My Personal Best Films: A Hard Day's Night (1964)

A Hard Day’s Night ««««
G, 87m. 1964

Cast & Credits: John Lennon (John), Paul McCartney (Paul), George Harrison (George), Ringo Starr (Ringo), Wilfrid Brambell (Grandfather), Norman Rossington (Norm), John Junkin (Shake). Screenplay by Alun Owen. Directed by Richard Lester.

1965 Academy Award
Nominations

Best Writing, Story 
and Screenplay
Written for the Screen

Best Music, Scoring of
Music, Adaptation or
Treatment

"A Hard Day’s Night" is both a clever mixture of British comedy and a documentary look at The Beatles in England before “The British Invasion” hit America, though The British Invasion had already hit America when the film came out in 1964.

The first twenty minutes was one of the funniest I had seen where the “Fab Four” put up with Paul’s opinionated, temperamental grandfather (Wilfrid Brambell). The lovable old codger, whom the young McCartney refers to as “a villain-a king-mixer”, hates group unity and goes to great lengths getting people who’ve always gotten along into arguments like the band’s two managers.

The picture, shot entirely in black and white, not only spawned a half-hour rock and roll sitcom two years later on NBC called "The Monkees" (1966-1968), but made it possible for future filmmakers to create imaginative music videos for other successful bands and recording artists.

I was amazed watching these four mop tops acting so naturally in front of the camera without making their performances look like they needed coaching.

There is John; the practical joker and smart aleck who often calls his manager (Norman Rossington) a swine. The minute he finds out the train station is swarming with girls, Lennon asks jokingly if he can perform surgery.

Paul is the polite one who answers all questions reporters ask him with either the comments, “I like to keep Britain tidy” or “Actually, we’re just good friends.”

George, on the other hand is the opinionated one; always speaking his mind in situations even when he is not solely involved in a project.

Finally, Ringo: the sensitive one who gets the most fan mail and hates it when other people touch his drums.

The story is like a day in the life of a classic rock band as The Beatles prepare for a television concert where the audience consists of no one but giddy schoolgirls (not a single male member of the audience can be spotted).

Prior to the performance, the band frequent nightclubs where their number one hits like "All My Lovin" and "I Wanna Be Your Man" are played and run around in open fields like kids.

Watching the group smile and sing over the loud cries and cheers of adoring fans in that packed, small auditorium, I can understand why The Beatles didn’t perform that many concerts in the United States. They wanted the audience to hear their voices over all the commotion.

This is where the real joy of "A Hard Day’s Night" comes in though; hearing the soundtrack that includes along with the film’s title song, "Can’t Buy Me Love", "If I Fell, Tell Me Why", "She Loves You", and "I’ll Cry Instead". They are songs that one friend of mine, Greg Hehn, called “feel good hits.” Songs you can dance to, he said, but they are lyrics with not much meaning.

Hehn said he thought the band’s later works he heard on "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967), "Abbey Road" (1969) and "Let It Be" (1970) were some of their best and showed how much the group matured.

Those hit albums though came a few years later when the four were no longer the handsome, innocent looking, clean cut gentlemen from Liverpool you see in this film. As they got older and their hair grew longer, the outfits changed, and so did their attitudes.

The rest is history as the band’s personal and creative differences would eventually cause their break-up in 1970.

Seeing them run freely though out England’s yards and kidding around with each other in this movie, however, I got the notion back in the Fab Four’s early days that being a Beatle was as much a joy for them as it was for the fans who embraced their music.

©2/1/23