Please Please Me | With the Beatles | A Hard Day's Night | Beatles for Sale | Help! | Rubber Soul | Revolver
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | Magical Mystery Tour | The White Album | Yellow Submarine | Abbey Road | Let It Be
Past Masters | The Beatles Anthology | The Beatles: Get Back
The Album:
- Awesome Music: The soundtrack itself was a massive step up from the early style that the lads had been using to that point. For starters, it was their first entirely self-composed album. And their music now had improved harmony, better instrumental range, and deeper lyrics. Songs like the title track, "Can't Buy Me Love," and "If I Fell" were immediate hits. Where the first two albums were good, this album is regularly viewed by critics as the first great album the Beatles released.note
- Solo Side Project: In a manner of speaking, this is one for John. He sings solo or joint lead vocals on 9 of the 13 tracks, which he wrote himself, and he also wrote George’s one song on the album. Indeed, if this was your first exposure to the group, you’d be well justified in thinking that “The Beatles” are John’s backing group, much like the Dakotas for Billy J. Kramer.
The Film:
- Aluminum Christmas Trees: During the opening sequence, The Beatles are shown running from fans at the train station. Well, except for Paul, who's disguised himself by wearing a phony beard. In the early years of Beatlemania, the Beatles really wore disguises in public to avoid being seen. Even better, the scene really is of the band running from fans, which just happened to be caught on film.
- And You Thought It Would Fail: Albert R. Broccoli suggested to his producing partner Harry Saltzman that they produce the film. Saltzman refused and suggested they go ahead with Call Me Bwana.Let me ask you something, Cubby: would you rather make a film with four long-haired schnooks from Liverpool who nobody's heard of, when we've got Bob Hope - Bob Hope! All ready to go?"
- Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
- The Beatles taunt an old man on the train, walk away, then suddenly, they're outside, messing with him again, before they get back on, carrying Ringo for some reason.
- An In-Universe instance: During their show in the end, Paul's Grandfather enters the stage through a stage elevator, and George immediately shoves him off, much to the horror of the TV director.
- Fair for Its Day: The portrayal of the ambiguously gay TV director was surprisingly positive given that this film was made back in 1964.
- First Installment Wins: This is generally thought to be the best of the Beatles' movies.
- Genre Turning Point: The movie went a long way towards codifying a lot of the visual techniques and tropes of music videos that dominated The '80s music scene.
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- There are repeated jokes about murdering John Lennon...awkward.
- "A train and a room and a car and a room and a room and a room"...basically the kind of fishbowl atmosphere that the Beatles would really come to loathe by 1966, before they quit touring. They were prisoners of their own success, stayed in enclosed quarters under tight security, and never really got to enjoy being a touring band because it was hard for them to get out and enjoy the places they toured in without being, erm, surged after. Every country or city felt the same as the last one.
- Ringo Starr having the most fan mail is pretty sad in light of how in 2008, he announced he would no longer accept any more fan mail.
- Ringo really would go on to briefly quit the band out of frustration in 1968 as the sessions for The White Album boiled over into nasty bickering among his bandmates. He was welcomed back with flowers and a card saying "Welcome home".
- John's casual torment of Norm, the band's fictional manager. Lennon was a well documented Jerkass to the Beatles' actual manager Brian Epstein. Norm's treatment in the film is actually a much Lighter and Softer version of what Lennon was reported to be capable of with any of his usual victims. Epstein's death at the young age of 32 was seen as the beginning of the end for the band, as afterward they began the infamous in-fighting that led to their break-up.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- John playing with a submarine in the bathtub.
- The performers dressed as a military band present in the TV studio.
- The fake beard and mustache Paul wears to escape the ravenous fans in the film's opening looks pretty similar to the beard Paul would grow around the time of Let It Be (the only time during his life that Paul was known to sport a beard, in fact).
- The entire Le Cercle sequence spoofing James Bond's introduction in Dr. No has gotten funnier thanks to some ties between The Beatles and Bond:
- In Goldfinger, which was released around the same time, Bond says that serving champagne at the wrong temperature is "as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs" (although Word of God says that was a gag about the screaming fans at their shows and not the group itself).
- Paul McCartney would record the theme to Live and Let Die (and was also approached to do the theme for Diamonds Are Forever, Sean Connery's last official film as Bond), with George Martin writing the score, too.
- Ringo Starr later married a Bond girl (Barbara Bach, who played Anya in The Spy Who Loved Me).
- Ho Yay:
- John providing most of it by doing such things as singing love songs to Ringo, blinking frivolously at men on trains, and just briefly passing an effeminate, well-dressed man in a hallway and admiring his attire. That said, John spends a good deal of the movie hitting on women too.John: Gear costume.
Well-Dressed Man: Swap?
John: Cheeky! - Ringo jumping around with that guy at the nightclub. Ringo seems really happy.
- John providing most of it by doing such things as singing love songs to Ringo, blinking frivolously at men on trains, and just briefly passing an effeminate, well-dressed man in a hallway and admiring his attire. That said, John spends a good deal of the movie hitting on women too.
- Narm Charm: The Beatles never did any acting before, and there are times that they seem to hit their cues extremely prematurely, like George Harrison getting out a pen before being asked to sign an autographnote , and Ringo Starr getting "hit" by the tire, even though it misses him by several inches.
- Ringo's extremely forced, fake-sounding laugh at his own joke ("Well, if he's your grandfather, who knows? Hahahahaha.") certainly qualifies as this. Made funnier by the fact that the expression of distaste on Paul's face afterwards almost seems to be directed at the clumsy delivery of this line than the bad joke itself.
- Retroactive Recognition:
- Charlotte Rampling appears as a dancer at the nightclub.
- The crusty old businessman in the train compartment is Slartibartfast.
- The young boy Ringo meets is played by David Janson, who would later be best known for playing Ken Richardson in Get Some In!, Michael the postman in Keeping Up Appearances, and the second Herr Flick in 'Allo 'Allo!.
- A car thief is played by John Bluthal, who would later be best known for playing Frank Pickle in The Vicar of Dibley.
- Adrian is played by Julian Holloway, who would later be best known for his roles in the Carry On films.
- A makeup lady is played by Sheila Fearn, who would later be best known for playing Audrey Collier in The Likely Lads and Ann Fourmile in George & Mildred.
- Stock Footage Failure: When the Beatles get into the cab to their hotel, they're all wearing suits and ties, but when we cut to them driving off, John is inexplicably wearing a turtleneck and jacket, in footage taken from one of their tours.
- The Woobie: Ringo. It gets even worse when you find out that his "acting" in some of the shots wasn't actually acting—the poor kid was hung over and legitimately depressed.Ringo: It's [Paul's] grandfather. I can tell he doesn't like me. It's because I'm little.
