond films. If you enjoy these types of films as much as I do, as well as musicals from the same period than I highly recommend giving some of Helen’s early films a look. Many of them are available on DVD from Eros Entertainment and can be bought cheaply at Amazon or you can find them for rent at Netflix.

It’s impossible to write about Helen’s films without sharing some clips from a few of my favorite Bollywood films featuring knockout performances from Helen. Youtube is overflowing with Bollywood clips and it can be hard to navigate through them to find the good stuff, especially when popular early Bollywood films are often remade countless times. Here are a selection of six great clips from ’60s and ’70s era Bollywood films that are all well worth viewing. Each of these films contain great musical numbers featuring the talented and beautiful Helen, but they’re also terrific films on their own.

Gumnaam (1965)

Jewel Thief (1967)

Night in London (1967)

Caravan (1971)

Anamika (1973)

Don (1978)

There’s a lot of mixed information about Helen online from various sources, but I’m limiting my own write-up to include information I’ve gathered from the Merchant & Ivory film Helen, Queen of the Nautch Girls, as well as the online sources listed below.

Recommended Links:
- Helen: Bollywood’s first sophisticated seductress
- Helen Portrait at Bollywood501
- Helen at Wikipedia
- Helen, Queen of the Nautch Girls reviewed at Senses of Cinema

I recently got the chance to watch the terrific William Witney film Darktown Strutters (a.k.a. Get Down and Boogie, 1975) and really enjoyed it. Witney started directing action films and westerns in the ’30s and he’s now mostly remembered for the popular television serials he directed. One of the last films he made was the unusual biker and blaxploitation parody Darktown Strutters, which is undoubtedly one of the most surreal musical comedies made during the seventies. I’ve been interested in seeing this movie for years and I’m glad that I finally got around to watching it.

The film centers around a group of lovely ass-kicking women who ride around the Watts area of Los Angeles on their stylish customized motorbikes. When the mother of the gang’s leader Syreena (Trina Parks) goes missing, the girls find themselves running from hapless law enforcement officers, fighting off the KKK and finally taking down a fast food selling Col. Sanders clone called Louisville Cross in order to find her.

Before Syreena’s mom disappeared she was organizing the construction of an abortion clinic with financial help from Louisville Cross. Unbeknownst to anyone, Cross poses as a benefactor to the black community, but he’s really just a closeted racist who has created a bizarre machine that can clone human beings. He’s kidnapping black leaders with the help of the KKK in order to clone them, and he plans on using these clones to do his evil bidding and in turn wreck havoc on the black community.

Director William Witney uses slapstick humor and lots of cartoonish props to tell his strange tale. The film parodies many clichés found in earlier blaxploitation films, but it’s also a smart and super stylish low-budget comedy that takes a serious jab at white capitalists who often carelessly use the black community for their own good. Darktown Strutters deals with many important issues including racism, sexism, police brutality and abortion, while keeping it’s tongue firmly planted in its cheek at all times. The comedy is often surprisingly dark as well as ridiculously silly, and it’s bound to offend and surprise more than a few viewers.

Trina Parks delivers a unforgettable performance as the biker babe gang leader Syreena. The statuesque Parks stands almost 6 feet tall and it’s easy to believe that this Amazonian queen could knock the hot air out of any creep that gets in her way. The rest of the motorcycle riding ladies are also really good, but they don’t get as much screen time as Ms. Parks.

Other stand out performances include Roger E. Mosley (best known as ‘TC’ from the Magnum, P.I. television series) as the leader of a scooter riding gang who falls hard for Syreena and the great character actor Dick Miller shows up as one of the pitiful keystone cops. The film also features the musical act The Dramatics who get to perform their funky hit single “What You See Is What You Get,” while being held as prisoners in Louisville Cross’s dungeon.

One of the best things about Darktown Strutters is the amazing costume designs by Michael Nicola. I’ve seen a lot of great ‘70s style fashion in many terrific blaxploitation films such as the jaw-dropping designs in Cleopatra Jones (1973), but Nicola’s designs for Darktown Struttersare truly stunning and like most things in this unusual movie, they must be seen to be believed.

The movie is officially out-of-print, but you can still find used copies of the video version of Darktown Strutters on Amazon or selling on eBay.

You can see more images from the movie if you visit my Darktown Strutters still gallery at Flickr.

I recently had the opportunity to watch the low-budget British musical Gonks Go Beat (1965). Gonks Go Beat is not a great movie, but it is a fun film with some good musical numbers and it’s directed by one of my favorite British filmmakers, Robert Hartford-Davis.

