The Beatles had met with
Nat Cohen of Anglo Amalgamated about Anglo financing a film. The meeting came though Cohen's partner, Stuart Levy, who knew Brian Epstein's parents. However Cohen turned down the group. The film was shot for
United Artists using a
cinéma vérité style influenced by the
French New Wave and British
kitchen sink realism in black-and-white. The film was meant to be released in July 1964, and since it was already March when filming began, the entire film had to be produced over a period of sixteen weeks. The film had a low budget for its time of £200,000 (equivalent to £million in) and filming was finished in under seven weeks, leaving the rest of the time for post-production. At first, the film itself was a secondary consideration to United Artists, whose primary interest was in being able to release the soundtrack album in the United States before the Beatles' American label
Capitol Records could; in the words of Bud Ornstein, the European head of production for United Artists: "Our record division wants to get the soundtrack album to distribute in the States, and what we lose on the film we'll get back on this disc." Unlike most productions, the film was shot in near sequential order, as stated by Lennon in 1964. Filming began on 2 March 1964 at
Marylebone station in London; the four Beatles had joined the British actors' union,
Equity, only that morning. The first week of filming took place on a train travelling between London and
Minehead,
Somerset. On 10 March, scenes with Ringo were shot at the Turk's Head pub in
Twickenham, and over the following week various interior scenes were filmed at
Twickenham Studios. From 23 to 30 March, filming moved to the
Scala Theatre in
Fitzrovia, and on 31 March, concert footage was shot there, although the group mimed to backing tracks. On the 17 March and the 17 April scenes were shot at the
Les Ambassadeurs Club in
Mayfair. The "
Can't Buy Me Love" segment, which featured creative camera work such as
undercranking and the band running and jumping around in a field, Before ''A Hard Day's Night'' was released in America, a United Artists executive asked Lester to dub the Beatles' voices with Mid-Atlantic accents. McCartney angrily replied, "Look, if we can understand a fucking cowboy talking Texan, they can understand us talking Liverpool." Lester subsequently directed the Beatles' 1965 film,
Help! The film's costumes—except for those of the Beatles themselves—were the work of future Academy Award-winning designer
Julie Harris. The clothes of the Beatles were credited to
Dougie Millings & Son, the tailor who had created the original Beatles look and appeared as a tailor in the film.
Casting Irish actor Wilfrid Brambell, who played Paul McCartney's fictional grandfather, John McCartney, was already well known to British television audiences as a co-star in the sitcom
Steptoe and Son. The recurring joke that he was very "clean" reflects a contrast to his sitcom role, where he was always referred to as a "dirty old man". For American audiences, the comment was more of a spoof on the Beatles continually being referenced as "very clean".
Norman Rossington played the Beatles' manager Norm,
John Junkin played the group's
road manager Shake, and
Victor Spinetti played the television director. The supporting cast included
Richard Vernon as the "city gent" on the train and
Lionel Blair as a featured dancer. There were also various cameos.
John Bluthal played a car thief and an uncredited
Derek Nimmo appeared as magician Leslie Jackson.
David Janson (billed as David Jaxon here) played the small boy met by Ringo on his "walkabout".
Rooney Massara, who went on to compete in the
1972 Munich Olympics, was the sculler in the river in the "walkabout" scene by the river at Kew (uncredited).
Kenneth Haigh appeared as an advertising executive who mistakes George for a "new phenomenon".
David Langton also made a cameo appearance as an actor in the dressing room scene. Mal Evans, one of the Beatles' road managers, also appears briefly in the film—moving an upright bass through a tight hallway as Lennon talks with the woman who mistakes him for someone else. George Harrison met his wife-to-be,
Pattie Boyd, on the set when she made a brief (uncredited) appearance as one of the schoolgirls on the train. His initial overtures to her were spurned because she had a boyfriend at the time, but he persisted and they were married within 18 months. The girl with Boyd in the dining car scene is Prudence Bury.
Phil Collins, later a member of the band
Genesis, was an uncredited schoolboy extra in the concert audience and would subsequently go on to be a very successful musician in his own right. Playing the buxom woman with Paul's grandfather in the casino scene was popular British 1960s pinup model
Margaret Nolan, who also appeared as "Dink", the golden girl during the opening credits of the
James Bond film
Goldfinger, later that same year.
Cut for BBFC The film had to be edited slightly to obtain the
U certificate for British cinemas. The phrase "
get knotted" (allegedly in reel 7 of the original submission) was judged inappropriate for a U film and had to be removed. When the film was submitted for release on VHS, the
British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) could not locate the phrase and presumed that the clip was "pre-cut", but stated that the phrase was no longer of any concern. The BBFC noted a number of innuendos and one subtle reference to cocaine, but concluded that it was still within the "natural category" for a U certificate. == Reception ==