A Hard Day’s Notes

The story behind the making of A Hard Day’s Night…

Here’s where I went wrong:

My favorite band of all time is the Beatles and I grew up listening to their music, but even though they were my favorite band I still underestimated their influence and when I started looking into it thought maybe there was an article in that, but I was mistaken.

There were four articles in that.

After I wrote those four articles I thought I could maybe also do something on A Hard Day’s Night because I re-watched the movie a couple years ago and was amazed at how good it was and how well it held up.

I recently said I’d write an article about the movie too, but then I watched a documentary about the making of A Hard Day’s Night while taking notes, which was a pain in the ass because I had to keep stopping the DVD to write (although the Pain-In-The-Ass process did suggest this article’s title) and now I’ve decided there’s an article in the documentary as well.

If I keep this up, clearly I’m going to wind up writing about nothing but the Beatles for the rest of what seems like an increasingly-limited life and eventually end up with a studio apartment in The Institute For People Obsessed With Shit Nobody Else Cares About.

But as I assume they say in Jolly Olde England, in for a penny in for a pound, so this isn’t the article about the movie – that’s still coming – this is an article about the making of the movie.

And we’ll start with…

Walter Shenson, producer

So United Artists comes to producer Walter Shenson and says they want to do a Beatles movie because if there’s a Beatles movie there has to be a Beatles movie soundtrack and the soundtrack is what United Artists is actually interested in selling.

Sounds like United Artists pretty much didn’t give a shit about the movie which turns out to be a very good thing.

Because not giving a shit means they leave Shenson alone and he says being 6,000 miles away from Interfering Hollywood Executives was helpful; they weren’t looking over his shoulder and telling him what he could and couldn’t do.

All United Artists asks of Shenson is to make sure the Beatles produced enough new songs for an album and that the movie stay under budget.

OK, got it.  

Dick Lester, director

Now Shenson needs a director and he picks Dick Lester who has done some comedy and is also a fan of the French New Wave movement in cinema which – if Wikipedia is correct – was often defined by shooting on a budget and being experimental and improvising dialogue and breaking the fourth wall (having a character speak directly to the audience) and maybe shooting in black and white was also part of the French New Wave, but I couldn’t tell you for sure because I got bored with urbane people wearing black turtlenecks and smoking unfiltered cigarettes while being ironic and world-weary and didn’t finish the Wikipedia article.

Anyway…

Shenson and Lester have no idea what kind of movie they’re going to make, so they go to London to meet with the Beatles and they’re all going out to dinner so they hail a cab, but London cabs are built for four people and there are six of them. So now they’re all trying to pile into one cab at the same time and Shenson says the Beatles are so funny while doing it they remind him of the Marx Brothers.

Walter says maybe the movie should be a comedy and the Beatles like the idea.

Think about it (and I hadn’t) and they could have copied those lame Elvis Presley movies and had the Beatles play cowboys or race car drivers or boxers with Heart of Gold girlfriends and all of those movies would have been awful, but instead Shenson and Lester are smart enough to say why don’t we just show the Beatles being the Beatles because these guys are pretty entertaining.

Which brings us to…

Alun Owen, screenwriter

So now they need a screenplay and hire Alun Owen even though he spells his first name wrong.

Shenson tells Owen maybe the movie could focus on a typical day in the life of the Beatles and Owen says OK, but what’s that like and Shenson says how the hell should I know; go to Dublin where the Beatles are performing, hang out with them and then you tell us what that’s like.

Owen spends time with the Beatles, comes back and says these guys are prisoners of their own fame. They can’t go anywhere or do anything without causing a riot and the only time they seem completely happy is when they’re playing music.

So Dick Lester listens – which is a lost art and I think social media proves that – and uses Owen’s insight and decides the first part of the film will be claustrophobic.

The early scenes are set in confined places like trains and cars and hotel rooms and Wilfrid Brambell’s character (he plays Paul McCartney’s grandfather) says he came along with the band for a change of scenery and so far all he’s seen is: “A train and a room and a car and a room and a room and a room” which is a line the Beatles used to describe their lifestyle when talking to Owen and he’s smart enough to put it in the movie.

Lester plans to show the Beatles being confined for the first part of the movie, but also wants a scene where they break out of their constraints and have fun and even though somebody missed the point and colorized it, here it is:

Remember: nobody – including the Beatles – knows whether the Beatles can act, so Owen’s script has a lot of one-liners which means the Beatles don’t have to memorize long speeches.

• When a reporter asks George what he calls that hairstyle he’s wearing, George says: “Arthur.”

• When John is asked how he found America, he says: “Turn left at Greenland.”

• When Ringo is asked if he’s a mod or a rocker he says: “I’m a mocker.”

• After being asked repeatedly about his personal relationships in Real Life, in the movie Paul is asked about his relationship with his father and says: “We’re just good friends.”

Owen listens to them and uses things they actually said so the Beatles are comfortable saying them again on camera and come across so natural and spontaneous that a lot of people assume the dialogue is improvised.

Alun Owen later says it was the only film in his entire career where he was left alone and had complete freedom and his screenplay got nominated for an Academy Award so maybe Hollywood could learn something from that, but the movie came out 59 years ago and I get the impression Hollywood is still trying to control their screenwriters, so I wouldn’t count on Hollywood learning any New Life Lessons at this point.

