Magical Mystery Tour

Plot synopsis:
The situation is that of a group of people on a British mystery tour in a 1967 coach, focusing mostly on Mr Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr) and his recently widowed Aunt Jessie (Jessie Robins). Other group members on the bus include the tour director, Jolly Jimmy Johnson (Derek Royle); the tour hostess, Miss Wendy Winters (Miranda Forbes, credited as Mandy Weet); the conductor, Buster Bloodvessel (Ivor Cutler); and the other Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison).
During the course of the tour, "strange things begin to happen" at the whim of "four or five magicians", four of whom are played by the Beatles themselves and the fifth by the band's long-time road manager Mal Evans.
During the journey, Ringo and his Aunt Jessie argue continually. Aunt Jessie begins to have daydreams of falling in love with Buster Bloodvessel, who displays increasingly eccentric and disturbing behaviour. The tour involves several strange activities, such as an impromptu race in which each of the passengers employs a different mode of transportation (some run, a few jump into cars, a group of people have a long bike they pedal, while Ringo ends up beating them all with the bus). In one scene, the tour group walk through what appears to be a British Army recruitment office and are greeted by the army drill sergeant (Victor Spinetti). (McCartney appears briefly as "Major McCartney", on whose desk rests a sign reading "I you WAS".) The sergeant, shouting incomprehensibly, appears to instruct the assembled onlookers on how to attack a stuffed cow.
The tour group also crawl into a tiny tent in a field, inside which is a projection theatre. A scene in a restaurant shows a waiter (played by Lennon) repeatedly shovelling spaghetti onto the table in front of Aunt Jessie, while arriving guests step out from a lift and walk across the dining tables. The film continues with the tour's male passengers watching a strip show (Jan Carson of the Raymond Revuebar). The film ends with the Beatles dressed in white tuxedos, highlighting a glamourous old-style dance crowd scene, accompanied by the song "Your Mother Should Know".
The film is interspersed with musical interludes, which include the Beatles performing "I Am the Walrus" wearing animal masks, Harrison singing "Blue Jay Way" while waiting on Blue Jay Way Road, and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band performing Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes' "Death Cab For Cutie" sung by Stanshall.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
Although a great album,MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR was definitely not among The Beatles best works as far as movies are concerned, albeit a made for tv movie.
Magical Mystery Tour has the amateur, string-and-stickytape appeal of the early Gumby series, but with the bonus of Northern English sensibilities and great Beatle songs.
The poor boys were shattered after the death of Brian Epstein, John Lennon's marriage was coming to a very unfortunate end, they had had enough of so many things and were moving into a new and frightening phase of their lives : the film can be seen as an expression of all this angst overlaid with nostalgia for the Music Hall, Crazy Gang, Goon Show comedy and tragic sea-side holidays of their, and many of their fans', childhoods, and the sheer, magical power of their creative imaginations always looking forward to new possibilities.
Anyone truly fascinated with the Beatles' music and legacy, especially after thirty years hindsight, ought to be downright thrilled that these four amateur filmmakers could pull off such an original, amusing and tuneful homemovie (not to mention long-form video WAY before it's time) on their spare time between recording Sgt. Pepper and the White Album, no less.
And George's utterly bizarre film for "Blue Jay Way" has gotten better and more mysterious over the years now that I have the patience to actually sit still long enough to see what he wanted to show us, and some of it is creepy as hell.It's impossible to get around how deeply the music and imagery is infused with a seeming preoccupation with death, or mortality at any rate.
Where I used to look upon "Magical Mystery Tour" as The Beatles' attempt at Ken Kesey psychedelic twaddle I now look upon it as a subtle reaction to their grief and loss at having lost their friend & mentor right as they ceased needing him minding their daily affairs.
I can imagine that non-Beatles-fans can find this a very bad movie, but if you have any respect for the fab four of likes their music ('I am the walrus','Fool on the hill','Inner light','Your mother should now')this is a must.(P.S.: I enjoyed the 'coming-down-the-stairs-scene' a lot at the end of the movie).
It's hard to accurately rate this unusual film, since I cannot honestly say I'd consider it "good movie-making," but it certainly still can be fun here and there, which is the whole point.
