As I look back on A Hard Day's Night, which celebrates it's 55th anniversary this year, I try to recall when I first saw it. If my memory is correct, it was part of a Music Appreciation class I took in Eighth Grade. But I do know that I loved it immediately. One part day in the life documentary and one part slapstick comedy makes for an infectiously fun film and my personal favorite of the films The Beatles made together.
The film opens with The Beatles (played by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) travelling by train to London for a live television appearance. Along for the ride is Paul's very clean Grandfather (played by Wilfrid Brambell). Looking after the band is Shake (played by John Junkin) and Norm (played by Norman Rossington). The film more or less consists of their assorted adventures over a 24 hour period. Among them is an impromptu jam session on the train, retrieving Paul's Grandfather from a gambling den in London (who used an invite sent to Ringo to get in), dealing with press interviews, and amusing themselves between rehearsals for their show, often at the expense of Norm and Shake. Meanwhile, Paul's very clean Grandfather is continuously getting into mischief, including creating forged autographed Beatles photos to sell to legions of fans.
Richard Lester directed the film from a script by Alun Owen. When he was writing the script, Owen spent a week with John, Paul George and Ringo to get a feel for who they were and what their life was like at the height of Beatlemania. A lot of that went into the film and then was punctuated by slapstick and absurdist humor, as well as some fantastic musical performances to break up the film. There are some great comedic bits in the film, such as the Fab Four antagonizing a stiff older gentleman who intrudes on their compartment on the train or George discovering that Shake has never used a safety razor and demonstrates it for him in front of a mirror by putting shaving cream on the mirror and pretending to shave his reflection, with Shake reacting to it nonetheless. Then it goes even further with John in a bubble bath next to them, playing like a little boy with a toy submarine while pretending the shower attachment is the sub's periscope. They then take it even further with John submerging himself under the bubbles and Norm walking in to get him out of the bath and pulls the drain, only to find the tub empty despite us never seeing John leave. And that is just one small sequence of many hilarious vignettes throughout the film. I've always loved the inclusion of Paul's scheming Grandfather, who in a recurring joke people always refer to as very clean (I didn't fully get this joke until very recently when it was pointed out that Wilfrid Bramble was on a U.K television show Steptoe and Son (later remade in the U.S as Sandford and Son), where his character was frequently called a dirty old man hence the very clean remarks here). A fair amount of the humor also comes from John's attempts to antagonize Norm, much to the latter's chagrin.
The Beatles themselves have fantastic comedic timing throughout the film delivering witty line after witty line naturally as we progress from one sequence to another. A fantastic example of this is the press conference where every answer The Beatles give to a question is a witty comeback, whether it's Paul responding to every question with, "No, actually we're just really good friends," or Ringo responding to the question if he's a Mod or a Rocker with, "No, I'm a mocker." And then we have John Junkin and Norman Rossington playing the straight men of sorts to all these shenanigans and are quite humorous in their own right, with Shake's general easy going nature to Norm's exasperation, they make a good comedic pair in their own right. Of course, there is Wilfrid Bramble as Paul's Grandfather. He plays the mischievous gentleman so well and is so amusing in the role with the antics he gets up to throughout the film.
There isn't a lot in terms of plot to A Hard Day's Night, but that's part of it's charm. It's part documentary (for all it's staged shenanigans, it's also a great representation of the Beatlemania days, especially in the opening of the four Beatles fleeing an onslaught of screaming fans), part mockumentary (part of me wonders if we would have This is Spinal Tap if we hadn't had A Hard Day's Night) part Concert Film and part slapstick comedy. Somehow all of these pieces fit together to create one of the more purely joyous films I've ever seen. It's one of my favorites and I highly recommend checking it out, especially if you're a Beatles fan. And if you're a Beatles fan that has never seen A Hard Day's Night...how? Why? Call me...I'll bring over my Blu-Ray...
Richard Lester directed the film from a script by Alun Owen. When he was writing the script, Owen spent a week with John, Paul George and Ringo to get a feel for who they were and what their life was like at the height of Beatlemania. A lot of that went into the film and then was punctuated by slapstick and absurdist humor, as well as some fantastic musical performances to break up the film. There are some great comedic bits in the film, such as the Fab Four antagonizing a stiff older gentleman who intrudes on their compartment on the train or George discovering that Shake has never used a safety razor and demonstrates it for him in front of a mirror by putting shaving cream on the mirror and pretending to shave his reflection, with Shake reacting to it nonetheless. Then it goes even further with John in a bubble bath next to them, playing like a little boy with a toy submarine while pretending the shower attachment is the sub's periscope. They then take it even further with John submerging himself under the bubbles and Norm walking in to get him out of the bath and pulls the drain, only to find the tub empty despite us never seeing John leave. And that is just one small sequence of many hilarious vignettes throughout the film. I've always loved the inclusion of Paul's scheming Grandfather, who in a recurring joke people always refer to as very clean (I didn't fully get this joke until very recently when it was pointed out that Wilfrid Bramble was on a U.K television show Steptoe and Son (later remade in the U.S as Sandford and Son), where his character was frequently called a dirty old man hence the very clean remarks here). A fair amount of the humor also comes from John's attempts to antagonize Norm, much to the latter's chagrin.
The Beatles themselves have fantastic comedic timing throughout the film delivering witty line after witty line naturally as we progress from one sequence to another. A fantastic example of this is the press conference where every answer The Beatles give to a question is a witty comeback, whether it's Paul responding to every question with, "No, actually we're just really good friends," or Ringo responding to the question if he's a Mod or a Rocker with, "No, I'm a mocker." And then we have John Junkin and Norman Rossington playing the straight men of sorts to all these shenanigans and are quite humorous in their own right, with Shake's general easy going nature to Norm's exasperation, they make a good comedic pair in their own right. Of course, there is Wilfrid Bramble as Paul's Grandfather. He plays the mischievous gentleman so well and is so amusing in the role with the antics he gets up to throughout the film.
There isn't a lot in terms of plot to A Hard Day's Night, but that's part of it's charm. It's part documentary (for all it's staged shenanigans, it's also a great representation of the Beatlemania days, especially in the opening of the four Beatles fleeing an onslaught of screaming fans), part mockumentary (part of me wonders if we would have This is Spinal Tap if we hadn't had A Hard Day's Night) part Concert Film and part slapstick comedy. Somehow all of these pieces fit together to create one of the more purely joyous films I've ever seen. It's one of my favorites and I highly recommend checking it out, especially if you're a Beatles fan. And if you're a Beatles fan that has never seen A Hard Day's Night...how? Why? Call me...I'll bring over my Blu-Ray...
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