the original script, entitled "Striptease Girl," was submitted to the British Board of Film Censors in March 1959, the reviewer termed it "machine-made dirt" and "the worst script I have read for some years". The project was then renamed "Beat Girl" and nudity was reduced, but censors still objected to scenes of strip tease, juvenile delinquency, and teenagers playing "chicken" by lying on railway tracks in front of an oncoming train. Ultimately, the film received an "X" certificate, causing its release to be delayed because it was queued behind a glut of other X-rated films. When finally released it performed reasonably well at the box office in UK, despite receiving bad reviews. The movie was filmed at MGM-British Studios at Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, UK, with exteriors filmed in Soho and Chislehurst Caves (located in Kent). After Adam Faith was cast, John Barry was asked to compose the film soundtrack, because he had already been collaborating with Faith as an arranger. Barry was subsequently hired to score Faith's next films, Never Let Go and Mix Me a Person, leading to Barry's successful career as a composer and arranger of film music. In addition to the Beat Girl soundtrack LP reaching number 11 in the album charts, the song "Made You," composed by John Barry and Trevor Peacock and performed in the film by Faith, achieved minor hit status before being banned by the BBC for suggestive lyrics. A sample from the title track is used in The Rockafeller Skank, a 1998 single by Fatboy Slim, for which Barry receives a co-writer credit. Pascaline, the Haitian exotic dancer who appears in a sequence performing with a scarf, had performed in real life as an exotic dancer at the Crazy Horse Saloon in Paris. Some versions of the released film have cut the original striptease sequences (which included topless nudity), some exposition scenes set in the strip club, the "chicken" game scene, and/or some opening exposition scenes with David Farrar and Noëlle Adam on a train and then with Gillian Hills at their London home. Reception The film was bought for distribution by Victoria Films and did "exceptionally well" playing over 1,000 theatres. Further reading Caine, Andrew. Interpreting Rock Movies: The Pop Film and Its Critics in Britain. Manchester Univ. Press, 2004. . Glynn, Stephen. The British Pop Music Film: The Beatles and Beyond. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. . References External links 1960 films 1960s