Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire

Infobox Film
name = Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire

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caption = DVD cover
director = Alan Clarke
producer = Simon Mallin
writer = Trevor Preston
starring = Phil Daniels
Bruce Payne
Alun Armstrong
Don Henderson
Louise Gold
music = George Fenton
cinematography = Clive Tickner
editing = Stephen Singleton
distributor = Network
released = 1985
runtime = 95 minutes
country = UK
language = English
budget =
imdb_id = 0088807

"Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire" is a 1985 musical film starring Phil Daniels and Alun Armstrong. The film was directed by Alan Clarke and written by Trevor Preston.

Plot

"Billy the Kid" is a young, up-and-coming snooker player. His manager, "T.O." (The One), a compulsive gambler, falls into debt with psychopathic loanshark the "Wednesday Man", who offers to cancel T.O's debt if he can arrange a 17-frame grudge snooker match between Billy, and the reigning world champion "Maxwell Randall" (popularly known as the "Green Baize Vampire").

To ensure that both players will agree to the match, T.O hires a journalist, "Miss Sullivan", to stir up trouble between them. She interviews Billy and the Vampire separately, asks them leading questions intended to illicit angry responses and provoke enmity, then prints the results. The match is set.

Unknown to T.O., the Wednesday Man has hidden motives regarding the match. The sinister loanshark has engineered a clause in the game's legal documentation to the effect that the loser will agree to never play professional snooker again. Though the Vampire is close to retirement, Billy is young, and such a clause - if he loses - would greatly disadvantage him. T.O. only agrees when the Wednesday Man suggests that the Vampire will "not be at his best"; a clear insinuation that he will be bribed, or threatened. It is only later that T.O. discovers that this is a lie, and that the Wednesday Man is plotting with the Vampire, hates both him and Billy, and wishes to see them suffer.

The match goes very badly for Billy, but when T.O. finally confesses, during a break, of his underhand dealings with the Wednesday Man (and the Vampire himself) he manages to pull himself together and eventually win the match.

Cast

*Phil Daniels - Billy the Kid (snooker player)
*Bruce Payne - T.O. ('The One', Billy's manager)
*Richard Ridings - Egypt (Billy's minder)
*Alun Armstrong - Maxwell Randall (the Vampire)
*Don Henderson - The Wednesday Man (loanshark)
*Louise Gold - Miss Sullivan (reporter)
*Zoot Money - Supersonic Sam (cafe owner)
*Eve Ferret - Mrs Randall (the Vampire's wife)
*Neil McCaul - Big Jack Jay (Snooker compere)
*Johnny Dennis - Referee

ongs

* "Green Stamps" – sung by Billy
* "Poker Song" – T.O.
* "Supersonic Sam's Cosmic Cafe" – Billy and the Cafe denizens
* "I Bite Back" – the Vampire
* "I'm the One" – T.O.
* "BtKatGBV (Practice Practice Practice)" – Miss Sullivan
* "Snooker (So Much More Than Just a Game)" – Big Jack Jay
* "Kid to Break" – Billy and the cast
* "Quack Quack" – the match crowd
* "It's the Fame Game" – Billy and the cast
* "White Lines Black Cadillac" – T.O.

References

External links

* [http://www.qsulis.demon.co.uk/Website_Louise_Gold/Billy_The_Kid_And_The_Green_Baize_Vampire_Review.htm Louise Gold fansite review]
* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/471094/index.html ScreenOnline review]
* [http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/reviews.php?film_id=11618 Eye for Film review]