Why It Was ‘Cheaper and Easier’ for the Beatles To Make Movies Outside Hollywood
The Beatles were professional songwriters and, sometimes, amateur actors. In 1964, the Fab Four starred in the music film A Hard Day’s Night, creating the movie in England instead of Hollywood. Here’s what Paul McCartney said about their choice to stay in the UK for this project.
The Beatles released their music film ‘A Hard Day’s Night’
The Beatles are the chart-topping artists behind A Hard Day’s Night — the 1964 full-length album featuring “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “And I Love Her,” and “If I Fell.” McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr also acted in a movie of the same title.
The 1964 music film, according to its IMDb description, followed the Beatles over two ‘typical’ days. The performers acted as themselves, with McCartney’s grandfather causing trouble with their upcoming live performance.
The Beach Boys’ Mike Love commended the band for their marketing and merchandising, writing in his memoir that they “understood film in ways that we did not: A Hard Day’s Night, starring the Beatles was released in 1964, at the height of Beatlemania, became one of the most influential music films of all time.”
The Beatles said England was ‘the natural place’ to film ‘A Hard Day’s Night’
With A Hard Day’s Night’s success, the Beatles were asked about creating movies in other countries during a press conference (via Beatles Interviews). Harrison said they were open to the change. However, the choice to film in England made the most sense.
“The thing is, the natural place for American people to make films is Hollywood, and it’s unnatural for us to come all the way over here when we’ve got the same facilities in England,” McCartney explained. “It’s more a prestige thing to make a film in Hollywood — not any real need to do it. And it’s much cheaper and easier to do it in England for us.”
When asked about the differences between American and British filmmakers, Harrison noted that two of the Beatles’ film crew members were from the United States — A Hard Day’s Night director Dick Lester and producer Walter Shensen.
What movies did the Beatles release?
A year after A Hard Day’s Night debuted, the Beatles released their music comedy Help, featuring their original song of the same title. This includes more acting from the Fab Four, with Ringo Starr accidentally recruited by a religious cult.
One of their most popular productions is Yellow Submarine — an animated film where the “music-loving inhabitants of Pepperland” were plagued by the Blue Meanies. There were characters like The Lord Mayor of Pepperland, Old Fred the sailor, and, of course, the Beatles.
Recently, the band appeared in the documentary series The Beatles: Get Back, where he planned for their final concert — a rooftop performance at their Apple Corps headquarters in London.
