Shut Up and Sing

Rating: 6/10 (15 February 2017)

Directed by Richard Lester and written by Alun Owen, "A Hard Day's Night" is a musical comedy starring the Beatles at the initial explosion of 'Beatlemania.' The movie focuses on several days in the lives of the members while in England, including recording music and a concert at the end with the requisite screaming pubescent girls.
While the Beatles were before my time, they were indeed great. There was something about the chemistry of the members that produced catchy hit after hit during their decade together from 1960-1970. When "A Hard Day's Night" (the movie) was released in the summer of '64, simultaneously with the album of the same name, they had only three albums of material released in two years, 1963-1964. The producers wanted to get a movie out before their popularity waned, like practically every other pop rock artist or group. But their fame was not to decline, as their appeal spread to young and older alike. They would release four more movies before breaking up, if you include the animated "Yellow Submarine."
"A Hard Day's Night" is considered a cult movie, and I can see why. It captures the group while they're not much more than kids, still in shock about their skyrocketing success. The best parts, of course, are the music numbers, which play like what would later become known as music videos. Seriously, any time one of their hooky ditties starts playing your attention perks up and your feet & hands start moving in delight. It's the in between scenes that are problematic. You might enjoy these sequences more than me if you're enamored by the members. I'm not; I just like their music. I suppose it doesn't help that these episodes are plagued by mumbling dialogue with the corresponding English accent, not to mention British humor from the time period that I mostly don't 'get.'
The film runs 87 minutes and was shot entirely in England.
GRADE: B-