A Hard Day's Night — Their First Movie

["A Hard Day's Night" by The Beatles]

Narrator: After having enjoyed all the success a recording group could ever hope for and finally achieve, the height of their success is still nowhere in sight. Their record sales to date have reached a figure beyond all comprehension. The next obvious step to further the Beatle image was a move from the world of wax to the world of celluloid, and the medium of motion pictures...

Narrator: The initial announcement that The Beatles were going to make a motion picture aroused immediate and predictable enthusiasm from fans, but Beatle critics also welcomed the news, with a cynical hope that exposure on film would expose The Beatles as entertainment world freaks long on hair but short on talent. Beatle enemies also smirked in anticipation of the poison-pen treatment which they forecast would come from America's hard-nosed motion picture critics. Described officially as a low-budget film with little or no storyline, it was given all the publicity treatment of a major spectacular. Interviews were granted, The Beatles said they had fun, didn't act; John Lennon even admitted that they couldn't act!

John Lennon: "Well this is as good as anybody who makes a film that can't act, you know?" (Laughter)

Narrator: Newspaper and magazine critics held their pen at ready. Previews were held and so were breaths. Then—surprise—the most competent reviewers hailed The Beatles' first motion picture as a smash hit. They were compared to the Marx Brothers and encouraged to do it again. Amazed readers, pre-conditioned to knock the movie, now made plans to see it. In England, Beatle manager Brian Epstein casually looked up from a masterplan of a future Beatle tour to announce that the movie would break every existing motion picture box office record. The Beatles? As usual, they were just busy being Beatles...

John Lennon: "Ringo, John, Paul, George. Ringo, John, Paul, George..."

Paul McCartney: "All together now!"

The Beatles: "Ringo, John, Paul, George. Yay!"

Paul McCartney: "By Jove, they've got it!"

Narrator: An estimated one hundred million Americans have already seen The Beatles on television or at their neighborhood theaters. Hundreds of thousands more have seen The Beatles in person. And that's just one country in a Beatle marketplace that knows no limits. This is only the beginning, for almost everything The Beatles now do sets a new entertainment record...