Now let’s back up in time just a bit and talk about…

The movie soundtrack, which is the reason they’re making the movie

The Beatles agree to do the movie, but say first they’re going to the Caribbean for a vacation and then they’re going to America to do something called “The Ed Sullivan Show” and they’re asked to write six songs for the movie while they’re on vacation and the Beatles say what kind of songs and the answer is “Beatles songs” – maybe two fast ones and two slow ones and after that you’re on your own.

They’re asked to write six songs, but come up with eight because they’re the Beatles and have more good ideas before breakfast than some musicians have in their entire lives. Songs that aren’t in the movie are added to complete the album.

Side 1 are the songs used in the movie, but albums issued in the United Kingdom were not the same as the albums released here, so if your album is different don’t get confused, you’ve got the US version. Now here’s the UK album list of songs, including the song’s length:

Side one:

1. A Hard Day’s Night/2:34

2. I Should have Known Better/2:43

3. If I Fell/2:19

4. I’m Happy Just to Dance With You/1:56

5. And I Love Her/2:30

6. Tell Me Why/2:09

7. Can’t Buy Me Love/2:12

Side Two:

1. Any Time at All/2:11

2. I’ll Cry Instead/1:44

3. Things We Said Today/2:35

4. When I Get Home/2:17

5. You Can’t Do That/2:35

6. I’ll Be Back/2:24

That’s a total of 30 minutes and nine seconds of music and the Beatles manage to cram in more creative ideas and unique sounds into those 30 minutes and nine seconds than most bands manage in their careers.

Come to think of it, some bands have longer guitar solos.

When I saw those song lengths I found it hard to believe I’ll Cry Instead is just one minute and 44 seconds long and one of my musician sons said those songs might seem longer because the Beatles packed a lot of musical events into a short amount of time. In less than two minutes the Beatles provide: a guitar opening, two verses, a bridge, a verse, another bridge, another verse and a guitar ending.

It’s only one minute and 44 seconds, but a lot happens.

Four Beatles and Four Personalities

As the production goes on and Lester watches what they’ve shot so far, he realizes the Beatles are actually pretty good on camera and says let’s give them more to do.

Meanwhile…

George says to Alun that it doesn’t appear that he’s written much for him and Alun thinks George is right and decides to give them each a scene of their own. Ringo wanders around alone, George mistakenly enters a fashion trendsetter’s office, John gets recognized in a back stage hallway and Paul spends most of his time being adorable.

Phil Collins, who hosted the documentary, says A Hard Day’s Night and those scenes made the Beatles individuals with separate personalities – John’s the Witty One, Paul’s the Cute One, George’s the Quiet One, Ringo’s the Goofy One – and since the movie came out not much has changed how we view them.

Timeout for a Timeline

When the Beatles agree to do the movie they’re still seen as a mostly British phenomenon, but then they do that thing called “The Ed Sullivan Show” and by the time A Hard Day’s Night comes out they’re international super stars.

So now interest in the movie is a high and lot of people – who’d seen those Elvis and Frankie Avalon and Pat Boone movies – go into the theater wondering just how bad it’s going to be, but walk out thinking it’s actually great and the Beatles are the New Marx Brothers.

Walter Shenson invites his mother to a showing and she leans over after five or six minutes and says this picture is going to do well and when Walter asks why, she says because you can see how much fun they’re having.

Roger Ebert calls it one of the five best musicals ever made and teaches college classes on it. He also says A Hard Day’s Night doesn’t condescend to its audience; it’s a smart movie for smart viewers. They don’t use one of those lame soundtracks where the music lets you know when you’re supposed to laugh, they just do funny stuff completely deadpan and assume the audience is smart enough to get the jokes.

The movie is such a hit Princess Margaret shows up to see it and they have a reception with food afterwards and George asks Walter Shenson when it’s OK to eat and Walter says not until the Princess leaves, so then George being George walks over to Princess Margaret and says:

“Ma’am, Walter says we can’t eat until you leave…and we’re hungry.”

So Princess Margaret says, oh, we’ve over stayed our welcome and leaves and I threw that story in because it shows the Beatles’ flippant attitude toward Society’s Rules of Acceptable Behavior was the real thing, not a pose.

Here’s what Dick Lester had to say about that:

"The general aim of the film was to present what was apparently becoming a social phenomenon in this country. Anarchy is too strong a word, but the quality of confidence that the boys exuded! Confidence that they could dress as they liked, speak as they liked, talk to the Queen as they liked, talk to the people on the train who 'fought the war for them' as they liked. ... [Everything was] still based on privilege—privilege by schooling, privilege by birth, privilege by accent, privilege by speech. The Beatles were the first people to attack this... they said if you want something, do it. You can do it. Forget all this talk about talent or ability or money or speech. Just do it."

Walter Shenson says:

“What made it all work, the Beatles had great presence, you couldn’t keep your eyes of them.”

That’s obviously true, but it took a smart producer, director and screenwriter to realize the Beatles were entertaining enough on their own and didn’t need any of the Standard Hollywood Bullshit; all they had to do was capture the Beatles charisma, energy and wit put it on the screen.

And they did.

Next up – I promise – a look at the movie itself, A Hard Day’s Night.