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.
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| Sperber, Deezen, and Paul Newman's daughter |
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