The paper-thin plot of Gonks Go Beat involves a bumbling alien named Wilco Rogers (Kenneth Connor) who is sent to earth to bring peace between Ballad Isle and Beat Land. Beat Land is home to the groove loving “beats” who have long hair and dress in dark sunglasses and turtleneck sweaters. Ballad Isle is home to the ballad loving “crooners” who wear button down shirts and keep their hair short.

To bring peace between them, Wilco Rogers relies on Shakespeare’s story of star-crossed lovers for inspiration. He brings a boy from Beat Land and a girl from Ballad Isle together in a Romeo & Juliet style romance, but Gonks Go Beat has a much happier ending than Shakespeare’s tragic play.

The best thing about Go Gonks Go Beat is the musical sequences and thankfully the movie has a lot of them. The film features some good British artists from the early sixties and highlights include the terrific opening number by The Graham Bond Organisation, a spectacular drum jam lead by the great Ginger Baker, The Trolls leading a beat driven “battle hymn” while driving a bunch of fabulous vintage cars and Lulu singing a romantic tune in the battle of the bands finale.

This extremely low-budget movie has some interesting set designs that seem like they’re borrowed from Gilligan’s Island and H. R. Pufnstuf. It also features lots of cute “Gonks”. I hadn’t heard the term Gonk before watching the movie so I did a little web research and was surprised by what I found out.

From the Wikipedia entry on Gonks: “Gonks were first “created” (unofficially) during the First World War when the flow of teddy bears from Germany was halted. Other factories across Europe had to start producing soft toys. Because of the material shortages, the toys had to significantly simplify their designs. The Second World War again brought soft toy production to a standstill - many factories never reopened. To keep the children’s spirits high throughout the two wars, women at home made gonks from stuffing socks with rags and then sewing on button-eyes and material flaps for arms and legs. In the 1960s, gonks became particularly popular, with their new designs and colours. In the UK, they rapidly became the “must-have” playground accessory. Fortunately, their simplicity meant that they could easily be made at home, and thus even the poorest children could boast one. Their popularity reached its peak in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were often given as good luck tokens, or won as prizes at fairgrounds.”

I also came across a website for a band that calls themselves The Gonks who had some great old magazine articles and ads on their site about the Gonk phenomenon. It seems that in the sixties the term “Gonk” became a popular slang term in Britain for a brief tim. If someone called you “Gonk” you were hip and happening. Lots of teenage girls seemed to own a stuffed Gonk and they even wore Gonk inspired fashions. Gonks were available in America too, but I don’t think they were as popular on the states.

Here’s a snippet from a silly old article about what it meant to be Gonk in Britain in the sixties:

For more information about Gonks Go Beat and all the new Optimum’s Beat Classic (PAL Region-2) DVDs that have recently been released in the U.K. check out Cinedelica. Optmum’s Beat Classic DVD collection is a great source of mod British musicals and I hope all the films get an offical NTSC DVD release in the U.S. soon. You can enjoy a clip of The Graham Bond Organisation performing one of my favorite songs from Gonks Go Beat below:

Russ Meyer’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) as well as a very nice Special Edition of Mark Robson’s original Valley of the Dolls (1967) both found their way on to DVD today.

In conjunction with the DVD release Retro Crush just published some great interviews with three of the Beyond the Valley of the Dolls stars (Cynthia Myers, John Lazar and Erica Gavin) which are must reads for fans of the film. Members of the cast will also be doing a promotional tour to celebrate the DVD release for the next few weeks and you can find information about the BVD Road Tour dates, locations & times, etc. on Erica Gavin’s Offical Website.

This is the first time Beyond the Valley of the Dolls has been made available on DVD in the US and 20th Century Fox really did a great job on the release! It’s nice to see one of Meyer’s best and most innovative films get the kind of DVD treatment that’s often reserved for more critically acclaimed movies. The new DVD looks and sounds terrific, plus it also comes with loads of great extras such as numerous “making of” documentaries, actor screen tests, six photo galleries and commentary by many of the actors involved with the production as well as additional commentary by screenwriter Roger Ebert.

Film critic Roger Ebert co-wrote three of Russ Meyer’s best films including Up!, Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Beyond is probably his most well known, as well as his most entertaining attempt at scriptwriting.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a sequel in name only to Valley of the Dolls, but it’s also sort of a companion film that exploits similar themes and ideas originally seen in Valley of the Dolls. Beyond tells the story of an all-girl rock band that travels to Hollywood with hopes of making it big. The focus of the movie is on the seedy behind the scenes happenings of the music business instead of the movie business, which was the focus of Valley of the Dolls.

If you enjoy campy melodrama combined with great music, snappy dialogue, stylish late sixties-early seventies fashions and colorful set designs as much as I do, you should grab yourself copies of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and Valley of the Dolls soon!

In the meantime you can enjoy this great “Sweet Talking Candyman” musical clip from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls: