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    The Beatles On Film: A Filmycks Guide
    The Beatles On Film: A Filmycks Guide
    The Beatles On Film: A Filmycks Guide
    Ebook72 pages1 hour

    The Beatles On Film: A Filmycks Guide

    By Michael J. Roberts

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    About this ebook

    "Before Elvis there was nothing" – John Lennon

    Discovering the joy of the epoch defining music and of the scarcely believable story of a certain Liverpudlian quartet, who operated in a small time window during the second half of the 20th century, seems to be an experience that will long outlive all those who lived through it. Apart from the music, which speaks for itself, a good place to find out about the people involved and what all the fuss was about is to work through their feature film output and to examine some of the better films that are centred on their story, or parts of it. As opposed to the Elvis Presley film legacy, the Beatles were well served in the main by the cinematic medium, leaving a body of work to be envious of and they remain crucial visual documents of a miraculous time. The Beatles story is revealed in some depth via the 'documentary' bookends of the fable, The Beatles: The First US Visit and A Hard Day's Night at the beginning and the (almost) warts and all Let It Be at the fractious end. The lads took to the silver screen with a naturalness and flair typical of their approach to every aspect of their career, but unlike Elvis they never let the 'tail' of their film work wag the 'dog' of their musical work.

    Elvis Presley, ironically, was their hero, but even they were quick to condemn the hackneyed scripts and hack directors that the 'King' was lumbered with. Elvis and his manager, The Colonel, an ex-carnival flim-flam man, both felt rock and roll was a fad, as did conventional entertainment industry wisdom and they agreed that the future for Elvis and 'legitimate' stardom, was to be found in movies. Hal Wallis was a fading Hollywood power in the mid 1950's, working at Paramount after a dazzling career in the 1930's and 1940's that saw him produce, amongst others, the immortal The Adventures of Robin Hood and Casablanca for Warner Brothers. Wallis knew an entertainment phenomena when he saw one, having helmed Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin's transition from the comedy nightclub stage to Hollywood stardom and he cannily packaged the charismatic boy from Memphis for mass consumption.

    What Hal Wallis did was play to an already established market and this immediately put Presley in a straightjacket in terms of scripts and scenario's that would play to those preconceptions. The pity of it was that the formula Wallis established was never varied and the electric performer that audiences loved on the rock and roll stage was rarely spotted on the silver screen. Wallis later said, "Elvis was a great entertainer, and a great personality, and that is what we bought when we bought him. The idea of tailoring Elvis for dramatic roles is something that we never attempted because we did not sign Elvis as a second Jimmy Dean. We signed him as a number one Elvis Presley." Wallis hired his old cronies, B-list writers and directors like Hal Kanter and Norman Taurog, veterans of the Lewis and Martin cycle and of some old Bob Hope chestnuts.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateMar 4, 2014
    ISBN9781483522135
    The Beatles On Film: A Filmycks Guide

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      Book preview

      The Beatles On Film - Michael J. Roberts

      Resources

      A Filmycks Guide

      The Beatles On Film

      Michael J Roberts

      The Filmycks Philosophy

      Art is a lie that reveals the truth - Pablo Picasso

      In order to negotiate the complex maze of more than 100 years of cinema and the endless choices on offer it helps to have a reliable gauge. Filmycks is guided by a set of principles dedicated to cinema that is timeless, humanist and universal. Filmycks intends to champion cinema of social and political consciousness, analyse existentialist themes and promote thoughtful and intelligent films from every era, films that engage the mind as well as the heart.

      Filmycks is also keen to promote a greater understanding of French film amongst Anglo audiences, believing the great French era's that encompassed Poetic Realism and the Nouvelle Vague to have produced some of the most astonishing films yet. Film Noir is also a genre much favoured, as is the American Renaissance era of the 1970's and the films and directors associated with the American Blacklist.

      The work of the iconic directors remains a source of rich material for dissection and understanding, so much will be made of Renoir, Ford, Hitchcock, Bergman, Hawks, Truffaut, Kubrick, Haneke, and many others too many to mention. Filmycks will encourage greater understanding of the famous 'auteur' theory, like democracy it may not be perfect, but it's currently the best system we have.

      When film operates at the highest level it becomes an indispensable way of understanding ourselves, holding up a mirror to humanity, our nature and our maddening paradoxes. Jean-Luc Godard said, Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret selves, so come join the Filmycks quest as we continue to be fascinated with the silver screen at twenty four frames a second.

      Michael J Roberts

      Filmycks

      Chapter One

      The Boys Can't Help It

      Before Elvis there was nothing – John Lennon

      Discovering the joy of the epoch defining music and of the scarcely believable story of a certain Liverpudlian quartet, who operated in a small time window during the second half of the 20th century, seems to be an experience that will long outlive all those who lived through it. Apart from the music, which speaks for itself, a good place to find out about the people involved and what all the fuss was about is to work through their feature film output and to examine some of the better films that are centred on their story, or parts of it. As opposed to the Elvis Presley film legacy, the Beatles were well served in the main by the cinematic medium, leaving a body of work to be envious of and they remain crucial visual documents of a miraculous time. The Beatles story is revealed in some depth via the 'documentary' bookends of the fable, The Beatles: The First US Visit and A Hard Day's Night at the beginning and the (almost) warts and all Let It Be at the fractious end. The lads took to the silver screen with a naturalness and flair typical of their approach to every aspect of their career, but unlike Elvis they never let the 'tail' of their film work wag the 'dog' of their musical work.

      Elvis Presley, ironically, was their hero, but even they were quick to condemn the hackneyed scripts and hack directors that the 'King' was lumbered with. Elvis and his manager, The Colonel, an ex-carnival flim-flam man, both felt rock and roll was a fad, as did conventional entertainment industry wisdom and they agreed that the future for Elvis and 'legitimate' stardom, was to be found in movies. Hal Wallis was a fading Hollywood power in the mid 1950's, working at Paramount after a dazzling career in the 1930's and 1940's that saw him produce, amongst others, the immortal The Adventures of Robin Hood and Casablanca for Warner Brothers. Wallis knew an entertainment phenomena when he saw one, having helmed Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin's transition from the comedy nightclub stage to Hollywood stardom and he cannily packaged the charismatic boy from Memphis for mass consumption.

      What Hal Wallis did was play to an already established market and this immediately put Presley in a straightjacket in terms of scripts and scenario's that would play to those preconceptions. The pity of it was that the formula Wallis established was never varied and the electric performer that audiences loved on the rock and roll stage was rarely spotted on the silver screen. Wallis later said, Elvis was a great entertainer, and a great personality, and that is what we bought when we bought him. The idea of tailoring Elvis for dramatic roles is something that we never attempted because we did not sign Elvis as a second Jimmy Dean. We signed him as a number one Elvis Presley. Wallis hired his old cronies, B-list writers and directors like Hal Kanter and Norman Taurog, veterans of the Lewis and Martin cycle and of some old Bob Hope chestnuts.

      Wallis never went looking for A-list directors, writers and performers to create a more artistically satisfying experience and the main reason he did not, was he never had to. Wallis was quoted as saying, when all of Hollywood was struggling to make a buck against the onslaught of network television, A Presley picture is the only sure thing in Hollywood. Hollywood produced some great art, it made Citizen Kane after all, but it was primarily a commercial business and the bottom line ruled, as wunderkind Orson Welles found after his masterpiece made a loss. Welles was welcomed in Hollywood as a boy

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