Imagine: John Lennon

Imagine: John Lennon
October 7, 1988
Warner Bros.
Documentary, Musical
VHS
B

This biography, released close to what would've been Lennon's 48th birthday, and less than eight years after his murder, is not perfect.  It doesn't represent all of the important pieces of Lennon's life.  (There's no mention, for instance, of his dear friend Stu Sutcliffe.)  And while it's nice to get interviews with both of John's wives and both his sons, I wish that there had been contemporary interviews with his ex-bandmates.  (I mean, Ringo got along with everyone.  You'd think he at least would be here.)  That said, the movie does work as sort of a mosaic of sights and sounds of John Lennon's life.  You'll get more information from the various books on John Lennon (I reviewed a few on my reading blog), but you won't get the impact of his unique voice, by which I mean not just how he sang but what he had to say.

Beatles assistant/friend Mal Evans had small roles in A Hard Day's Night and Help!  Klaus Voormann was last seen in my movie collection as Von Schitzel in Popeye.  And Dick Cavett appeared in Annie Hall.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

I Wanna Hold Your Hand
April 21, 1978
Universal
Comedy, Musical, Historical
VHS
B-

This is an uneven but likable look at Beatlemania, covering roughly 24 hours, including the Fab Four's first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.  Except for some vintage footage and their songs on the soundtrack, we never actually see or hear the Beatles, but just catch glimpses of them.  The movie is from the perspective of eight teens (four girls and four guys), who have various misadventures in New York as they attempt to see the live performance.

My favorite moments are with 19-year-old Wendie Jo Sperber (later of Bosom Buddies), as the biggest fan out of the group from Jersey.  She meets her match in 21-year-old Eddie Deezen, who was sort of the go-to nerd in comedy movie casting for about a decade and would shortly appear in Grease.  (He seems to be quite the Beatles fan in real life, judging from his website:  http://www.eddiedeezen.com/beatles/.)  The two of them have an insane, adorkable energy separately but especially together.  The other plots and subplots vary in quality, but it's surprising that this was such a flop for Robert Zemeckis.  It's a cute little movie, which has ironically aged better than many of its contemporaries.  (And, yes, I feel that the changes between '64 and '78 warrant the "historical" tag.)

Dick Miller plays a policeman, as he did in Beach Ball.  Nick Pellegrino, "Lou the Guard," was one of The Big Bus's passengers.  Marc McClure, who plays Larry, was Annabel's crush Boris in Freaky Friday.  Bartender Bob Maroff was in Annie Hall.

Ironically, Jeffrey Weissman, who's a Ringo fan here, would be a "brainwashed youth" in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  Gene LeBell, who's "Theater Core RTTST" (whatever that means), would be the referee in Americathon.  Leslie Hoffman would be in The Nude Bomb.  Poppy Lagos, who's a reporter here, would be "Sister" in Going Ape!, while Luke Andreas, who's the bribable police officer in the alley, would be "Carter" in that movie.  Will Jordan was an Ed Sullivan impersonator for four decades, and he wouldn't look much different in Down with Love a quarter century after this movie.

Sperber, Deezen, and Paul Newman's daughter

Yellow Submarine

Yellow Submarine
November 13, 1968
Apple Films
Musical, Fantasy
DVD
B

It's fair to say I grew up with this movie, which is just a few months younger than I am.  Not only was it on TV pretty often, but its influence was felt all over early '70s American children's television, from the Children's Television Workshop to the Krofft brothers to Hanna-Barbera and beyond.  (Not to mention my favorite Huey Lewis video, for "Heart & Soul.")  That TV version of the film (and apparently any copy outside the British premiere) was missing my favorite song of the soundtrack, "Hey, Bulldog," although I finally got to see it when the movie was rereleased to theaters in the late '90s (and of course is on the DVD).  It's obviously hard for me to be any more objective about this movie than about The Wizard of Oz, although I do think, one, it's not a children's movie per se (and not just because it's what they would've called a "head movie" in the '60s), and, two, it's got flaws that I saw even as a teenager.

To begin with, the writing could be sharper.  Yes, there are some funny lines, mostly by or about Ringo.  But the script is as meandering as the sub's journey.  You think that it's over and that good has triumphed, but, no, not quite yet.  Also, the voice characterisation isn't particularly strong.  If the Beatles didn't keep addressing each other by first name, you wouldn't be able to tell who's speaking if he's not onscreen.  (Again, Ringo is a partial exception.)  Pepperland is sort of bland, so it's hard to get too upset about its being conquered.  (And how ironic that the villains use green apples to "bonk" the Pepperites.)

