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Based on a decade old play Time Out For Ginger which was a one set comedy in the living room of the house of the protagonist Carol family, Billie was considerably expanded with many new characters introduced and the story takes us all over the small town where Jim Backus is trying to unseat Billy DeWolfe as mayor.

Expanded I say, but hardly updated. You would absolutely never know there was a counterculture revolution of the Sixties going on in seeing this film. It could have been and maybe should have been made in the Fifties.

Patty Duke plays the title role and the film property is produced by John Ross who was her legal guardian and career Svengali at that point. He was taking Patty's American character from the Patty Duke Show on television and making her a track star as well.

A little bit of Annie Get Your Gun is also tossed into the mix as Duke who damages a lot of the male egos on the track team has some problems landing the boy of her dreams. Warren Berlinger initially gets some pointers from Duke and she helps him make the team. But later the male dominant ego gets the better of him.

Berlinger is way too old for his part and looks it. He was 28 when he was doing Billie. Robert Diamond late of Fury was also having trouble transitioning to teen roles. He was 22 and also looks it. Diamond plays another track team member and Billy DeWolfe's son. Patty was 18 doing this, but her small build makes her look younger.

There's a subplot involving Patty's older sister Susan Seaforth who is married to Ted Bessell, but hasn't broken the news to Backus and mother Jane Greer. Why escapes me, but Backus tries to fix her up with his campaign manager Dick Sargent, this being while Seaforth is a little bit married and a little bit pregnant.

Billie's secret of her success on the track field is that she has the 'beat'. A certain innate natural rhythm that star athletes have, we all have whether we know it or not. Find your beat and ratchet it up and you too can be a star. Bearing that in mind there is a whole lot dancing in Billie and the choreography was nicely done.

Billie is a nice film that was way out of step with the times when it was released.

Silly bit of fluff about a teenage tomboy named Billie (Patty Duke) who can run super fast due to music in her head she calls "the beat." She can run faster than all the boys, which causes the expected problems. This is an old but fun gender equality story. It's sincere in what it's trying to do even though it's pretty dated in how it's trying to do it. Patty Duke is fun and looks cute in track shorts. 28 year-old Warren Berlinger is her friend (and potential boyfriend). He's a poor fit to play a high schooler. He even has a bald spot! Jim Backus plays the dad and Jane Greer is the mom. Backus' character is one of the more interesting in the film, seeing as how he is a politician running on a traditionalist conservative platform yet his personal views are somewhat in conflict with this. He's a hypocrite, in other words. Other familiar faces like Dick Sargent, Charles Lane, and Richard Deacon also appear. It's likable stuff but not for everybody. The scenes of Patty Duke running with that big grin on her face and the '60s music playing is pretty cheesy stuff. Patty sings some corny songs, as well. The subplot about the older sister is positively stupid. You're not going to enjoy this movie much unless you are able to not take it that seriously.

I remember my parents taking me to see BILLIE at the local drive-in when I was a kid. Patty Duke, pre-Valley of the Dolls, played this tomboyish teenage girl who could outrun all the boys in her school thanks to something in her head that she called "the beat", but boys don't like to go out with girls who run faster than they do, so Billie is pretty much alone until she compromises her feminist ideals, sings a corny song about becoming a woman, and purposely loses a race so that she can have the boy of her dreams, who I believe was played by Warren Berlinger. I think Jim Backus played her father, who was running for Mayor on a "Women belong in the home" platform while his daughter was out running track with the boys. This movie was kind of corny, but Patty played the role energetically and I liked her blonde, Mia Farrow haircut.

Scrappy theatrical comedy filmed on a television budget, with Patty Duke putting the high school jocks to shame with her athletic abilities (seems sneaky Pat has been running track to a secret "beat" in her head!). Nothing memorable, but worth-watching for the always-good Jim Backus as Patty's politician father--who can't seem to decide where he stands on women's issues--and Patty herself is also very lively. Her short platinum 'do is a bit odd (and occasionally looks like a wig or a blonde mop-head), but she seems happier here than on her self-named TV series and does very well with her two song numbers (her voice is shaky and without focus, but extremely bright and appealing). **1/2 from ****

As an avid Patty Duke fan I have no idea what her agent had in mind when they made this film! Maye it was to be a vehical for her singing career? Patty does warble out a ew tunes in this musical? based on the Broadway show "Time Out For Ginger?" Somehow with bleached blonde hair and skimpy short shorts Patty tries to pull it off! It does not work! Next came "Valley Of The Dolls" and then the MUCH BETTER "ME Natalie"! What were people thinking off back then? She was such a talent that seemed misguided!