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.