Sunday, February 9, 2014

The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night (1965)

Yes, "A Hard Day's Night" was also the title of The Beatles' 1st feature film, as well as the title used for the first short in their animated series. Coincidence? Yep.

Unable to find a quiet place to rehearse in, of all places, Transylvania, the band decides to visit a certain spooky castle, at the suggestion of Ringo (Lance Percival), who is presented here as being dumber than a bag of hammers.

The only drawback I can see is Paul Frees' characterization of John & George. His voice for John sounds the same as the one he uses for authority figures, such as Inspector Fenwick (Dudley Do-Right) or the Chief (Secret Squirrel, which also debuted that season), and his George is simply another "Generic Frees Voice". Frees also is the caretaker in the graveyard.



Executive Producer Al Brodax may have exhausted King Features' expense account on licensing fees for the music, such that he couldn't hire enough actors. Bad idea.

 Rating: C.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

I always figured Paul Frees used a "British Doughboy" voice for John! George was a bit like a British Morocco Mole.

I had heard the producers wanted the get the Beatles themselves for the voices but supposedly claimed American children wouldn't understand their Liverpudlian accents. Personally, I'd think money was more of a factor. How many kids would have known the difference?

I had also heard that when they were friends, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney used to sit and watch cartoon together. I wouldn't be surprised if this and the J5 cartoons were among them.

hobbyfan said...

Frees couldn't be motivated to use an accent, it seems. Percival, a British actor, was closest to actually impersonating George & Ringo. As I noted, money, or lack of it, was really the cause of the lack of artistic quality in terms of acting.