SIMON MARSHALL:<\/strong> Can he read? To devise the dialogue the Beatles would be called on to speak, Lester tapped playwright Alun Owen. Given carte blanche to make any kind of film they wanted, Lester and Owen hit upon a \u201cday in the life\u201d format after spending time with the band and witnessing firsthand their barbed backstage banter and the frenzy of their fans. Writing scenes and inventing situations the untried screen actors could carry off was the order of the day, as was casting the right supporting players for them to play off of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chief among them was Steptoe and Son<\/em> star Wilfrid Brambell, who turned 52 while essaying the role of Paul McCartney\u2019s troublemaking grandfather, along for the trip to London and determined to get up to as much mischief as possible. In spite of this \u2013 and the fact that he\u2019s introduced reading Men Only<\/em> magazine \u2013 the elder McCartney is frequently described as \u201cvery clean,\u201d a nod to his Steptoe<\/em> character, who was often called a \u201cdirty old man.\u201d While this detail may have been lost on viewers outside of Britain, it\u2019s nevertheless a running gag that never runs out of steam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the Beatles, caught fleeing from their screaming fans, the first actor seen during A Hard Day\u2019s Night<\/em>\u2019s iconic opening titles is Norman Rossington, doing a bit of comic business (trying in vain to open a container of milk) during cutaways from the hysteria. As the band\u2019s embattled manager Norm, Rossington portrays a man driven to his wit\u2019s end, especially as he\u2019s in a pitched \u201cbattle of nerves\u201d with the ever-rebellious John Lennon, whose go-to putdown is to call him a \u201cswine.\u201d (Eventually, John progresses to snorting and tossing off lines like \u201cYou\u2019d look great with an apple in your gob.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Norm\u2019s polar opposite is his unflappable assistant Shake, played by John Junkin. McCartney was so taken with the Norm\/Shake dynamic, he incorporated it into his screenplay for 1984\u2019s Give My Regards to Broad Street<\/em>, giving his Australian manager (played by an overqualified Bryan Brown) a bumbling, Shake-like assistant. For his part, Junkin acts more guileless and good-natured than anything else, but his finest moment comes when he gets George to show him how to shave in a mirror and winces when George \u201cnicks\u201d his reflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After Norm, the character most given over to worry is Victor Spinetti\u2019s unnamed T.V. director, whose job would be much less stressful if he didn\u2019t have to deal with the talent (or their meddling grandparents). \u201cI see it all now,\u201d he mutters to himself. \u201cIt\u2019s a plot. A plot.\u201d His worries about being replaced are unfounded, though. In fact, Lester brought Spinetti back the following year for the Beatles\u2019 second film Help!<\/em>, in which he channeled his passive aggression into the diabolically ineffective scientist Prof. Foot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of the other actors only get one scene to make an impression, but that\u2019s just what Richard Vernon does as the businessman who shares a train compartment with the Fab Four and encompasses the generation gap in the space of two minutes. That\u2019s twice as long as Anna Quayle gets as the woman who recognizes John backstage, then playfully banters with him when he cheekily denies it. And as much praise as Ringo Starr gets for his one-on-one with a boy playing hooky from school, the real Beatle acting honors go to George for his standoff with Kenneth Haigh\u2019s supercilious ad man (quoted above). The script gives each band member their moments to shine, but George is the best at underplaying the sardonic lines Owen penned for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a film has been around for six decades and still feels as fresh and surprising as it did when it premiered, that\u2019s a sign its makers caught lightning in a bottle. A Hard Day\u2019s Night<\/em> catches the Beatles just as they were becoming a worldwide cultural phenomenon, but crucially before they grew weary of the downsides of fame. It also collects an array of comedic performers in their prime who played a part, however large or small, in making them look as good as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA Hard Day\u2019s Night\u201d is streaming on the <\/em>Criterion Channel<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Max<\/em><\/a>. It has also been released by Criterion in <\/em>4K<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
GEORGE HARRISON: Course I can.
SIMON: I mean lines, ducky. Can you handle lines?
GEORGE: Well, I\u2019ll have a bash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/hard-days2-1024x673.jpg\")
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