All Aboard the Beatles Special (1964)

 

All Aboard the Beatles Special

Disc Weekly 

March 7, 1964

    All this week, the Beatles have been spending around 11 hours each day in a sealed five-coach special train supplied by British Railways at a reported cost of £600 a day for the opening sequence of their new film for United Artists.

     The train has been speeding from Paddington Station to Minehead and is fully equipped with technical equipment, cameras, film crew, makeup coach, restaurant car, and bar. To celebrate the first day of shooting, producer Walter Shenson presented the Beatles with a big bottle of champagne. The Beatles, in turn, gave a glass to the members of the Film Unit, who numbered about 50!

     "Everything has been laid on by the film company to make the Beatles' filming as comfortable as possible, "says publicity director Tony Howard, "excellent menus have been prepared by the chefs on the train, and on Monday, they were offered a variety choice of food, including roast pork and apple sauce, soup, ice cream, Melba, cheese and coffee."

     The boys are real professionals and have taken their film directions in a willing and easy-going manner. They arrived at Paddington Station at 8am, and the filming on the train runs right through 7pm.  Special suits have been made for the Beatles by the film company. And these train shots will give a general picture of how they travel to and from their engagements.

     During some of the sequences, fans will see two girls on the train who realize that they are traveling with the Beatles and who make eyes at them.

     The Beatles will get a break on Saturday and Sunday, as there is no filming on those days, but resume work before the cameras on Monday. At press time, it was not set whether it would be in a studio or on location, but it is expected that all the train shots will be finished by tomorrow, Friday. 

Written by Walter Shenson

    I want to make the Beatles picture as colourful as possible, but that's easy, as the boys are colourful characters themselves. And one thing I do know is that if the film is successful in England, then the rest of the world should take care of itself.

    As for their music, well, that is international. But I would still love to have a movie camera and sound apparatus on hand when the Beatles see themselves dubbed in Italian. 

    The film will be shot in black and white. Why not color? Because the Beatles are pretty well black-and-white characters, seamless. We don't intend to play up one of the boys more than any other. We find that in real life, they tend to feed each other and work as a team. 

    Our film is definitely not a musical. If it were, there would be about 14 numbers in it, but since there are only six and no other music groups, and all the songs have been written by John and Paul. 

    Will we be filming in Liverpool? Quite possibly, but our headquarters will be a studio in London. Whether we shoot in film studios one day or on location depends on the weather, and that's even more unpredictable than the Beatles.

     Since I decided to make this film, I've been asked again and again if I think the boys can really act. Well, let me tell you that when it comes to delivering dialogue, the boys are naturals, especially making up their own. 

    They're great at handling the press, as they proved in America, and they're only too good at sending up people, as I found out, to my cost. So it is important that we keep their own identity in the film.

     There's this quality, of course, that has contributed to their success. They're not conformists, a bit intervariant. They speak to the fans in their own language, as it were, but their humour also appeals to adults. They're nice looking kids too, and well dressed. And these are big assets. 

    I think they are going to make a great film, and just as they did when they appeared on the Royal Show at the Palladium, they're going to surprise a lot of people with their talent.