136. A Hard Day's Night; movie review

 

A HARD DAY'S NIGHT

Cert U

87 mins

BBFC advice: mild sex references, very mild bad language

Who knew that the word grotty was invented for A Hard Day's Night?

On a trip to London, I reappraised The Beatles' film to coincide with its re-release and found that I enjoyed it much more than before.

Previously, I have complained about the Fab Four's rather wooden acting and the very basic storyline written by Alun Owen.

It was he who mistakenly thought that grotty was a north-west word for grotesque. The band said they had never heard of it but he left it in anyway.

I digress. 

The plot is pencil-thin but, with fresh eyes, I can see that John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are playing the film with tongues firmly in cheeks.

And they looks as though they are having a really good time doing so.

The storyline for what it's worth surrounds the lads going to London for a live recording session, accompanied by their manager (Norman Rossington), roadie (John Junkin) and Paul's grandad (Wilfred Brambell).

There are constant references to the grandfather being 'very clean' - a reference to Brambell's Steptoe & Son character being 'a dirty old man'.

He leads the lads into a few scrapes as they cause headaches for their management and producer (Victor Spinetti).

But all of this is secondary to the music and the iconic scenes which climax the film when the band sings She Loves Your in front of a young screaming audience.

They include 13-year-old Phil Collins who went on to have incredible success with Genesis and as a solo performer.

Anyway, Richard Lester's A Hard Day's Night struck a chord this time around.

Reasons to watch: The music

Reasons to avoid: Haphazard storyline

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 7.5/10

Did you know? United Artists' executives didn't really care about the movie, they were mainly interested in exploiting a legal loophole which would allow them to distribute the lucrative soundtrack album. In fact, they fully expected to lose money on the movie. But, with a final cost of about $500,000 and a box-office take of about $8 million in the first week, it is among the most profitable (percentage-wise) movies of all time.

The final word. Paul McCartney: " It was very hard to just learn a line and say it, because we've never done that sort of thing before. We've always just thought of something and said it, rather than actually read something on a piece of paper. But I think towards the end of making the film, we got the hang of it a little bit more. "

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