Conference bookie::movies

    Don't forget "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter".
    
    Ray

RE             <<< Note 71.0 by 17617::MAYNARD "Late For The Sky" >>>

>    Anyone else remember these, and does anyone know why they're
>    never shown on television, and (to the best of my knowledge)
>    unavailable on videotape?
    
  I'm just guessing here, but as I remember they were really terrible. The only
good Beatles movies were "Let it Be" and "The Concert for Bangladesh" and that
was because both movies were about the guys in the group playing music. 

  From what I saw of the earlier ones, they were sort of slapstick comedy. I
remember George Harrison complaining about how much he disliked doing those
movies so maybe the band members are resisting having them released. 

  George 

    Um, "A Hard Day's Night" got rave reviews and at least partial credit
    (split with Lenny Bernstein) for the Beatles' middle-brow cultural
    oomph, as well as for goosing Richard Lester's career real good.
    
    But everyone except for the Monkees agrees that the follow-up, "Help!",
    was lacking in the human drama dept.
    
    And most of the other Brit Invasion films were just trying to knock off 
    "A Hard Day's Night" or "Help", right?  
    
    Ray

    Yes, "A Hard Day's Night" was definitely a brilliant movie, a kind of
    satire on their own success. 
    
    	Reporter:  How did you find America?
    	John Lennon:  Turn left at Greenland.
    
    By the way, the voices used in "Yellow Submarine" were not those of the
    Beatles.
    
    And "Magical Mystery Tour" was a bona fide turkey (although it was made
    for British television, and was not actually a feature film.)
    
    -- Mike

    John Boorman ("Excalibur", "The Emerald Forest", "Deliverance", etc.)
    directed the Dave Clark Five in "Having a Wild Weekend" [aka "Catch Us
    If You Can"].  It was his directorial debut.
    
    And yes, it was a knock-off of "A Hard Day's Night".
    
    - Dave

  I really liked "Let it Be" a lot. It was basically a movie about how the
Beatles worked together during their last few years. You could see the strain
between Paul and George and by then Paul and John were not talking to each
other much at all. It was also clear how much George Harrison's disposition
improved when Billie Preston showed up to play key board. 

  Their rendition of "Get Back" up on the roof was probably one of their last
live concerts. I was surprised to see that John was playing lead guitar and
George was playing rhythm guitar. Usually it was the other way around.

  The best of the Beatle movies was "The Concert for Bangladesh". It was a
benefit concert in Madison Square Garden back in the early 70's to raise money
for Bangladesh. Most of the songs were from George Harrison's "All things must
pass" with other songs by the other band members. The band included

  George Harrison	guitar and vocals
  Eric Clapton   	guitar and vocals
  Billie Preston        Organ
  Leon Russel           Piano
  Ringo Star            Drums
  Most of the guys from "Badfinger" and a few others.

  Leon Russel did "Youngblood" and the best rendition of "Jumping Jack Flash"
that I've ever heard.

  About 2/3rds the way through, most of the band left and Bob Dylan came out
and did a few numbers backed up by George Harrison on guitar, Leon Russel on
base, and Ringo on tambourine. 

  The high point of the concert was the lead guitar duet by George Harrison
and Eric Clapton on "While my Guitar Gently Weeps".

  In addition to seeing the movie twice, I've worn out 2 copies of the LP and
now have the CD.

  One of the few *****,
  George

The Monkee movie "Head" is on March 27th at 4:20am on TBS.

I've never seen it before, but I've read in numerous sources that it's
really entertaining (no sarcasm here), and I've never seen a bad review.

Lisa

    It does suffer a bit from the "Bedazzled" factor --  that is, most
    people who will tell you about the film are not describing the film so
    much as describing their surprised delight at getting their minds
    slightly made love to.
    
    Prepare to be somewhat disappointed and you'll enjoy it. 
    
    Ray

	I must be one of the only ones either old enough or with my memory
	intact to remember the movies "Every Days a Holiday" and "Up Jumped
	a Swagman". The first starred Mike "Come Outside" Sarne, John "Johnny
	Remember Me" Leyton and Freddie "Who wears Short Shorts" and the
	Dreamers. Variation on the "Lets put on a show" plot with the cast
	acting as Redcoats at a holiday camp and the end of season concert
	leading to love and a record contract... The second was a vehicle for
	Frank "I Remember You" Ifield and a simple story of an Australian
	settling in London in the early Sixties.

	I would have thought that in the case of these and the previously
	mentioned films that the idea was to bring the faces of the music
	stars to the attention of the masses in a similar manner to that of
	music videos nowadays. No real worth except for publicity (although
	there were the string of (gulp!) Cliff Richard movies which are 
	regularly rehashed on TV, "Summer Holiday","Expresso Bongo" actually
	on TV this week, and other minor classics....8^)}...)

	

    Herman's Hermits also did a film.  The Dave Clark 5's film was shown on
    cable recently, sort of around the time that he re-released the groups
    music.  I have it on tape.  It wasn't too bad.