Billie (1965) starring Patty Duke in a musical comedy

Have a drink every time you see Patty run with the aid of a double.

It's one of those situations where you have a juvenile actor with a huge early success (The Miracle Worker) and then... now what? With a traditionally pretty actress like Natalie Wood or Liz Taylor, of course the silver screen. Patty was short and plain but did have a comedic flair, so: sitcom. And back then every young star was pushed into recording (mixed results).

She was miscast in VOTD but shined in roles like "Me, Natalie" and "My Sweet Charlie".

Patty was short and plain but did have a comedic flair, so: Valley of the Dolls.

that blonde dye job does her no favors.

She's lonely inbetween.

From this to Neely O'Hara in just two short years. A shocking transformation, people thought at the time.

this came and went fast back in 1965

Looks like Patty has a dance double too. Who dances with Billie's dog.

Patty exits and her dance double returns.

And Tony winner Donna McKechnie as featured dancer in the red and white striped top!!!

Patty was always very pretty, not “plain.”

I saw it at this drive-in.

Oh no she's going to sing again.

This is my favorite song in the movie.

the source

^ Polly Rowles = Vera Charles the First

I remember sitting through a trailer for this movie when it was shown before the Beatles' movie "Help!" began. I liked Patty Duke - her sitcom was my favorite TV show (at least until "Gidget" premiered that fall of 1965), but I had zero interest in seeing this movie. I did finally see it on TV many years later.

Jane Greer plays the Polly Rowles part in the film. As I am watching the film now she hasn't been called upon to do anything special yet. The only thing I have noticed is that she is a good match to play the mother of Susan Seaforth who plays Patty's older sister.

r18, Jane would later get a more substantial role as Dorrie Larkin on Quincy, M.E.

I watch this movie every time it comes on for two reasons. 1. Bobby Banas dancing (he's in the locker room scene linked above) and 2. to hear Jim Backus call Patty Duke "SON". So cringe, even then.

I also like Warren Berlinger, though I've never figured out why that is.

Well, r20, I guess he was...amiable.

Those guys are in their twenties.

Smell Stockard Channing at r22.

I actually like watching this when it comes on TV occasionally, and think that the musical teens dance number is kind of cute for a mid-sixties film.

I wonder what additional stage or film projects Patty would’ve been able to appear in, had she not contracted to do the “Patty Duke Show” and had to deal with those animal married-couple managers who controlled her life and career at the time.

The original play was only a very mild success, but it spawned a TV production and a later series pilot. The 1955 version starred Jack Benny, Edward Everett Horton, Gary Crosby. Mary Wickes, Larry Keating, John Hoyt, and Ronnie Burns. The 1962 version had Margaret Hamilton as the only name. For some inexplicable reason the material was rolled out again in the 1965 semi-musical version with Patty Duke. Not much really changes with each subsequent production, other than more of the audience siding with the daughter against her father.

Clive Clerk was also a dancer in it. They filed the school sequences at Uni high in WLA and my mom saw them shooting. She said she was shocked at how small Patty was, but she seemed happy doing the movie.

Maybe I am projecting but there seems to be some homoerotic tension in the locker room dance number in R14. The idea that they are hot for Bilie seems a reach considering she has as much sex appeal as a tree stump. The fact that she is the daughter of Jim Backus makes her look like Mr. Magoo. Some genetics.

...hot for Billie...

Also the idea that she runs when she hears the beat makes her sound mentally unstable.

Patty on Shindig, singing along to her backing track. Can't believe she gets wolf whistles.

[quote]Have a drink every time you see Patty run with the aid of a double.

Martini, R1?

to hear Jim Backus call Patty Duke "SON". So cringe, even then.

Patty's reaction to that is funny.

Good Lord R13, what did DL ever do to you that you would foist that execrable song on us? I guess my account is set to Asbestos Eyeballs. I think they were going for the Tammy vibe that Debbie Reynolds carried off so well. (Ha! Debbie! Carrie!)

[quote]—"Tammy" is a lovely song.

And Debbie has a lovely voice...but she doesn't have a *sound*.

R20 Warren Berlinger is Milton Berle'e nephew so you know he had a BIG one.

R32 - I have to laugh at how many takes were needed to get the dog to behave they wanted.

Re: R29 Wow. Could they have turned the reverb up any higher on Patty's singing??

Patty's a Phyllis.

For Days of Our Lives fans, Susan Seaforth Hayes plays Patty's older sister.

Her wig and Hayley’s in Parent Trap were awful twins.

Susan Seaforth is trying to hide the fact that she is married to Ted Bessell so she dates Dick Sargent. All three do incredibly awkward 1960s dance moves in a club.

