60 years Ago: FILMING COMPLETED FOR BEATLES FIRST FILM WHILE “NEW” CAPITOL LP HITS THE CHARTS
Filming of the Beatles first movie was completed during the week of April 20 – 24, 1964. The first two days of the final week were spent filming a solo sequence for one of the Beatles that would not make the final edit of the film. On Wednesday, April 22, the Beatles were filmed running down a fire escape behind the Hammersmith Odeon cinema in London. This sequence was used for the start of the group’s escape from their day full of rehearsals leading to them running around a field. That afternoon additional police chase footage was shot, followed by more scenes of Ringo on his afternoon of parading.
On April 23, additional footage was shot for the scene of the Beatles running and jumping on a helicopter pad. Rather than bring the boys back to a real concrete pad, the crew prepared a pad designed to match the one previously filmed. At the end of the sequence the Beatles are admonished by the groundskeeper, who says “I suppose you know this is private property,” to which one of the boys replies, “Sorry we hurt your filed, mister.” Filming was completed the following day with a scene in which Ringo tries to be a true gentleman for a lady, but unfortunately causes trouble for her which leads to his arrest.
In the United States, Capitol’s second Beatles album, cleverly titled The Beatles’ Second Album to trivialize Vee-Jay’s Introducing The Beatles, debuted on the Billboard album chart at number 16 in the magazine’s April 25 issue. The album was a Capitol concoction consisting of five leftover R&B covers from With The Beatles mixed with three B-sides, She Loves You and two previously unreleased songs later slated for a British EP. And while this may sound like a recipe for disaster, the album works spectacularly well. In fact, many of the people who crucify Capitol for its treatment of the Beatles catalog begrudgingly admit or glowingly rave that the LP is a rock ’n’ roll classic. With songs like She Loves You, You Can’t Do That, Thank You Girl, I’ll Get You, Roll Over Beethoven, Long Tall Sally, Money, Please Mr. Postman, etc., you know that can’t be bad. The following week the album replaced Meet The Beatles! at the top of the charts, where it remained for five straight weeks.
Today’s questions cover the third week of April 1964.
- In A Hard Day’s Night, which Beatles does not have a solo scene because his filmed segment does not appear in the film? Bonus: What are the details of the deleted scene?
- In A Hard Day’s Night, what song is used for the soundtrack as the Beatles run down a fire escape to escape their day of rehearsals?
- In A Hard Day’s Night, which Beatle says “Sorry we hurt your filed, mister” to a grounds keeper?
- In A Hard Day’s Night, what gallant act does Ringo perform for a lady, only to have it backfire and cause him to get arrested?
- What two recordings made their world-wide debut on The Beatles’ Second Album?
- Paul is the only Beatles not to have a solo scene in A Hard Day’s Night. His deleted sequence was filmed in a room at the Jack Billings TV School of Dancing, which is supposed to be a rehearsal room in which an actress (played by Isla Blair) is rehearsing her lines. She and Paul engage in a long (and apparently not very funny or entertaining) conversation.
- In A Hard Day’s Night, the Beatles run down a fire escape while Can’t Buy Me Love plays in the background.
- In A Hard Day’s Night, George says “Sorry we hurt your filed, mister” to a grounds keeper.
- In A Hard Day’s Night, Ringo gallantly places his coat over a series of puddles so that a lady may walk through the mud without getting her shoes or clothes dirty. Unfortunately for both, Ringo places his coat over an open manhole, which the lady falls into, leading to his arrest.
- The Beatles recordings of Long Tall Sally and I Call Your Name made their world-wide debut on The Beatles’ Second Album.