A Hard Day's NightAs much as light and breezy the concept is, the characters are chewed off way too much that just as the premise, the audience too starts to feel the heat of this hectic day that the characters are having. Alyn Owen's gripping screenplay keeps the audience engaged for around 90 minutes where the art works not only just for the fans but for general viewers too. The director; Richard Lester, has done an amazing job on depicting the "behind the stage" drama and the work that goes through in here. The performance is something that could have improved a lot but still the actors have done quite a nice job even though isn't justified to the script. A Hard Day's Night is a writer's feature for if not the fans of The Beetles, the only thing the viewers will take home from it, is its witty conversation and humorous lines.

I am the same age as Ringo Starr and was born only a little over a week before John Lennon, so I watch A Hard Day's Night with more than ordinary nostalgia, the kind that might make me say with Wordsworth, "Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, / But to be young was very heaven!" except that I'd be lying. Still, if there was bliss to be had in that post-Kennedy-assassination, Goldwater- haunted, Cold War summer of '64, it was to be found in watching John, Paul, George, and Ringo larking about at the movies. It was a breath of optimism, a statement that youth could conquer the world. It didn't quite turn out that way, but it didn't for Wordsworth either: He was talking about the French Revolution, which proved not to be so heavenly. This is, of course, one of the great film musicals, packed with engaging songs. They may be more lightweight than the Beatles' later oeuvre, lifting the heart rather than stirring the imagination, but they're impossible to resist. It also slyly, cheekily makes its point about the generation the Beatles are trying to leave behind: the ineptly bullying managers (Norman Rossington and John Junkin), the fussy TV director (Victor Spinetti), the marketing executive (Kenneth Haigh) sure that he has a handle on What the Kids Want, the Blimpish man on the train (Richard Vernon) who tells Ringo, "I fought the war for your sort." Ringo's reply: "I bet you're sorry you won." Celebrity is closing in on them, epitomized by the wonderfully elliptical dialogue in John's encounter with a woman (Anna Quayle) who is sure that she recognizes him but then puts on her glasses and proclaims, "You don't look like him at all." John mutters, "She looks more like him than I do." Alun Owen's screenplay, written after hanging out with the Beatles, absorbing and borrowing their own jokes, was one of the two Oscar nominations the film received, along with George Martin's scoring. None of the songs, of course, were nominated. Neither were Richard Lester's direction, Gilbert Taylor's cinematography, or John Jympson's editing, all of which kept the film buoyant and fleet. (charlesmatthews.blogspot.com)

Within two short years, the Beatles had completely changed Britain's musical and cultural landscape. They had consigned solo ballad singers (usually American and called Bobby) to the scrap heap and men started wearing their hair longer, dressing more smartly and becoming fashion conscious. And now with their film "Hard Day's Night" at the Odeon, they were throwing out a challenge to a film industry that had previously made teen musical films with ineptitude and with disdain for the audience. Everyone expected the Fab Four's first film to be a cheap cash in on their perceived short term popularity, but in the hands of director Dick Lester, "Hard Day's Night" came swinging into town with a zing and a freshness and a brash with-it-ness. The story is slight, it's a day in the life of John, Paul, George and Ringo and Paul's grandfather played by Wilfrid Brambell who tags along with them. They weren't actors - so cleverly Dick Lester has captured as best he can the actual personality of each person and each Beatle gets his own little scene (except Paul whose scene with Isla Blair was cut from the final print) and Ringo displays a natural comic talent. Support came from Victor Spinetti, Norman Rossington, John Junkin and Deryck Guyler, and the songs included 'I Should Have Known Better', 'Can't Buy Me Love', 'If I Fell' etc. Believe it or not the BBFC were not too happy about a veiled drug reference when John sniffs a Coke bottle and asked for a dialogue cut when someone says 'get knotted', but this was reinstated in the 1980s for video release. The support at the Odeon in Glasgow was "Bird Man", a 15-minute interest feature about parachutists which meant that the film could be played five times a day at 12:45, 2:50, 5:00, 7:05, and 9:15, and queues were right along to and down West Nile Street.Adapted from 'What We Watched In The 1960s (In The Cinema) Jim Doyle is the author of 'What We Watched In The 1960s (In The Cinema)', 'What We Watched In The 1970s (In The Cinema)" and 'What We Watched In The 1980s (In The Cinema And On Video)'

The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) are traveling from Liverpool to London for a TV performance. They bring along Paul's grandfather as well as their various entourage on the trip as they have fun misadventures.This is simply fun and its success suggests the coming marriage of pop music and video imagery. The dry British humor is fun and it's all about the lads' charm. They sell the material better than any experienced actors. They seem to be really enjoying themselves. In that sense, director Richard Lester is lucky and he's also smart enough to let them go at it. And the music is so great. It is a pop icon of the 20th century.