It's March 1964, and The Beatles are in a London studio, rehearsing for a television appearance. As the moptop boys pick up their instruments, watched by a troupe of starstruck showgirls, John Lennon quips, "Hey fellas, let's do the show right here!" poking fun at the entire genre of music movies, and at Cliff Richard in particular, who - up till then - was the undisputed king the British pop flick.
The scene is one of many from A Hard Day's Night which overturned popular perceptions of what a music movie should be. Shot in a mock-documentary style, with little or no plot to drive it, A Hard Day's Night was a refreshing, fast-cut glimpse into the lives of the Fab Four as they rode the runaway train of sudden global success.
Directed by Richard Lester from a screenplay by Alun Owen, A Hard Day's Night avoided the Hollywood musical cliches which kept Elvis's movies firmly in the B-division. It has become a modern classic, capturing an innocent time in music history when rock 'n' roll was young, not-so-dumb and full of youthful promise. The film has been restored and digitally remastered, and will be showing at the IFC cinema in Dublin next month.
When The Beatles were approached to make A Hard Day's Night, they had just cracked the US wide open like a large, lucrative eggshell.
"We'd made it clear to Brian (Epstein) that we weren't interested in being stuck in one of those typical "nobody understands our music" plots where the local dignitaries are trying to ban something as terrible as a Saturday Night Hop," said John Lennon.
"We discussed this with Brian on a number of occasions and he asked if we had any ideas of our own," said Paul McCartney. "The only person we could think of was whoever made that Running, Jumping & Standing Still film. Who did that, ...'cause it was brilliant." The auteur in question was Philadelphia-born Richard Lester.
British playwright Alun Owen was recruited to write the script, and he spent a weekend in Dublin with The Beatles, getting to know each one's personality, to ensure that the characters onscreen reflected each individual Beatle's style. So, John became the rebellious smartarse, Paul the charmer, George the shy, sardonic type, and Ringo the existential clown. It's often assumed that the wisecracks and quips on A Hard Day's Night were improvised and off-the-cuff, but every line was scripted by Owen, and every remark had to be learned off by the film's stars.
With songs such as Tell Me Why, I Should Have Known Better, Can't Buy Me Love and You Can't Do That already recorded, A Hard Day's Night was shot in seven weeks, and was in the cinemas just three months after shooting began. Its working title was The Beatles Movie, until Ringo famously came up with the title.
"Ringo would do these little malapropisms," recalled Paul McCartney. "He would say things slightly wrong, like people do, but his were always wonderful, very lyrical, very Lewis Carroll, lovely. They were sort of magic even though he was just getting it wrong. And he said after a concert, 'Phew, it's been a hard day's night.' and I went, 'What? What did you just say?' He said, "I'm bloody knackered, man, it's been a hard day's night.' 'Hard day's night! F***ing brilliant!" The film premiered at London's Pavilion on July 6th, 1964, and Picadilly Circus had to be cordoned off to contain the thousands of fans who tried to storm the theatre.
A few days later, 200,000 people lined the streets of Liverpool to watch The Beatles arrive for the movie's hometown premiere. Because of the film's peculiarly British, colloquial style, none of its makers expected it to make much impact in the US, but it became one of the biggest box-office hits of the summer.
The film's screenwriter, Alun Owen, earned an Academy Award nomination, as did The Beatles' musical director, George Martin. Nearly 40 years later, A Hard Day's Night's edgy, fast-cut style is seen as a precursor to the modern pop video, and an influence on rock movies to follow.
"I think when we made A Hard Day's Night we knew that The Beatles were wonderful and that I really enjoyed their music," says Richard Lester.
"As to their longevity, I never thought about it, didn't worry about it. The fact that I am now sitting in a room in New York talking about something I did 36 years ago ... I just remember the sense that we were all doing something we wanted to do, and that we were in tune with the spirit of the times. If people are still given pleasure in a nostalgic way, it is to the great credit of not us the filmmakers, but of the lasting affection that people have for those four boys at the time. And to have been part of that is one of the great privileges of my life."
The restored version of A Hard Day's Night will be shown at Dublin's IFC from June 1st
