Cast: John Lennon (John Lennon), Paul McCartney (Paul McCartney), George Harrison (George Harrison), Ringo Starr (Ringo Starr), Wilfrid Brambell (Grandfather John McCartney)

 Director: Richard Lester

Writer: Alun Owen

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr appear as themselves in a very loosely plotted story of the events that lead up to a fictionalized television performance.  Filled with great songs and jokes, this is a fun trip in a day out to watch the Fab Four as they tell us like it is.

Filmed over seven weeks about a month after their historic appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show", ‘Hard Day's Night’ opens with the four young men evading the young, predominantly female screaming masses, mainly teenage fans who follow them around. With Beatlemania at its height on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, such fanfare was expected for the four mop-topped Liverpudlian lads.

John, Paul, George, and Ringo, then all in their early twenties, make it onto a train trying to get away from hysterical girls who pour out their hearts screaming, where they are joined by Paul's heartbroken "other" grandfather (Wilfrid Brambell), a "little old man" everyone notices is "very clean." The boys are a playful lot, chasing girls and cheating at cards. Grandpa is even more of a troublemaker, forging signatures and prompting Ringo to take up artsy photography mere hours before the band is scheduled to perform for television. At their hotel, the Grandfather takes Ringo’s invitation to a casino to enjoy a night on the town, while the boys decide to go out dancing.  The grandfather keeps getting into trouble, and eventually sends Ringo off for an afternoon by himself, which leads to problems with the cops. Will they make back to the studio for the T show?

It’s a fun spectacle to see the boys running around trying to find Ringo. All these sequences are famous because the boys were big at that time and the film captures them in their playful best. Even though the film is black & white, it shows off the boys in all their attire and outfits and impish sense of humour. Some scenes in the film are on the grainy side, but that doesn’t keep the story from moving forward.

‘Hard Day's Night’ is something of a Mickey of the Beatles, a look at the lives of these pop sensations, doing finny things with fake wigs and beards. And, of course, there are songs, A Hard Day's Night, I Should Have Known Better, I Wanna Be Your Man, Don't Bother Me, All My Loving, Can't Buy Me Love, And I Love Her, Ringo's Theme (This Boy), She Loves You, among many others scattered throughout the film all by the boys John Lennon, George Martin, Paul McCartney.

US Theatrical Release: 11^th August, 1964

Running Time: 88 Minutes

Rating: *****

Reviewed by Verus Ferreira