1964: The Beatles Reach America and Screens Big and Small
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Sixty years ago this month, the Beatles’ first feature film, A Hard Day’s Night, reached theatres in the United States, having made its British debut at the London Pavilion a month earlier. Coming approximately half a year after their successful first U.S. tour, it became a smash hit in both nations and was greatly influential on future rock musicals and music videos. However, A Hard Day’s Night was in fact the third notable film appearance of the Beatles in 1964, being preceded by two lesser-known productions on similar subject matter but radically different in genre and form, spanning documentary, variety show, and musical.
The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit (1991); re-edit of What’s Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A. (1964)
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This is only the fourth cinematic collaboration between documentary film-making brothers Albert and David Maysles—of Grey Gardens (1975) fame—and it sees them bringing their pioneering Direct Cinema or “fly on the wall” style of non-expository observational documentary to bear on one of the most important events in 20th century pop culture: the first visit of the Beatles to the United States, and the attendant wave of fanatical “Beatlemania.” They follow the Beatles from the airport and their first press conference on American soil through hotels, photoshoots, long train rides, and even a night of clubbing in New York. The Maysles brothers’ style seems particularly well-suited to the task, as no editorializing or talking heads are really required to accentuate the momentousness of the occasion.
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Despite the cinéma vérité-like approach, the camera inevitably becomes part of the ongoing action as the Beatles themselves often play to it, performing improvised comedy routines (Paul does a Seinfeld-esque observational bit on the juxtaposition of news and commercials on US television), singing snatches of songs (generally not their own; you’d have to pay them for that, as John quips at a press conference early in the film) and generally goofing around. Almost as interesting (and sometimes ear-splitting) are the reactions of other people to the central quartet, ranging from the hyperactive keening of their “teeny-bopper” fans and the bemused, patronizing, or occasionally understanding attitudes of adults, to—and this may be the best moment of the film—the unfazed bluntness of a small girl who latches onto Ringo on one of their lengthy train rides.
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The centerpiece of this version of the film is of course the footage of their concerts, specifically their three appearances (two live, one pre-taped) on the Ed Sullivan Show and their Washington Coliseum concert. The DVD bonus features include deleted footage that runs about half as long as the film itself and is almost as interesting, including the reactions of an ordinary working-class family to their Ed Sullivan broadcasts. One of the reasons this film is far less famous than A Hard Day’s Night (despite some of the incidents in it clearly inspiring scenes in the later fictionalized film) is because it lacked the power of first impression, as it was not shown in any form until a November broadcast on CBS, more than a month after the later-produced movie’s debut.
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This hour-long television special is mostly a musical variety show typical of its time, but with the novelty of being held in a theatre-in-the-round. The highlight is probably the opening comedy sketch, a performance of the humourously inept mechanicals’ play-within-a-play Pyramus and Thisbe from Act V, Scene I of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, complete with the occasional scouse ad-lib. Paul plays stripe-skirted heroic lead Pyramus, John tries to be as gravelly-voiced as possible in drag as a missing-toothed Thisbe, and George is Moonshine, with actor Trevor Peacock as Quince and West Side Story (1961) dancer Andre Tayir as a Wall; but Ringo gets the biggest laughs as a Lion. The performance is heckled by a couple young men planted in the crowd, who deliver lines that stand in for the asides of the audience in the original text; some of the fans in the crowd seem unaware that they are a part of the show, with one irate girl even slapping a heckler. One moment which is even funnier today is when Paul declares matter-of-factly, “Now am I dead,” after miming love-stricken suicide.
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Most of the remainder of the special is a showcase for a variety of other musical artists selected by the Beatles. Interestingly, most are not of the Merseybeat subgenre that the Beatles performed, often tending more towards “blue-eyed soul.” They range from English pop singer Cilla Black to now little-known Texan P. J. Proby (sounding rather like Elvis Presley here), and from English bluesman “Long John” Baldry to Jamaican Millie Small, with backing vocals often provided by the Vernon Girls and instrumentals by the deceptively generic-sounding Sounds Incorporated. Some numbers also feature dancing by West Side Story Jet girls for extra pizzazz. The Beatles themselves only perform for approximately the last quarter-hour, although they are actually miming to an earlier recording; John even plays a non-existent harmonica. In this appearance, they focus on covers of R&B and early American rock and roll songs like “Twist and Shout,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” and “Long Tall Sally” as much as their original compositions, several of which are squeezed into a medley. They close with their only known performance of “Shout” (not the Tears for Fears one).
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Richard Lester’s first Beatles feature film is in many ways a funhouse mirror version of The First U.S. Visit, covering similar subject matter of the band preparing for an important television performance while hanging about in hotels or being shuttled about in cars and trains. Much of the black and white cinéma vérité-style photography is evocative of Albert Maysles’ work, if more controlled and cinematically staged (and set in England, mainly greater London), while some scenes (such as fans mobbing and running after the car the Beatles are in) seem lifted directly from the documentary. However, Lester embroiders the basic structure with sight gags and extra bits of comedic business, many of them involving unnamed background characters, others revolving around Paul’s grandfather James McCartney (Wilfrid Brambell), a “very clean” old man who seems to have a knack for getting himself and the boys in trouble.
Lester also spaces the songs out more (in the style of classic musicals), such as by having the Beatles play to a group of schoolgirls (including one played by George’s future wife Pattie Boyd) on the train. Another scene, midway through the film, shows the Beatles running around (and miming sporting events) on a grassy field, while “Can’t Buy Me Love” plays non-diegetically. The cinematography here, often cutting in time to the music, skipping between bird’s-eye views, close-ups, and long shots, and featuring slow-motion shots of the Beatles jumping, has been very influential in music video production. A rather more sedate sequence later in the film features Ringo wandering lazily about London and talking to a boy (David Janson), set to an instrumental version of “This Boy.”
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One of the main themes of the film is the tension between the then-youthful Beatles and the stuffy, stiff-upper-lip culture and still highly class-based society of postwar Britain. Within the first ten minutes, the boys engage in a verbal confrontation with a mustachioed gentleman (Richard Vernon, who voiced Slartibartfast in the original Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio drama) on the train, who says he “fought the war” for them; the group reacts derisively and cut up until he tells them to leave the compartment. They also get in trouble with the police in the last reel (though this is mainly the elder McCartney’s fault). Their manager Norm (Norman Rossington) and road manager Shake (John Junkin), comedic stand-ins for real managers Brian Epstein and Mal Evans, seem exasperated by the group’s antics even as they recognize their talent. Nevertheless, despite their frequent escapes from “adult” supervision and seeming inability to take anything seriously, the Beatles show up for their performance just in time; the final message seems to be that they are competent and willing to work, but also able to balance having fun with their serious business commitments and unwilling to let the prevailing order dampen their spirits or change their style.
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