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Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire is a 1985 musical film starring Alun Armstrong and Phil Daniels. The film was directed by Alan Clarke and written by Trevor Preston.
Daniels stars as Billy the Kid, a young cockney snooker player who challenges the current world champion, the Vampire Maxwell Randall (Armstrong), to a grudge match which will result in the loser quitting the game of snooker for good.
The film follows the buildup to the match as Billy's manager T.O, Bruce Payne, tries to fix the match, leading to the climax where the two players finally meet to settle the matter on the table.
Possibly the only example in the film world of a snooker-based musical, it contains some actually passable songs such as 'I'm the One', 'White Lines, Black Cadillac' and 'Snooker'. Depending on your point of view this is either a brave and bold representation of sub-culture, or an overblown and ill-advised experiment gone wrong.
Phil Daniels has done many and varied thing in the past, mainly on television in recent years. However, this remains a classic part in a film in the manner of Little Shop of Horrors or The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
This film will be released on DVD in the United Kingdom in August 2006.
External links
Fan sites
"Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire"