Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire (1987)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Alan Clarke

Writer:

Trevor Preston (writer)

Release Date:

25 November 1989 (Japan)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror | Musical

Plot:

Cocky cockney snooker player Billy Kid accepts the challenge of a grudge match from Maxwell Randall (the Green Baize Vampire)...

Plot Keywords:

Vampire | Pool Shark | Billy The Kid | Spoof | Surrealism

Cast

Phil Daniels	...	Billy the Kid
Alun Armstrong	...	Maxwell Randall
Bruce Payne	...	T.O. (The One)
Louise Gold	...	Miss Sullivan
Eve Ferret	...	Mrs Randall
Richard Ridings	...	Egyptian
Don Henderson	...	The Wednesday Man
Zoot Money	...	Supersonic Sam (as G.B. Zoot Money)
Neil McCaul	...	Big Jack Jay
Johnny Dennis	...	Referee
David Foxxe	...	The Spooke
Danny Webb	...	TV Director (as Daniel Webb)
Trevor Laird	...	Floyd
Paul Cooke
Ben Cole

Also Known As:

Billy and the Vampire (Australia) (TV title)

Runtime:

121 min (special edition)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:PG | UK:18

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company:

Incorporated Television Company (ITC)

Quotes:

Supersonic Sam: [singing] Supersonic Sam's cosmic cafe. The inter-phase, luxury. Welcome tatooed humanoid to our East-end asteroid. We gather that you're unemployed.
The Spooke: Well, who the sod ain't these days.

A strange film that didn't go far enough with the absurd.

A strange little film that never made it at all. It deserved, perhaps, to develop something of a cult following, but this hasn't happened and the film will now, perhaps, slowly vanish from view forever.

Based on a strange and sometimes bewildering snooker match, this musical was never going to make it in the US. Why not? Well, they don't play much snooker in the States for a start but more to the point the film's two main characters are based on Ray Reardon and Jimmie White. These names are very familiar in the UK thanks to extensive snooker coverage on the television, but totally unknown in the USA.

I don't think Clarke was ever really at home directing this movie. It just isn't really his thing - a musical about snooker. He attempted to work in many more optical special effects but most of these were taken out in the final cut - a pity as some were so tongue in cheek that they might just have given the film a better chance of gaining a cult following. Clarke seemed, in the end, to err on the side of caution which is, perhaps, the failing of this film.