Last week, TCM showed the movie Summer Holiday, with Cliff Richard. Directed by Peter (“Bullitt”) Yates, released in early ’63 and shot on location in widescreen and color, Summer Holiday is cute and silly fun. It has inspired bits of comedy, solid songs with Cliff and the always excellent Shadows, and great production numbers, but it can’t be called a Rock and Roll movie by any stretch.
Each [Cliff Richard] film inevitably also employs the ideological underpinning of the Hollywood musical. A genre such as the musical is not just a film type; it brings with it certain spectator expectations, certain structures, codes and conventions which combine in the musical to indicate its function as, in Richard Dyer’s phrase, a ‘gospel of happiness’. A Hard Day’s Night: The British Film Guide, by Stephen Glynn, Turner Classic Movies, 2005, p.7
http://youtu.be/Gbajf_rHzys
With four healthy, fun-loving boys driving a red London double-decker bus across Europe, and picking up four pretty, spirited girls along the way, I spit up my Trader Joe’s three buck chuck wine when one of the girls suggested, “Gosh, the boys have been so good to us, we should think of a way to show them our thanks.” But Summer Holiday isn’t that sort of movie, so off to dinner they all go, where everybody dances to choreography by Herbert Ross, who later directed Petula Clark in the remake of Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
Summer Holiday has a devoted following, and I enjoyed it a lot, but what interests me the most is that the movie premiered in London in February ’63, the same month that the Beatles’ second single, Please Please Me, was released in the UK.
‘The Young Ones’ and ‘Summer Holiday’ both proved the second top box-office earner at British cinemas for 1962 and 1963 respectively, and garnered much critical praise. By the time ‘Wonderful Life’ was premiered at the Empire Theatre, Leicester Square, on 2 July 1964, however, the spontaneity and freshness was judged to have gone. Ibid.
A Hard Day’s Night premiered at the Pavilion Theatre in London only four days after Wonderful Life, to universally rapturous critical praise and financial success.
What precipitated the sudden fall from grace? In truth, Cliff’s time had passed; there were new kids on the block and the boy from Lucknow, India, together with his traditional pop musicals, were about to be drowned out by the twist and shout emanating from Mersyside. Ibid.
I’m a Cliff Richard fan, and as I said before I really enjoyed Summer Holiday. The older I get the more I am able to appreciate things for what they are, rather than pay attention to what they are not, like that $3 Charles Shaw wine from Trader Joe’s. 😉 I feel the same way about another movie that provides a good contrast to the Beatles. In fact, it’s a Beatles movie itself, except it’s really a Bee Gees movie with Peter Frampton — Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band. The movie is as much an artifact of its year, 1978, as Summer Holiday is representative of 1963.
http://youtu.be/bFRt5TQdQCI
Thanks to a nudge from tastewar, I watched Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band on DVD, and if nothing else I’m not surprised the songs were produced by George Martin and engineered by Geoff Emerick, because the sound is really excellent. The story is ridiculous, but the songs are worth the visit. The Bee Gees and Frampton were huge stars when they agreed to make this movie. I don’t know if Robert Stigwood had a contract that forced them to do it, or if they simply wanted to be proxy Beatles, but the Bee Gees really nail a lot of the songs, although Frampton’s singing is a bit weak in spots.
When watching this movie it must be remembered that it was made only a few years after the wild and crazy Tommy, and there’s also no avoiding a comparison with Across the Universe, Julie Taymor’s generally well-received 2007 film. This clip is I Want You (She’s So Heavy).
[flv:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Video/2011/Oct/AcrosstheUniverse.flv 563 240]
Is that version better than, or even as good as, the same song as presented in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band?
[flv:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Video/2011/Oct/BeeGeesFrampton.flv 563 240]
Those once dreaded, now comfortable, words from school, “compare and contrast!”
I’m glad you were able to appreciate Sgt. Pepper’s for what it is. And what it *is* is something decidedly different than what it *was* when it was released. It was a flop; it remains a pretty poor movie (story-wise), yet there is *something* there. The songs are pretty well done, and fun. Thanks for taking the time not only to watch, but to digest, compare, contrast, analyze and write!