Saturday, September 17, 2011

City 2000!

Finally took a tip from McNeil and watched BEAT GIRL. I bet you didn't know that beat girl's dad has a large box in the middle of the living room, and inside the box is an entire miniature city he has designed and built. "Real Superman stuff," says beat girl disdainfully. Beat girl's dad calls it "City 2000"! Says beat girl to her new young French stepmother: "Don't kid yourself he's in love with you. He's in love with City 2000." Indeed, beat girl's dad stands over City 2000 with a glazed look in his eyes, brooding and drinking a dark cocktail. Beat girl's young French stepmom looks like a science fiction creation herself, with an astonishing white helmet of hair and shocking black eyebrows and a futuristic raincoat. And maybe white lipstick. Lots of other stuff happens. Like beat girl and all her friends go out and put their heads on a railroad track because they're so bored with life. And Christopher Lee spies on beat girl through a two-way mirror! "Drinking's for squares," we find out. One of beat girl's friends is shamed by the gang because he is secretly drinking gin out of a cough syrup bottle. "Have a dry martini, general?" his Eddie Cochran-like friend mocks. Featuring Oliver Reed as "plaid shirt." That's his character's name in the closing credits!