Still, the movie remains a musical and visual delight.  The music represents more of the '66 to '67 period of the Beatles, but the flower-power era translates better to buoyant animation than the increasingly tense times of '68 and '69.  (Tense for both the Beatles and the world at large.)  There are no weak links in the songs, and I like how the dialogue and an occasional note will reference more, like Old Fred's cry for help.  If you can watch this movie without singing along (at least in your head), you might as well turn in your Beatles fan card.  As for the visuals, they're a mix of everything from Art Nouveau to Peter Max to Escher to I don't know what.  The "Eleanor Rigby" sequence, with its use of photography, is probably my favorite.  Many times during the songs, colors change, pulsating, which is as appealing to little kids as to, well, potheads.

Most important is the playfulness of the movie, not just in the humour-- it took me years to get Ringo's "lever-puller" pun-- but in the way it's as serious about whimsy as Lewis Carroll would be.  That I can have seen this movie so many times and still be surprised by random details shows that.  When the "real" Beatles show up at the end, none of them looking much like their cartoon counterparts, they're just as silly and exaggerated and, yes, animated.

Outdoing Cerberus and Fluffy by one head.

Help!

Help!
August 25, 1965
United Artists
Comedy, Musical, Action
VHS
C

Although it's nice to see the Beatles in colour-- including in a prescient scene where they wear facial hair for disguises and look like their future selves (except Paul)-- there's no question that this isn't as good as A Hard Day's Night.  Instead of giving us a slightly surreal view of a day-in-the-life-of-the-band, we instead get a nonsensical yet boring plot involving two sets of bad guys-- worshipers of the goddess Kali, and a mad scientist and his idiot assistant-- all of whom are after a ring on Ringo's finger.  (George gets a later ironic line about not wanting to criticise anyone's religion.)  The music is good of course (including sitars that would influence George) but there's not much of it and it's not shot anywhere near as creatively as in HDN.  I also don't like how John and Paul want to cut off Ringo's finger when the ring won't come off.  There are some nice touches, like the design of the lads' house, but I'd rather watch an average episode of The Monkees than this.

A few of the Hard Day's Night cast show up: Bob Godfrey, who was Man in Park, is a priest/thug here; Jeremy Lloyd, who was Tall Dancer at the Disco, gets a couple lines as a restaurant patron; and of course Victor Spinetti, the TV director, becomes mad scientist Foot.  Roy Kinnear, who's Foot's assistant Algernon, would be Veruca Salt's dad in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

A Hard Day's Night

A Hard Day's Night
July 8, 1964
United Artists
Comedy, Musical
DVD
B

Released at the height of Beatlemania, this is a G-rated but mischievous version of the Beatles' lives.  (There are moments when Lennon in particular seems to be undercutting their then squeaky clean image, as when he leers at girls or sniffs Coca-Cola.)  It of course has a soundtrack full of their songs, although a bit too heavy on the ballad side for my taste.  The humour is mostly very dry, with slapstick here and there.  The Beatles come across as likable and charming.  The supporting players unfortunately, with the exception of too young (52) but otherwise just right Wilfrid Brambell, aren't much support.  I do like spotting Pattie Boyd (later ex-wife to George and then Eric Clapton) in her scenes on the train, but she isn't given any lines.  Oh, and the stuffy guy in their compartment is fun, because he's the perfect foil for the lads, especially when they run and bicycle alongside the train.  And there's of course a certain irony that the Beatles would all soon be extremely wealthy, and one of them eventually "Sir Paul."

I've seen the movie several times (the first time in the dress I'd later get married in), and it still feels fresh, thanks partly to the pseudo-documentary style that Richard Lester directs in, especially in the scene where the Beatles goof around in the field.  I don't think it's a great film but it's still, at pushing 50, an undeniably good one.  And, yes, Beatles aside, it captures its time, like the way that the girl who sobs George's name dresses as Barbra Streisand did then, or how Shake and the Beatles like to read MAD Magazine.  Some things don't feel dated, like the packaged TV teen star.  But yeah, I can't watch it now without thinking of what came after, how obsessed fans and arrest-happy police would no longer seem funny to the Beatles a few years later.  Even in '64, things weren't that innocent, but it was still possible to pretend.

Jeremy Lloyd, who's "Tall Dancer at the Disco," would have another bit part in Help!, while "Car Thief" John Bluthal would play Bhuta.  Rosemarie Frankland, who's a showgirl here, would be Marti in I'll Take Sweden.  Phil Collins (yes, that Phil Collins) is "Seated Fan with Necktie" and would be a Vulgarian child in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  Anna Quayle, who's Millie here, would be Baroness Bomburst there.