These days, however, MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR has aged a lot better as a piece of sixties history and a look back on those wild and exuberant times.There isn't any plot to speak of here; we see Ringo Starr and his ever-quarreling fat aunt Jessie boarding a special tour bus consisting of the three other Beatles and a zany cast of misfits and oddballs.
One thing that may always be counted on within any Beatles movie are great songs, and here we're treated to early MTV-like vignettes of John's I AM THE WALRUS, Paul's FOOL ON THE HILL, and George's BLUE JAY WAY.
The six songs presented in the 'Magical Mystery Tour' are however alone better than what the group did with the movie.At times the movie is even hilarious but perhaps too permissive adaptation of some scenes makes the overall atmosphere a bit too lame to be wholly enjoyable.
Therefore the overall impression will become negative to many viewers.My score of this film is actually a combination of two separate categories: people who don't consider themselves as a Beatles fans they will get nothing more than just few cute tunes and for them this is a 4/10 movie.
Seeing it stone cold sober, it's a pretty lame attempt at a Beatles movie (although I admit, I do like some of the music in it)..
Being a die-hard Beatles fan and having seen A Hard Day's Night, Help!, and Yellow Submarine already, naturally I just couldn't live without seeing Magical Mystery Tour.
If your a fan of the Beatles or weird film making style rent this movie, but if you just want a movie with solid story and plot then, well you're the fool on the hill..
If you have the choice of watching the Beatles movies in order of quality, MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR would definitely be in last place, firmly holding the rear.
poor film quality, terrible "acting", rock-bottom "improvisation" and a definite feeling that there was no way to end this movie easily.Despite this unbelievably poor idea, there are moments of surreal abstractions that make it worth watching.
The movie features the only filmed version of Lennon singing "I Am The Walrus", which watching it makes one think that MMT was the casts off of Sgt. Pepper.Many have speculated that this production would never of happened if Brian Epstien had been alive at the time to stop them.
So they decided to end the year with an hour-long comedy-and-music television special on Boxing Day. The problem was that all their success, combined with copious amounts of psychotropic substances, went right to their moptopped heads.Who had the brilliant idea of using handheld cameras that jangle annoyingly throughout the movie?
"Already the magic was beginning to work," intones narrator John Lennon, though there is little evidence of anything other than headache-producing blue-screen effects and an assortment of nonsensical activities that start out tiresome and quickly turn obnoxious.People who like this movie (like Paul McCartney) seldom try to defend these sections as inspired.
"Your Mother Should Know" is the best sequence, opening with the Fabs marching down a flight of stairs in sync and in tails, but no one bothered to figure out what was supposed to happen after they got down, and it shows.Paul and others defend this movie as the only chance we would ever get to see the band perform "I Am The Walrus," but any 12-year-old's imagination can do a better job than seeing John in a shower cap attempting to mime this great song while a line of police bobbies bob up and down.Defenders also talk about this movie breaking barriers and giving vent to surrealist notions that would see their expression in Monty Python's Flying Circus.
In between some terribly unfunny comedy bits, there are a few music videos and in many ways it seems like a much, much lower budgeted version of Paul McCartney's later vanity film, "Give My Regards to Broad Street".As I sat watching this film, I looked through some of the IMDb reviews.
I guess making this movie was a way to show off some of the Beatles' songs, but I would've much preferred the music videos to sitting watching this.
The most surreal gags from 'A Hard Day's Night' do not even compare to the least surreal gags from 'Magical Mystery Tour', one of The Beatles's "quodrilogy" of films (including 'A Hard Day's Night', 'Help!', this, and 'Yellow Submarine'), and certainly their least talked about or appreciated movie.
The soundtrack is obviously fantastic and would probably appeal to a vast majority of mainstream moviegoers but it's still some of the strangest stuff The Beatles have performed ('I Am the Walrus' is an iconic classic for many reasons, two of the main reasons being its heavy surrealism and strange sense of humor), and when paired w/THIS kind of movie is definitely fitting, but totally disorienting to the average person.
And after a recent great UNCUT magazine cover story on this period of The Fabs, I just had to finally check it out.Oh, I'd seen the movie still photos, including Paul in military garb, the fat lady with the spaghetti, and the boys prancing in their white suits inside the record album my brother bought about 50 YEARS AGO.
