Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World

Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World
May 1974
Walter Shenson Films/Fox
Comedy, Fantasy, Children's
VHS
C+

My review of the book based on the movie (not to be confused with the Ted Key story that inspired the movie) is at the bottom of this review.  I do have to add that the movie's charm seems to have faded.  (As has the videotape unfortunately.)  There really should be more of the title character, not just in the cheesy special effects but interacting with his boy Billy, for the sad false ending to have more impact.  The film is moderately entertaining but the title and title song are better than the movie as a whole.  And the poster (which I have a copy of) is even better.

Since this is a Walter Shenson production, it's not surprising that a couple of faces familiar from A Hard Day's Night show up:  Victor Spinetti as Professor Ribart and Norman Rossington as Tom respectively.  And Victor Maddern, who plays Dog Home Manager, was the junkman in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

See also, http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/08/1973-alan-fennell-digby-biggest-dog-in.html.

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.