A Hard Day's Night | The Fifth Beatle Movie Discussion Forum

A Hard Day's Night Jun 22, 2008 0:01:16 GMT -5

Post by yerblues1968 on Jun 22, 2008 0:01:16 GMT -5

A HARD DAY'S NIGHT

A Hard Day's Night is a 1964 British comedy film written by Alun Owen starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—during the height of their popularity. It was directed by Richard Lester and originally released by United Artists.

The film was successful both financially and critically; it was rated by Time magazine as one of the all-time great 100 films. British critic Leslie Halliwell described it as a "comic fantasia with music; an enormous commercial success with the director trying every cinematic gag in the book" and awarded it a full four stars. The film is credited with having influenced 1960s spy films, The Monkees' television show and pop music videos.

The film was shot for United Artists using a cinéma vérité style in black and white and produced over a period of sixteen weeks. It had a low budget for its time of £200,000 ($500,000) and filming was finished in six weeks. Unlike most productions, it was filmed in near sequential order, as stated by Lennon in 1964. Filming began at Paddington Station on 2 March 1964, the Beatles having only joined the actors' union, Equity, that morning. The first week of filming was on a train traveling between London and Minehead. On 10th March, scenes with Ringo were shot at the Turk's Head pub in Twickenham, and over the following week various interior scenes were filmed at Twickenham Studios. From 23rd to the 30th March, filming moved to the Scala Theatre, and on the 31st, concert footage was shot there, although the group mimed to backing tracks. Among the 350 audience members was Phil Collins, who was a 13-year-old child actor at the time. The "Can't Buy Me Love" segment, which featured creative camera work and the band running and jumping around in a field was shot on 23 April 1964 at Thornbury Playing Fields, Isleworth, Middlesex. The final scene was filmed the following day in West Ealing, London, where Starr obligingly drops his coat over puddles for a lady to step on. Only then does he discover that the final hole is actually a large hole in the road.

The film premiered on 6 July 1964 and its soundtrack of the same name was released four days later. It was the Beatles' first soundtrack album and the first Beatles' album to consist entirely of Lennon/McCartney songs.

In 2000, Miramax Films reissued the film theatrically in the U.S., and on a collector's edition DVD two years later, as well as its final issue in the VHS format. The film had been transferred from the restored 35 mm negative and presented in 1.66:1 Widescreen. (As the movie was originally filmed in Academy 1.37:1, the image was cropped slightly for the 2002 DVD release). The film's full-screen image was retained for the VHS release, however. The prologue that Universal added in 1982 is absent on Miramax releases.

Photos taken on August 1, 1964.

In addition to the original film, the DVD edition contained a bonus disc with over 7 hours of additional material including interviews with cast and crew members and Beatles associates. The DVD was produced by Beatles historian and producer Martin Lewis, a longtime friend of Shenson.

40TH ANNIVERSARY CAST AND CREW REUNION SCREENING

On 6 July 2004 - the 40th anniversary of the film's world premiere - a private cast and crew reunion screening was hosted in London by DVD producer Martin Lewis. The screening was attended by McCartney, actors Victor Spinetti, John Junkin, David Janson and many crew members. In media interviews at the event, McCartney disclosed that while he had seen the film many times on video, he had not seen the film on the 'big screen' since its 1964 premiere.