It looks like some of the shots of Patty running track are done with her on a treadmill in front of rear projected background of the field. She overacts running!

What 1955 movie what TV show?? I find nothing.

Warren Berlinger = nepo.

Look under the title of the play, R42: Time Out For Ginger.

Patty talks about doing Shindig on her TV Academy interview. 13.07.

The Patty Duke CD is fun.....especially the last track which is made up of out takes....doesn't seem to be on YouTube.

One take - the music starts and she "sings" the first word and the producer says "Cut."

Patty says: "Good up till there."

Patty had no illusions about her singing ability. She just went along with things.

Jane Greer must have eaten some carbs since Where Love Has Gone, her previous film.

R47 so true......but a couple of times she did a nice job......especially when she wasn't acting/singing.

Bobby Banas was rather unfortunate looking.

I bet Billie can't tap dance for shit!

Jane in Billie.

Jane in Where Love Has Gone.

Patty writes about it in her In the Presence of Greatness book. She remembers Donna McKechnie as the dance captain but is pretty sure Donna was not her dance double because she was so much taller than Patty.

[quote]is pretty sure Donna was not her dance double because she was so much taller than Patty.

That and McKechnie's on the screen at the same time as the dance double.

And yes Patty writes she wore a wig.

Patty's awful wigs in TPDS were in a class by themselves. Occasionally she had a long ponytail extension tacked onto one of them.

But her bushy eyebrows were the worst. I could never understand why they weren't shaped. She would have looked 100 percent better.

[quote]r57= Occasionally she had a long ponytail extension tacked onto one of them.

Prove it. That makes no sense. Cathy would have had to have one too. My memory is Patty=flip and Cathy=page boy.

R58, get over yourself.

Does Patty sing I Enjoy Being a Girl in this movie?

Some of the dance moves in this movie remind me of how the Peanuts characters dance in A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Cafe review.

Where's the ponytail, r59? All I saw was Patty=flip and Cathy=pageboy.

I can't help it if you're incapable of watching a video, R63. Because you obviously didn't watch it.

Patty was not pretty as a teenager--she was quite plain faced. She did grow up to be a comely adult when she hit middle age, however.

Here's another one. I told you she wore ponytails sometimes.

Loooooved this movie on tv as a kid! I had no clue it was actually released in theaters.

I zipped through it, r64, what's the timestamp?

23 something. Look for a horse.

Thank you, r69, you're right.

Hahah I thought you meant the horse had a ponytail.

The actor who played her boyfriend was in his 30s.

He was 11 years older than she was, r72.

Shame on Martin and Natalie.

I have to laugh when Jane Greer announces she is pregnant at the end. The idea of her and Susan Seaforth as her daughter both being pregnant at the time seems bad timing.

There's a book about the movie called maybe Billie The Beat Goes On.....but I can't find a listing for it. Its a quick read and has some fun stories in it.

The UCLA guy who doubled for Patty Duke had to wear the same wig and shave his legs for the pole vaulting scene and almost left school because of the humilation.....LOL......

Here's a blog.

Thanks R76. That was fun!

This movie is on Amazon Prime (free to watch if you're a member) but the quality is terrible.

Patty Duke only got to play identical cousins, but Catherine O'Hara got to play identical cheese hostesses.

I was in Time Out for Ginger in high school. WAAAAAY past its prime.

That play was past its prime when it premiered on Broadway, R80.

For those who have never seen/read it -Good for you!

R80 did you play ginger?

It was the year to play singing tomboys.

R80 here - didn't play Ginger. I wasn't butch enough. I played Ed Hoffman, Mr. Carol's boss. I was 14. Mr. Hoffman was supposed to be in his late 50s. Thank god I couldn't see the eyes rolling past the footlights.

I don't understand the fervor in the mid-60s to make Patty a singing sensation. She had a rather bland voice with little range:

"Her last album release for United Artists Records, "Patty Duke Sings Songs From Valley of the Dolls and Other Selections" failed to rack up robust sales, and the LP would go out of print after just one year. Gene Kelly, writing the liner notes, extolled, "Of course, Patty is an exciting singer, but precisely because her voice is excited and emotional and full of action."

Like many teen stars of the era, and bolstered somewhat by her appearance in the musical Billie, Duke had a successful singing career, including two top-40 hits in 1965, "Don't Just Stand There" (number eight) and "Say Something Funny" (number 22).

What? What? What? What?

It was the 1960s, R85. They tried to make EVERYONE into a singing star. Just go back and listen to the albums by Sally Field, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Richard Harris, Angela Cartwright, Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Jodie Foster...

L&S

Say something funny, Patty.

It sounds like she recorded the vocals on the two songs twice and they got put together.

"Cut."

"Good up to there."

Here's the completed track.