![]() If the film is successful, says Paul, “it means we’ll use the same techniques to make the Beatles’ next cinema film - and more television shows.” There are interesting things to look at and interesting things to hear.” Magical Mystery Tour is for children, their grandparents, Beatle people, the lot. There are different levels of entertainment in it. Ringo says the final product is aimed at the widest possible audience. New Beatles, New Stones - Wait, What Year Is It? The rest of the time was spent, said John, “sitting all day in a tiny room in Soho watching strips of film and cutting them about,” and recording nights in the EMI studios. Actual filming, location shots in Devon and Cornwall, and studio shorts in unused aircraft hangers in Kent, took just over two weeks. The main thing was to get rid of all the traditional tensions and hangups, cut through the red tape and get everybody interested in the whole effort.”įrom beginning to end the film took nine or ten weeks. After a while they got to the stage where they were as enthusiastic as the rest of us. Of course we weren’t using the right jargon when we talked to the sound men and the camera crew and they felt a bit strange to begin with. “For the first couple of days when we set out with this big bus full of people we took things easy, let the ice break slowly, let everyone know what it was all about. They only hired technicians who were absolutely necessary. Because she was there and because we realized she was right for it, we put in a bit where I just chat to her and give her a balloon.” There was a lovely little 5-year old girl, Nicola, on the bus. ![]() If somebody just wanted to do something we hadn’t planned they went ahead. “We knew most of the scenes we wanted to include,” said John, “but we bent our ideas to fit the people concerned once we got to know our cast. To make dialogue as natural as possible, the actors were given situations and reactions instead of lines. They relied on improvisation rather than demanding that the cast stick to a written script. The Beatle’s approach to the filming was somewhat unconventional. All the paint and decorations washed off the bus in a heavy downpour. Ringo looked very distinguished in his George looked like an honest-to-God gangster in a bright-blue suit and 1940’s hat John wore a derby with a white feather and a white carnation in his buttonhole. They wore the oldest, straightest clothes they could find: Paul wore a hand-knited Fair Isle pullover and baggy pants in the manner of a typical English father, and the rest of the group wore Al Capone suits. Spencer Davis and The Traffic also appear.īy September the world’s Merriest Pranksters were bouncing around Devon and Cornwall, in southwest England, in a widly-decorated bus. Some of the “off-beat characters and very glamorous girls,” are Derek Royle as Tour Courier Jolly Jimmy Johnson, Mandy West as Tour Hostess Wendy Winters, midget actor George Claydon as Little George the Amateur Photographer, heavyweight actress Jessie Robins as Ringo’s Auntie Jessie, and Maggie Wright as Paul’s girlfriend, Maggie the Lovely Starlet. Victor Spinetti, who has appeared in both Beatles films as well as How I Won the War, makes a guest appearance as an Army recruiting sergeant. It has a cast of hundreds, including teams of formation dancers who appear in a spectacular finale. The plot involves the adventures of a bus-load of passengers on a Mystery Tour trip. “A lot of laughs, some off-beat characters, a few very glamorous girls, a bit of dancing and quite a bit of magic,” is how John describes it. Magical Mystery Tour is full of visual and musical fantasy, dream sequences, and the Beatles. In addition Capitol will release a special Magical Mystery Tour LP shortly before Christmas. The film is complete and will be shown in England at Christmas, and in America on NBC-TV in March. “Records can’t be seen so it’s good to have a film vehicle of some sort to go with the new music,” said John Lennon about the Beatle’s television film, Magical Mystery Tour.
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