Patty Duke in "Billie" (1965)

I've never seen it, but nothing could top Jodie Foster's baby dyke turn in Freaky Friday. Total authenticity, 14 yr old Jodie had just hit puberty and had probably realized she was gay while filming the movie.

The soundtrack is hoot- "Lonely Little In Between" is the theme for all confused little dykes and homos.

I feel just like a toy, my head is in a whirl. I should have been a boy but here I am a girl. What good is growing up when this is all it means? I'm an in-between, a lonely little in-between.

I don't have fun on dates, I feel so out of place. The boys don't act the same as when we're in a race. I just can't be myself, at least that's how it seems. I'm an in-between, a lonely in-between.

My father loves me so and I adore him, too. Why can't he understand the heartaches I am going through?

I don't know who to please, why can't I just be me? I'm sitting on a fence, confused as I can be. Sometimes it really hurts just to be fifteen, and an in-between, a lonely little in-between, that's me.

Her older, glamorous girly-girl sister is played by TV Soap Queen Susan Seaforth (pre-Hayes)

Jodie Foster was always playing herself...give it a tug:

I remember seeing it years ago on tv. Had Sheila James been a bigger actress this could've been her swan song.

There was a time when the the play, Time Out for Ginger, was nearly as popular as Mary, Mary, and Arsenic and Old Lace on the regional theater circuit.

I love the dance number at the gym featuring a pre-Broadway Donna McKechnie. Anytime the choreography gets harder than a box step, Duke literally runs off the screen.

I love that Robert Banas is in the back row of the dance sequence , but still steals focus every time he is on screen

vaguely remember this and thinking it was fun and good Patty Duke is an excellent actress Sometimes people with personal problems are incredible artists in one venue or another!

I always confused it with Me Natalie.

Is this the one where music plays in her head when she runs?

Wow, this Billie movie looks like a hoot! I was a huge Duke fan growing up as a devout heterosexual boy in the early 1980s, but I don't remember ever even hearing about this one. Although... musical numbers? Blech. Still, I'll give it a go if I can find it in full. Thanks, OP!

Also: Carny starring Jodie Foster? Never heard of that one, either. Damn, this thread has opened my eyes.

My favorite scene in CARNY is where Meg Foster teaches Jodie how to get suckers to spend money on the various bullshit along a runway by flirting. Jodie tries it out on a lesbian couple. The result ? Surprisingly effective. Why you'd almost think, well, you know.......

r10 yes this is the one with the music in her head when she runs. Me, Natalie is the one where she moves into Manhattan from Brooklyn to find her true self. Watch both especially Me, Natalie

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Love it

I like the boy in blue doing jumping jacks behind her.

I'm surprised lesbians don't embrace this film.

R17 me too

I never miss a Patty Duke musical.

I saw this first-run, but I don't remember much about it. I didn't remember that film noir goddess Jane Greer was in it.

The trailer seems designed to keep people away. "Oh look, a new Jim Backus movie! Let's go tonight!"

Julie from Days of our Lives played Billie sister.

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[quote]Jodie tries it out on a lesbian couple. The result ? Surprisingly effective.

But the Carny guys was enraged at them for being so low...

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" The kind of movie that America has been screaming for !! "

-Hedda Hopper

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I was hoping it was a precursor to Lady Sings the Blues.

It's on Turner Classic Movies on Thursday this week (12/4).

R28 Thus further diminishing the meaning of "classic."

How did you learn to run so fast?

Bill Cosby came at me with drugs.

You have to admit this dance (from Billie) sequence is pretty good

The "Billie" supporting cast was quite a gayfest, with Dick Sargent, Billy DeWolfe, Richard Deacon and Ted Bessell.

r31: Nice close-up of Donna!

no

Yes

I would eat her pussy even on a bloody day.

R36 I don't think you've had to worry about that since about 1995.

Ted Bessell was gay?

Never heard this before not that I wouldn't be pleased as punch if it were true. I always found him pretty hot. He was the only reason I bit the bullet and sat through the terrible Same Time Next Year.

Was this before she went nuts?

yum-eeeeeeeeeee

[quote]" The kind of movie that America has been screaming for !! "

More like the kind of movie that America would be screaming AT!

Warren Berlinger was Milton Berle's nephew. I wonder if he inherited any of the legendary endowment.

Knew Bessell. Very gay friendly, but straight.

sex-oooooooooo

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i love it!

The original play Time Out For Ginger (originally Season With Ginger) was adapted for television before it was musicalized as Billie.

Here's the pilot episode.

It was also done on television's Shower of Stars with Jack Benny as the father.

The easiest way to cover up lame dancing.

If anybody needed an example of 'camp'...

As a lesbian, the one sad part in what's mostly a comedy occurs when Billie sweeps the awards at her first track meet and her dad proudly blurts out: "'My son!"'

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