Beatlemania Revisited

In early 1964 when Beatlemania hit the U. S. I was 17 years old and a Junior in High School. I had a part time job working as an usher at the United Artists Theatre, Louisville’s ornate and elegant 1923 Movie Palace. When the Beatles first film “A Hard Days Night” opened in July of 1964, I was in a unique position to observe the phenomenon. Long lines of teenaged girls stretched down the street before every show, but none of the male high school students who worked as ushers whined or complained about the crowds, or about having to work Friday and Saturday, like we usually did. I must have seen the film over a hundred times, yet I never tired of the music, or the girls.

By the end of that summer the British Invasion was in full swing, new and exciting groups like the Rolling Stones and the Animals were now competing with the Beatles for the lucrative American Rock ‘n’ Roll market, it was an incredibly exciting time, with lots of really great music. When the Beatles started their second American tour in August of 1965 I was determined to see them on stage. Steve, one of my best friends (and a fellow usher) lived across the street from Louisville’s most popular radio DJ. He begged and begged until the DJ gave us two tickets for the August 20, 1965 Beatles show in Chicago. We scrounged up every penny that we could, and on Thursday afternoon, August 19, 1965 the two of us left Louisville, on a Greyhound bus, bound for Chicago.

The bus arrived in downtown Chicago at about 6:00 am on Friday August 20th, the show was at White Sox Park at 8:00 pm. We spent twelve hours visiting every museum in the Loop, and spending pretty much all of our money on Pizza and cokes. About six that evening we rode the El out to White Sox Park; the scene at the stadium was absolute pandemonium, with thousands of screaming jostling teenage girls standing in line waiting to get in. We joined the throng and eventually got to our seats, close to the front, on the first base line.

The stage was set up on the White Sox pitchers mound, we sat through short sets by King Curtis, Cannibal & the Headhunters, and Brenda Holloway and after a brief break the Beatles came on and started to play Twist and Shout and the girls went wild. The band played about a dozen more songs, the show was great, absolutely everything I had hoped it would be, and then it was over. By the time we got back to Louisville, Sunday evening, we were dead tired (from being up for three days), flat broke, hungry as hell (we hadn’t had anything to eat since spending the last of our money for two candy bars just before we left Chicago), and convinced that we had been a part of history in the making.

A restored A Hard Days Night with a digitally re-mastered soundtrack is playing the big screen in cities all over America. The film has aged very well, Richard Lester’s B&W mock documentary, still looks fresh and cutting edge after almost forty years, and the music is just as exciting as it was in 1964. The film opens with a single sustained guitar chord, held for several seconds, and then the title track, A Hard Days Night cranks up, with images of the Beatles fleeing before a crowd of screaming teenage girls. The boys just manage to make it to Marleybone Station and catch their train, with the crowd only a step or two behind.

Director Richard Lester has described the film as, “an exaggerated day in the life of the Beatles” told in semi documentary style, with “cinema verite” camera work and virtually no story line. The film chronicles the Beatles journey to perform on a “live” TV show, with a series of adventures on the train, a hilarious “press conference” parody, and the recurring theme of youthful escape and good natured rebellion against authority that provides a charming and innocent preview of the social, cultural, and political upheaval to come, the dizzying change that was the defining element of the revolutionary sixties.

Richard Lester’s madcap hyperactive style makes the film a sort of latter day Marx Brothers adventure with rock'n'roll music; it showcases the Beatles talent for comedy and makes improbable scenes like an impromptu jam session in the baggage car of the train seem reasonable. The beautiful I should have known better doesn’t seem silly or ridiculous, even among the crated animals and piled up packages. The crisis in the film comes when Paul’s grandfather (played beautifully by Wilfred Brambell) encourages Ringo to leave the studio less than an hour before the show to find himself. The classic “Lonely Boy” sequence, in which an accident prone Ringo wanders through a series of humorous adventures played to Ringo’s Theme: This Boy, while the other three members of the "fab four" search everywhere for him, is a highpoint of the film. Ringo is found just before showtime, and the show goes on as planned.

Ringo claims the sequence developed spontaneously because he had come in for the days shooting directly from a long night of partying, he was hung over, tired, and a bit cranky, so Lester and the camera just followed him around as he walked off his torpor. The accident prone bits (along his route) were edited in later. The other “classic” sequence in the film, where all four Beatles romp around a field and jump up and down like lunatics to Can’t buy me love is full of cocky youthful exuberance.

Richard Lester’s quirky "mock documentary" style laid the groundwork for every concert film that followed, movies like the Band’s Last Waltz, Woodstock, and This is Spinal Tap owe a tremendous debt to A Hard Days Night. This flick was the grandaddy of every concert film and music video ever filmed. Virtually all the cutting edge ideas used in Lester’s film have become concert/music film standards, devices like the "film within a film" (images of the band playing are shown on monitors in the control booth, cut back and forth with images of the band playing on stage) the “cinema verite” camera style, and the "jump cuts" from the Beatles playing to the faces and emotional reactions of the fans, were all pioneered in this movie.

The Film

Release Date: July 6, 1964
Running Time: 87 minutes
Producer: Walter Shenson
Director: Richard Lester
Cast: John, Paul, George, & Ringo
Wilfred Brambell: Paul’s Grandfather
Norman Rossington: Norm
John Junkin: Shake
Victor Spinetti: Director, TV show

The restored big screen version of the film is beautiful. The moody B&W photography is deliciously evocative of the “Magnum” style photo-journalism popularized by Life Magazine. The look is upbeat and fun for the outdoor sequences with Ringo on his “Lonely Boy” walk, with wonderful lighting, dark skies and white clouds. The look is more downbeat during the scenes in “darker” urban settings and with the fans in pursuit. Interior scenes are all perfectly lit and photographed

The Soundtrack

“A Hard Days Night”
“Tell Me Why”
“I’ll Cry Instead”
“I Should Have Known Better”
I’m Happy Just to Dance With Her”
“And I Love Her”
“If I Fell”
“Ringo’s Theme: This Boy” (instrumental)
“Can’t Buy Me Love”

The digitally re-mastered soundtrack is flawless, with each instrument and each voice clear, and easily recognizable. The songs are just as fresh and compelling as they were in 1964.

Overall

“A Hard Days Night” was one of the most important films of the sixties, often emulated but rarely equaled. The film's style, flow, pace, and editing have had a tremendous influence on virtually every music/concert film made since. The Beatles contributions to popular music place them among the group of seminal artists whose work defines a genre, the single most important musical group of their era.

This is my 100th Review, I hope you enjoyed it