Basically one huge music video for the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour album.
The acting, especially by the Beatles members, is atrocious.If it wasn't for the music and the fact that this is the Beatles, this would be a 1/10 movie.About the only upside is that now I know where the band Death Cab for Cutie got its name from...Not worth watching, not even for its link to the seminal album..
A made for British TV film, "Magical Mystery Tour" was what John Lennon called, "the most expensive home movie ever made." The film is about Ringo and his Aunt Jessie taking a "mystery" bus trip.
(53%) Before the days of the music video, publicising music on TV was a bit more tricky than it is today, but the Beatles had more clout (and money) than most so they could create a just shy of an hour long TV movie, first aired at Christmas to tens of millions, plugging songs from their new hit record.
Plot wise there is nothing here at all, things just happen a pure random, while the Beatles themselves oddly don't actually do a great deal in terms of actual performances and are largely lost in their own film, with good old George Harrison hardly getting more than a couple of lines.
It didn't.The story is that Ringo takes his aunt on the Magical Mystery Tour with the other Beatles and a bunch of weird stuff happens.
So back in the day, this video was boring and ugly.My final thoughts are that I think this movie is pretty decent and is not as bad as people make it out to be.
Today with our more sophisticated viewing of videos and MTV it just seems like a great long form music video that includes all the latest batch of new songs from the Fab Four way back then.
The Beatles takes us on a long and psychedelic road trip with their "Magical Mystery Tour", a happy, cheerful and unusual road movie whose point is to be happy and incomprehensible.If you're feeling down this film and the music will make you better but don't wait for a conventional musical film.
Here we have The Beatles on a bus along with eccentric passengers such as Ringo's aunt (played by Jessie Robins) and a dwarf photographer (George Claydon) going to weird places, colored locations and unusual situations, sometimes dreaming, other times not, and of course, listening to songs that goes for the "Magical Mystery Tour Theme" to "I am the Walrus" and others.
To me, Beatles can't go wrong although this tour is very messy, sometimes it makes no sense at all unless you're high or drunk (which might be a great experience while viewing this film, it might work better).
Here's four guys having a nice time, doing their best while acting and playing songs, having a moment of happiness and happiness is a great thing, specially if displayed on film which is quite rare.
Some of the dream/subconscious spew sequences approach Fellini or Brunuel for their purity of creative expression.And, of course, Magical Mystery Tour was one of the Beatles' best albums, and all the songs are showcased here.And how nice it is to see the Bonzo Dog Doodah Band, led by Stanshall, doing their thing!.
The only saving grace of the whole movie is that, it is the one and only time and place where one can see John Lennon belt out his classic "I Am the Walrus." Also, the instrumental "Flying" is a great song.
The best part in this movie is when John comes into the room, dressed as a magician, with a tray of tea and says "Talk about your magical mysteries; it took me half an hour to find the sugar!" I love the way his eyes are rolling around in his head while he says it, too!.
only thing that kept me watching this movie was the great music and i thought john looked cute there.
Paul McCartney dismisses it as "it's the only time you'll ever see a performance of I Am The Walrus" that's true - and I recommend this movie *only* for hardcore Beatles fans, and you really only need to see it once...for the sake of seeing it.
Well, yes, this movie does feature some of the Fab Four's best work - "The Fool On the Hill", "Flying", "Blue Jay Way", "Your Mother Should Know", "I am the Walrus", and of course the title song, as well as the jazzy "Death Cab for Cutie" by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.
And if you're going to do that, you might just as well buy the Magical Mystery Tour CD, which also includes "Hello Goodbye", "Penny Lane", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Baby You're a Rich Man" and "All You Need is Love"....If in spite of these comments you still feel compelled to watch the film, it has been released in Australia on DVD.
I love their music and other movies.Magical Mystery Tour is unfathomably awful.
By the time it's over, I want the floor to open up and swallow me.Some years later - 1979, I think - it was shown on British TV, in colour this time, and I watched it again because I couldn't believe that it was actually as bad as I had remembered.It was.Yes, the music sequences were good and, yes, there were some good moments (those with Nichola, the little girl, for instance), but even those tended to go on and on long after they'd made their point (the spaghetti dream sequence).
