By Violet LeVoit
Billie
Brief Synopsis
A high school girl's athletic prowess scandalizes a conservative small town.
Cast & Crew
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Don Weis
Director
Patty Duke
Billie Carol
Jim Backus
Howard G. Carol
Jane Greer
Agnes Carol
Warren Berlinger
Mike Benson
Billy De Wolfe
Mayor Davis
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Adaptation
Drama
Musical
Release Date
Jan
1965
Premiere Information
Chicago opening: 1 Sep 1965
Production Company
Chrislaw Productions
Distribution Company
United Artists
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play Time Out for Ginger by Ronald Alexander (New York, 26 Nov 1952).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 27m
Sound
Mono
Color
Color (Technicolor)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
2.35 : 1
Synopsis
Billie Carol, a 16-year-old athlete, consistently out-runs all the boys on her high school track team. Her prowess leads to trouble with her boyfriend, Mike Benson, who is ashamed of always losing to a girl, and with her father, who had been running for mayor on a platform of no competition between the sexes. Her father changes his position to a more liberal one after he and Billie are featured in Life magazine, but his opponent, Mayor Davis, still wages a dirty campaign. Mayor Davis, besides involving Billie, makes use of the fact that her unmarried sister Jean is pregnant. Jean reveals that she has been secretly married for a year before the election, and Mr. Carol wins. Billie becomes more feminine and puts on a dress for the first time to go out on a date with Mike.
Director
Don Weis
Director
Cast
Patty Duke
Billie Carol
Jim Backus
Howard G. Carol
Jane Greer
Agnes Carol
Warren Berlinger
Mike Benson
Billy De Wolfe
Mayor Davis
Charles Lane
Coach Jones
Dick Sargent
Matt Bullitt
Susan Seaforth
Jean Matthews
Ted Bessell
Bob Matthews
Richard Deacon
Principal Wilson
Bobby Diamond
Eddie Davis
Michael Fox
Ray Case
Clive Clerk
Ted Chekas
Harlan Warde
Dr. Hall
Jean Macrae
Nurse Webb
Allan Grant
Himself
Georgia Simmons
Mrs. Hosenwacker
Arline Anderson
Mrs. Clifton
Layte Bowden
Miss Channing
Matty Jordan
Reporter
Shirley J. Shawn
Mrs. Harper
Maria Leonard
Adele Colin
Breena Howard
Mary Jensen
Craig W. Chudy
Starter
Crew
Del Acevedo
Makeup
Ronald Alexander
Screenwriter
Jerry Alpert
Men's Costume
John Clarke Bowman
Production Manager
Norman Cassidy
Gaffer
Dean Cole
Hairstyles
Dale Coleman
Assistant Director
Sam Comer
Set Decoration
Lor Crane
Composer
George Drew
Miss Duke's Wardrobe coordinator
Milton Ebbins
In charge of prod
Adrienne Fazan
Film Editor
Dominic Frontiere
Music
Dominic Frontiere
Composer
Arnold Goland
Arrangements by
Jack Gold
Composer
Jack Gold
Vocals Supervisor by
Paul Hill
Camera Operator
Everett Israelson
Props master
Rafer Johnson
Athletic tech adv
Richard Kuhn
Title Designer
Matty Lake
Prod Secretary
Diane Lampert
Composer
Peter Lawford
Executive Producer
Harry Lindgren
Sound mix
Arthur Lonergan
Art Director
Donna Mckechnie
Choreography & Assistant choreography
Dick Moder
Assistant Director
National Screen Service
Title Designer
H. Bud Otto
Assistant to the prod
James Payne
Set Decoration
Hal Pereira
Art Director
Bernice Ross
Composer
John Ross
Associate Producer
John L. Russell
Director of Photography
Stanley Scheuer
Script Supervisor
Dolores Sheppard
Women's Costume
Neil Travis
Film Editor
Don Weis
Producer
Herb Weltz
Co. grip
David Winters
Choreography
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Adaptation
Drama
Musical
Release Date
Jan
1965
Premiere Information
Chicago opening: 1 Sep 1965
Production Company
Chrislaw Productions
Distribution Company
United Artists
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play Time Out for Ginger by Ronald Alexander (New York, 26 Nov 1952).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 27m
Sound
Mono
Color
Color (Technicolor)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
2.35 : 1
Articles
Billie -
Patty Duke was in love with a much older man, and her manipulative manager/guardians Ethel and John Ross were going to do something about it. To separate the then 17-year-old actress from her 30 year-old lover Harry Falk, they sent her away on location to film a musical about a teenage girl who trumps all the boys on her high school track team by running in time to the hepcat drum solos she hears in her head. "When I want to go faster," she perkily explains, "I speed up the beat and I go!" Based on the original musical Time Out For Ginger, Billie was shot in a breakneck 15 days between seasons of the also-perky The Patty Duke Show. Modern audiences will find Billie entertaining not only for its genderqueer camp (when her father (Jim Backus) scolds "Try to remember you're a girl," Billie longingly laments "I wish I were a boy!") but also for its infectious mod dance routines and great garage rock drum solos by Dominic Frontiere (composer of the eerie The Outer Limits theme). After Patty Duke got back from shooting Billie, she married Falk anyway and did Valley Of The Dolls (1967) to forever outrun her "perky" reputation.
By Violet LeVoit
By Violet LeVoit
Billie -
Patty Duke was in love with a much older man, and her manipulative manager/guardians Ethel and John Ross were going to do something about it. To separate the then 17-year-old actress from her 30 year-old lover Harry Falk, they sent her away on location to film a musical about a teenage girl who trumps all the boys on her high school track team by running in time to the hepcat drum solos she hears in her head. "When I want to go faster," she perkily explains, "I speed up the beat and I go!" Based on the original musical Time Out For Ginger, Billie was shot in a breakneck 15 days between seasons of the also-perky The Patty Duke Show. Modern audiences will find Billie entertaining not only for its genderqueer camp (when her father (Jim Backus) scolds "Try to remember you're a girl," Billie longingly laments "I wish I were a boy!") but also for its infectious mod dance routines and great garage rock drum solos by Dominic Frontiere (composer of the eerie The Outer Limits theme). After Patty Duke got back from shooting Billie, she married Falk anyway and did Valley Of The Dolls (1967) to forever outrun her "perky" reputation.
By Violet LeVoit
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Copyright claimant: Chrislaw-Patty Duke Productions.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1965
Techniscope
Released in United States 1965
