The Beatles as Marxists

Rating: 7/10 (26 November 2010)

The idea of putting pop stars and their band in movies goes back to Rudy Valle and his Connecticut Yankees in early sound. With a fan base and popularity already established a large audience capture would be inevitable even if the story line was tepid. As long as you injected a half a dozen songs or more into the plot it was a recipe for success. Vallee didn't take off but Bing and Elvis did and while Crosby had better scripts the lame Elvis vehicles killed at the box office.
The Beatles phenomena was only a couple of years old when they released Hard Day's Night in 1964 and it predictably did excellent box office. What wasn't predictable was with the ease the Fab Four, albeit playing themselves, were at Marxian comedy. Under the stylishly hip (part mod, part nouvelle vague) direction of American ex-Pat Richard Lester, Night has an infectious energy that is bouyed by the comfortable impish charm of the quartet. Lester wisely avoids joining the boys at the hip allowing each his own space away from the other much of the film and they all comport themselves (especially Ringo) surprisingly well; though truth be told Wilfrid Bramble as Paul's rebellious grandfather steals every scene he is in.
There's an album's worth of great tunes (still selling millions 45 years later) that make the film an even better listen but the band's brand of dead pan and anarchic humor (Marx Brothers light) is more than enough to sustain this very amusing little film on its own.