This film is currently unavailable
Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire
Alan Clarke’s once derided feature is surely the only vampire snooker musical in cinema history and a genuine cult artefact ripe for rediscovery.
Director: Alan Clarke
Overview
Once regarded as something of an oddity, if not a misstep, in the career of Alan Clarke, Billy the Kid is undoubtedly the only vampire snooker musical in cinema history and a genuine cult artefact destined for rediscovery.
One of the legendary television director’s few forays into features, Clarke collaborated with screenwriter Trevor Preston for the story of a duel between backstreet snooker player Billy Kid (Phil Daniels) and world champion Maxwell Randall (Alun Armstrong). The film was made at the height of snooker’s improbably success on British television, and Preston was inspired to write the tale from watching a showdown between young pretender Jimmy White and veteran Ray Reardon (nicknamed ‘Dracula). Clarke’s contrasting of ostentatious musical numbers with claustrophobic and sterile locations betray his longstanding interest in the work of Bertholt Brecht, and composer George Fenton (a recent Oscar-winner for Gandhi at the time) supplies the wonderful score with its eccentric songs and diverse switches of style. One of the strangest films to emerge from 1980s Britain (in a decade that offered a fair few contenders); Billy the Kid is a delightful slice of eccentricity from one of the UK’s most uncompromising filmmakers.
Related
Oh... Rosalinda!! Oh... Rosalinda!!
Musical 1956 99 mins Director: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Like the gloriously camp, all-singing, all-dancing cousin of The Third Man, the Archers’ take on Strauss’s operetta of infidelity is as frothy as the champagne it celebrates.
Singin' in the Rain Singin' in the Rain
Comedy 1951 103 mins Director: Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
Hollywood’s troubled transition from silent to talking pictures at the end of the 1920s provided the inspiration for this greatest of movie musicals.
Babymother Babymother
Musical 1998 77 mins Director: Julian Henriques
Neeta and her crew rise to dancehall fame in North West London's Caribbean community, in the first Black British musical.
The Boy Friend The Boy Friend
Musical 1972 136 mins Director: Ken Russell
A timid actress is forced to cover for the injured star and falls for the leading man, in Ken Russell's thoroughly British variant on the MGM musical.
Lisztomania Lisztomania
Biopic 1976 103 mins Director: Ken Russell
Ken Russell's characteristically spectacular biopic of Liszt, with Roger Daltrey portraying the composer as a rock god, is a heady brew complete with garish Freudian symbolism, Hitler, spaceships and Ringo Starr as the Pope.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Musical 2001 92 mins Director: John Cameron Mitchell
The trailblazing cult musical about a transgender punk from East Germany who reinvents herself as a rock diva.
Achilles' Heel Achilles' Heel
Sport 1973 56 mins Director: Alan Clarke
Alan Clarke’s film of a day in the life of a professional footballer as he deals with the newfound pressures of money, glamour and celebrity in the 1970s game.
The Gold Robbers: The Arrangement The Gold Robbers: The Arrangement
Crime 1969 53 mins Director: Alan Clarke
Alan Clarke directs this episode of a 13-part serial inspired by The Great Train Robbery of 1963, starring Peter Vaughan as the dogged detective on the case.
Chicken Run Chicken Run
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2000 84 mins Director: Peter Lord and Nick Park
Mel Gibson’s Rocky the rooster helps the chickens escape from fascistic farmers in Aardman Animations first foray into feature films.
Meantime Meantime
Drama 1983 107 mins Director: Mike Leigh
Tim Roth, Phil Daniels and Gary Oldman star in Mike Leigh’s TV film about an East End family try to stay afloat during a recession.
Anoop and the Elephant Anoop and the Elephant
Children's 1972 52 mins Director: David Eady
Fun-packed comedy for kids, in which a boy befriends a baby elephant – then teams up with his friends to stop it being sold
Possum Possum
Horror 2018 85 mins Director: Matthew Holness
"Can you spy him deep within? Little Possum. Black as sin." The reliably deranged Sean Harris is plagued by an evil puppet in this dark, brooding fable from Matthew Holness.
Rita, Sue and Bob Too Rita, Sue and Bob Too
Drama 1987 93 mins Director: Alan Clarke
A married man seduces two teenage babysitters in Alan Clarke’s mix of bawdy comedy and social comment, based on Andrea Dunbar’s Bradford plays.
Made in Britain Made in Britain
Drama 1982 76 mins Director: Alan Clarke
Tim Roth burst onto British screens with his coruscating performance as a teenage skinhead in this TV play from Alan Clarke and David Leland.
Out of Darkness Out of Darkness
Horror 2024 87 mins Director: Andrew Cumming
Bringing a whole new meaning to the term ‘period film’, Andrew Cumming’s Palaeolithic horror movie is a true original.
The Peasants The Peasants
Drama 2023 115 mins Director: Hugh Welchman and Dorota Kobiela
Using an advanced oil painting animation technique, The Peasants is a visually thrilling rendering of Władysław Reymont’s Nobel Prize-winning tale.
The Iron Claw The Iron Claw
Biopic 2023 132 mins Director: Sean Durkin
Compelling sports drama about the real-life Von Erich brothers and their tragic journey to the top of professional 1980s wrestling.
Samsara Samsara
Drama 2023 114 mins Director: Lois Patiño
Berlin Film Festival award winner Lois Patiño’s assured third feature transports us to magical places in Laos and Zanzibar, where the visible and the invisible merge.
Gassed Up Gassed Up
Drama 2023 102 mins Director: George Amponsah
A group of London teenage boys turn to motorbike crime for survival in George Amponsah’s high-octane follow-up to The Hard Stop.
Occupied City Occupied City
Documentary 2023 251 mins Director: Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen’s cinematic commemoration of the Holocaust offers a multidimensional experience full of gravity and sublimity.