The Beatles Movie Career (Part Two) The Beatles Each Had Different Feelings About Filming the Movie “A Hard Day’s Night”

The Beatles Movie Career (Part Two)The Beatles Each Had Different Feelings About Filming the Movie “A Hard Day’s Night”

In 1964 the Beatles started making the Movie ” A Hard Day’s Night”  The movie was their first full length film.

Story Line

The Beatles--the world's most famous rock and roll band--travel from their home town of Liverpool to London to perform in a television broadcast. Along the way they must rescue Paul's unconventional grandfather from various misadventures and drummer Ringo goes missing just before the crucial concert. Written by Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>

The movie ”A Hard Day’s Night” was rushed into production by United Artists executives.  They didn't really care about the film itself, 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 film. With a final cost of about $500,000 and a box office take of about $8,000,000 in the first week, "A Hard Day's Night" is among the most profitable (percentage-wise) films of all time.

My favorite fan fact about the movie was that the film's title track was written entirely in one sitting by John Lennon on the night of April 13th, 1964, which was also the same day he had filmed the iconic bathtub scene. After Ringo had coined the phrase, John and Paul McCartney had basically raced to see who would come up with a song for the phrase and movie title first.

United Artists had been pressuring the producers of the film to finally come up with a title. When John Lennon told producer Walter Shenson about Ringo Starr's malapropisms, Shenson thought that Ringo's phrase ""A Hard Day's Night"--referring to his resting up after an exhausting day--might make a good title. John agreed. Shenson called United Artists with the proposed title, which was coolly received. Shenson suggested that they ask the secretaries and other young employees, who might be fans of The Beatles, what they thought of the proposed title. The suggestion worked and the title was accepted.

Once Ringo Starr's line "A Hard Day's Night" was confirmed as the movie's title, it was put to music by John Lennon and Paul McCartney with participation of George Harrison and Starr. The Beatles collectively composed the song that same night, playing it the next morning to producer Walter Shenson in their dressing room.

I, as well as many others, feel that the film "A Hard Day's Night" was the best of the Beatles’ films.  I liked how the Fab Four were still ‘Liverpudlian’ in this movie.  They were still the young lads from Liverpool that as a child I loved to follow and listen to their music.  They were my working class heroes.

George Harrison, John Lennon and Alun Owen during the filming of A Hard

John was known to have enjoyed making the movie, because Alun Owen wrote so many terrific lines for the Lads.  The lines were such, that only a person from Liverpool could deliver and stay true to the root of a Liverpool upbringing.  Alun Owen (24 November 1925 – 6 December 1994) was a British screenwriter, predominantly active in television, but best remembered by a wider audience for writing the screenplay of The Beatles' debut feature film A Hard Day's Night.  Owen was born in the English city of Liverpool.  

The film’s dialogue was so period and locationally perfect with lines only a Liverpudlian could have written.  Own caught the essence of the Beatles, writing lines that fit the unique personalities of John, Paul, George and Ringo.  The words were not always what the boys would have said in real life, far from it, but some of the stuff Owen invented tickled Lennon’s fancy and he concluded the lines fit in with the image of the Beatles even if it was nothing other than fiction.

The Movie “Help!” had the more typically zany Dick Lester script and relied more on photography and camera trickery as well as the atmosphere of the multiple backgrounds of the filming locations to make its imprint, but it was in my mind's eye a very delightful and pleasurable film.

In "A Hard Day's Night" the central figures had been the Beatles and not the scenery behind them. The film made no apology about the Fab Four being the true focus of the film.  And, truth to be told that is what millions of fans all over the world really wanted and needed at that point in the Beatles career.

As things must be classified, the film "A Hard Day's Night" was listed as a easy to understand documentary rather than a feature film.  Well, we know that’s not true, but why let facts get in the way of a good story. Right?  The film “The Beatles at Shea Stadium” was really a documentary film. And, as always in this film and all the others the Beatles graced us with were greatness. The Beatles were always at their best when they were able to be themselves.

The Beatles never lost their focus to their greatness which was making and performing music.  

From my blog post http://www.classicguitarexperience.com/ (The Beatles Movie Career (Part One)The Beatles Each Had Different Feelings About Filming the Movie “Help!”)

One of the many reasons why the Beatles had spoken so little about the filming side of their career was that they never did classify themselves as professional actors. They just did not feel comfortable talking about movie acting with those who were in the movie business.  

As well, there were not very many quality options available to them in their genre.  The Fab Four found it very difficult to evaluate film scripts.  The lads’ experiences, and some would argue genius, were with making music.  They only needed to listen to a demo tape of a song for just a few minutes to make a quick and easy decision if the song was worth working on in the studio.  The Fab Four found it very hard to decide whether a script or their performance was any good or not.  The fact that scenes were shot out of sequence only confused their judgement even further.  They felt a loss of control when acting, and had to rely on Dick Lester’s directions and hope that their efforts would be worthy.