Except of course this trip keeps getting interrupted by strange happenings and visions, and has some classic Beatles tracks including 'Flying' (with lots of colour filter changes which would have really looked rubbish when this film first aired on TV, in black and white!); 'Blue Jay Way' (in which George drones on while playing a keyboard drawn on a rock); 'Your Mother Should Know' (with the cheesy 'coming down the stairs' bit); 'The Fool on the Hill' (where Paul stands on a hill, natch); and, best of all, 'I Am The Walrus' (with eggmen, walruses, and other strange beings, and some funky spaced out camera work).The fab four also appear as some irritating magicians, all big hats and silly voices, and not that funny, while Ringo's 'aunty' dreams about hitting it off with Buster Bloodvessel (played by the very odd Ivor Cutler).
LSD-Inspired Fun. A hundred years from now, or a thousand, historians wanting to see a film that captures the spirit of flower-power and the late 1960's will watch "Magical Mystery Tour."  This 50-minute LSD-inspired film is fun to watch, with the Beatles "tripping" around the English countryside in a bus with various strange characters, ending up at a weird dinner where a lot of spaghetti is served.
They don't use drugs on camera (of course).It's easy to overlook this film, but it's definitely worth watching just to see the real gem of the piece:  The 1967 music video for "I Am The Walrus." The Walrus video is very low-tech by the standard of videos from the year 2003, but hey, it's the Beatles doing one of their greatest songs, it's such a cool moment!
The lack of a discernible plot and the random cast members detract slightly, but it's certainly worth watching at least once.Perhaps one of its best moments is the only existing live performance of "I Am the Walrus," which is pretty cool to see, and the rest of the song performances (Fool on the Hill, Blue Jay Way, Your Mother Should Know) aren't bad, either.
The aerial scene is beautiful to watch, though, and makes good use of the song "Flying."But don't buy it unless you're a serious fan; you'd do better to use your money on the other Beatles movies..
If you're a Beatles fan, you should see this film just to say that you've seen it and to enjoy the music; otherwise, keep away.
Everybody knows the film was slagged off at the time.It was the first time it had happened in the Fab Four's career.It was also the first time a pop group had directed a movie,a thing many people had forgotten when it was released."It would have been better with a little help from their friend Richard Lester" sneered the critics.Was it worse than Presley's contemporary flicks anyway?Actually its best sequences predate the flood of video clips which swept across the world during the eighties.Video kills the radio stars indeed!.The sequences where Paul sings "Fool on the hill" ,Georges "Blue Jay Way" and of course John "I'm the walrus" were as innovative as Peter Gabriel's extravaganzas 20 years later,given the technology at their disposal in the sixties.The story is admittedly not much and the gags are not really very funny but it was an experiment and an interesting one.Paul's black carnation fueled the "Paul is dead" rumors..
And after seeing gems like "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!", I decided to watch Magical Mystery Tour.
Well, that's why almost forty years later this film is * still * fascinating: NO ONE KNOWS!You may not like it, true, but then again you might think its' great fun.
The movie does include various Beatles songs ("Fool on the Hill," "I Am the Walrus", among others).
Magical Mystery Tour is an hour-long TV movie starring The Beatles - John Lennon,Paul McCartney,George Harrison and Ringo Starr.It was based on a loose unscripted narrative, this experimental film was directed by The Beatles themselves and it was the vehicle to present 6 new songs namely: Magical Mystery Tour, The Fool On The Hill, Flying, I Am The Walrus, Blue Jay Way and Your Mother Should Know.
And getting back on Magical Mystery Tour, it has a fantastic soundtrack with inventive and interesting (and addictive) songs like "The Fool on the Hill," "I am the Walrus," "The Magical Mystery Tour," "Blue Jay Way," and "Your Mother Should Know." This movie is well worth watching, so don't listen to whoever tells you that "it's not as good as the other two" because it IS definitely just as amazing as the other two Beatles movies, but it's just very different in its style- this movie is very out-of-the-ordinary, but it's still very much gear and fab ;).