Corpus Christi Caller-Times TV/Radio by Elaine Liner, media critic

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

Elaine Liner is Caller-Times' media critic. Her columns are published Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. She has been known to occasionally gossip with her readers in the Elaine Liner Forum. Elaine can be reached at linere@caller.com

Friday, November 19, 1999

' Hard Day's Night'

Fab Four's first film as enjoyable now as at height of Beatlemania

The sweep of Pokemon fever into movie theaters - $32 million worth of tickets last weekend alone -completely baffles those of us of mid-Boomer age. But my generation's parental units probably felt the same way about our reaction to the Beatles and their first and best movie, "A Hard Day's Night," 35 years ago.
   Available now in a digitally remastered, spiffed-up version on both VHS and DVD, "Hard Day's Night" first arrived in theaters in the summer of 1964 on the crest of the British pop music invasion. It was an era devoid of MTV, of course. Other than on album covers and in fan mags, Beatle fans had only seen their beloved moptops on a scant number of TV appearances, including the group's famous debut on CBS' "Ed Sullivan Show."
   We loved them, yeah, yeah, yeah. We collected any and everything Beatle, including trading cards, dolls, fan magazine pix, Ringo rings, "Paul for President" buttons and lunchkits.
   By the time "A Hard Day's Night" was released, Beatlemania was in full swing.
   This is the only movie for which I stood in line, "Star Wars"-style, several days in advance. It was the first movie for which I paid $1.50 a ticket (the going rate for the under-12 set was about 35 cents back in that day). It was the first movie I sat through four times in a row. It was the first movie I watched while screaming my guts out in pure pre-teen hysteria because the sight of babes like George, Paul, John and Ringo singing and talking on the big screen was simply too groovamatic to bear in silence.
   Only by seeing the film on TV years later did I realize that "A Hard Day's Night" is a darned good little 90-minute comedy with one of the finest rock' n' roll scores ever put on film. Among the great songs in it, besides the now-classic title tune, are "I Should Have Known Better," "If I Fell," "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You," "And I Love Her," "Can't Buy Me Love" and, oooh, "You Can't Do That."
   Shot in stylish black and white, "A Hard Day's Night" pretends to follow the Fab Four on a typical day in London: running from screaming fans, rehearsing for a TV show, riding a train, pulling pranks on each other. Director Richard Lester took what was supposed to be merely a showcase for the Beatles' music and made it into a romping, witty farce that's been copied in movies and music videos zillions of times since (most recently by, ugh, "Spice World").
   The Beatles were natural, surprisingly gifted actors and their first movie played into their dry, Liverpool patter while sharply spoofing the fusty media's bewilderment at their sudden success. "A Hard Day's Night" holds up beautifully (unlike Elvis' unwatchable cinema efforts). It's a piece of joyous musical entertainment and a near-documentary of the look and style of the Swingin' Sixties.
   "A Hard Day's Night" is unrated and contains no objectionable language, nudity or violence.

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]