As with most people who are the best in their chosen career and then go into a new endeavor, they are usually their worst critics.  The Beatles just did not get that well known feeling of greatness, or maybe that great victory of achievement they must have enjoyed in making and performing music, as with their acting performances.  The Fab Four just did not know if their films were good enough under their terms.  I am sure they must have thought, stick to what you know and have had the greatest success, and hopefully the most fun while expressing their unparalleled musical creativity.

Tony Barrow wrote:

Although the Beatles said so little to reporters about their pictures, they did discuss their film work in private.  What they said on those occasions confirmed that Paul enjoyed acting.  He told me at one stage that he had a terrific idea for a film script which would team him on screen with Jane Asher while George and Patti Boyd played co-starring roles.  It was a task he never did get down to because touring became such a time-consuming part of the Beatles lives in 1965 and 1966.

In the following years of the Movies “Help!” and "A Hard Day's Night" the Beatles took their interests of film making their own ways.  George was interested with the production side of filming.  He liked the aspects of the behind the camera work of film making.  George started his own film production company, Handmade Films. The company produced the successful Monty Python film Life of Brian (1979) and would go on to make 26 other films before Harrison sold his interest in the company in 1994.

Ringo for whatever reasons never quite lived up to his early promise as a screen comic.  He did enjoy success in his acting career.  He performed in almost forty films, TV series, videos and short films, including his own special, Ringo (1978), and a TV mini-series, Princess Daisy (1983), with his wife Barbara. In 1984 he did narration for the children's series Thomas & Friends (1984).

John, despite not ever really liking movie acting in the beginning, still made many films and gave several performances as time went on in his career.  John produced and directed around 30 productions.  He acted in 10  films, TV series, videos and short films most notably, “How I won the War”, “Two Virgins” and ‘Hawaii Five O’ .  John was also active as a composure, writer and sound department activities such as the “Children of Men” soundtrack.  Of course we can not forget all of the home movies and documentaries that John and Yoko made in the late Sixties and early Seventies.

As for Paul.  I will save him for a whole other blog post.

The Beatles of course, despite their own initial perceived misgivings, rocked movie making.  And, the Beatles’ film carrier is one more example as to why John, Paul, George and Ringo are so utterly fascinating.  I, like the masses, like to hear how each of the Fab Four lived, met challenges and rose to preforming greatness all the while still being human with their own feelings about the film industry and music production alike.  

Film Trailer

A Hard Day's Night Official Remastered Trailer (2014) - The Beatles Movie HD

I like this!

Also Known As (AKA)
Argentina (rerun title)--Anochecer de un día agitado

Argentina --¡Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Paul, John, George y Ringo!

Belgium (French title)--Quatre garçons dans le vent

Belgium (TV title) (Flemish title)--Vier jongens in de wind

Belgium (Flemish title)--Vier jongens op rondreis

Bulgaria (Bulgarian title)--ощ след тежък ден

Brazil--Os Reis do Ié-Ié-Ié

Brazil (alternative title)--Os Reis do Iê Iê Iê

Canada (French title)--Quatre garçons dans le vent

Czechoslovakia (Czech title) (première title)--Perný den

Czechoslovakia (Slovak title) (première title)--Tazký den

Czech Republic--Perný den

Denmark--En hård dags nat

Spain (Catalan title)--Una nit ben dura

Spain--¡Qué noche la de aquel día!

Finland (TV title)--A Hard Day's Night

Finland (TV title)--A Hard Day's Night: Rankan päivän ilta

Finland (Swedish title)--Yeah! Yeah! Här kommer vi

Finland--Yeah, yeah, tässä me tulemme

France--Quatre garçons dans le vent

UK (working title) Beatlemania

UK (working title)--Beatles No. 1

Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)--Xefantoma me tous Beatles

Greece--Ξεφάντωμα με τους Μπιτλς

Hungary--Egy nehéz nap éjszakája

Iceland--Erfiður dagur

Italy--Tutti per uno

Japan--Bîtoruzu ga yattekuru/Yaa! Yaa! Yaa!

Mexico--¡Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Paul, John, George y Ringo!

Poland--Noc po ciezkim dniu

Poland--The Beatles

Portugal--Os quatro Cabeleiras do Após-Calipso

Serbia--Noć posle napornog dana

Sweden--Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Soviet Union (Russian title)--The Beatles: Yечер трудного дня

Turkey (Turkish title)--Gençlerin sevgilisi

Venezuela--¡Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Paul, John, George y Ringo!

West Germany (TV title)--A Hard Day's Night

West Germany--Yeah Yeah Yeah

Truly an international film!

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---------------------------------------PLEASE NOTE----------------------------------------
This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the
song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, or research.
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