Hilarious and immensely enjoyable, 1964’s A HARD DAY’S NIGHT captures the moment that the Beatles exploded onto the music scene and changed it forever.
Just a month after they blew up America on The Ed Sullivan Show, the four lads from Liverpool started filming this loose, irreverent, and fast paced glimpse at two days in their life.
I’ve never seen them all this happy. Watching them interact and laugh their way through the 87-minute adventure, I was shocked how funny Lennon and Ringo were. Harrison is all smooth charisma and Paul is effortlessly the core of the fun.
The story (if you want to call it one) finds the boys running through the streets of London and prepping for a TV appearance while ducking screaming girls and the police.
Wildred Brambell earns plenty of laughs as Paul’s grandfather, who seems to drag them all into one misadventure after another.
Director Richard Lester (The Three Musketeers, Robin and Marian, Superman II) keeps everyone loose, creating the first long format music video as the Beatles break out the title tune, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “If I Fell”, “I Should Have Known Better” and many more.
While it feels improvisational, screenwriter Alun Owen said the film pretty much wrote itself after he and Lester hung out with the group for a few days.
Owen dubbed Lennon the smart-ass, Paul the cute one, George the quiet & shy one and Ringo the dim-witted and sad character. Ringo rolls with the punches beautifully.
Those screaming girls chasing the Beatles onto a train aren’t extras, that’s a real mob chasing them during filming. George’s fall was unplanned, as was Ringo falling over them, followed by a lot of laughter and more running.
Someday I’m going to watch this film again and follow it with Peter Jackson’s GET BACK chronicling the very last days of The Beatles. Seeing them so happy and carefree here at the beginning of their journey would serve as a very stark contrast to their final appearance depicted in Jackson’s documentary.
I loved seeing this side of Lennon. His comic timing is perfect, with just the right snark of subversiveness that would become more prominent in the years that followed.
Loaded with classic music, if A HARD DAY’S NIGHT doesn’t make you smile, check your pulse.
It gets an A.
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