Hard Day’s Night, A (1964)

The Beatles first feature film was a surprisingly sensational comedy, which revolved around a fictional 36 hours in their hectic schedule during a trip to London.

The mop tops demonstrated that they could excel at clowning (like reincarnated Marx Brothers) as well as singing, and the madcap affair came off with enormous energy and good humour.

The Fab Four rush from hotel rooms to trains to studios in a “day in the life” non-plot as their handlers keep them on an intensely busy schedule of recording sessions and concert appearances.

In between appointments and mad dashes, the four band members cook up new songs and have the occasional bit of fun in 89 minutes of larking about, but they must always be careful to dodge their many overeager fans so they don’t cause mass hysteria.

Paul’s grandfather, a cantankerous old codger (albeit a “very clean old man”) played by old man Steptoe Wilfrid Brambell, is also on hand to make mischief.

He convinces Ringo that he should go off “parading” and thus throws a spanner into the lads’ schedule.

After much mischief on the streets of London, Ringo is finally reunited with the group in time for a big concert being recorded for a television broadcast by an uptight director (Victor Spinetti), who is driven to distraction by the non-conformist nature of The Beatles.

Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr come across as likeable, slightly rebellious, intelligent young men, who, in the tradition of realistic northern England dramas, are down-to-earth, unpretentious, and prone to seeing through the falseness of others (“I fought the war for the likes of you,” says a bowler-hatted old-timer to Starr, who replies, “I bet you’re sorry you won”).

There were obviously also plenty of favourite Beatles songs, including And I Love Her, Can’t Buy Me Love,  I Should Have Known Better,  I’ll Cry Instead,  I’m Happy Just To Dance With You, If I Fell, Tell Me Why, Any Time At All, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, She Loves You and the title track.

Shot in 16 weeks on a budget of £200,000, A Hard Day’s Night was an instant hit, making millions of dollars around the world and inspiring scores of similarly styled films by other bands like The Dave Clark Five with Catch Us If You Can (1965) and Herman’s Hermits with Mrs Brown, You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter (1968).

The Beatles chose British-based American Richard Lester to direct their movie debut because they thought his The Running Jumping and Standing Still Film (1960) was brilliant. Scouse/Welsh playwright Alun Owen worked with them on the script (for a flat fee of £1,200).

“We’re not going to have a story that ends up at the Palladium,” Owen said, “with the vicar smiling and giving the thumbs up from the stalls”.

A United Artists executive in the US asked Dick Lester to re-dub the film from Scouse to Mid-Atlantic for American audiences, to which Paul McCartney retorted, “Look! If we can understand a fucking cowboy talking Texan, they can understand us talking Liverpool!”

TRIVIA
The film was nominated for two Oscars – Best Screenplay and Best Adapted Score – but not Best Original Song. That went to Chim Chim Cher-ee from Mary Poppins.

The Beatles
Themselves
Paul’s Grandfather
Wilfrid Brambell
Norm
Norman Rossington
Shake 
John Junkin
TV Director 
Victor Spinetti
Millie 
Anna Quayle
Police Inspector 
Deryck Guyler
TV Floor Manager 
Robin Ray
TV Choreographer
Lionel Blair

Director
Richard Lester