The Beatles in Richard Lester's a Hard Day's Night : a Complete Pictorial Record of the Movie / Editor, J. Philip Di Franco ; Introd, Andrew Sarris

by Richard; Beatles Di Franco, J. Philip; Lester

Genres: Music

297 pages, Paperback

First published January 26, 1978

Reviews

[Sophfronia Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspired by a viewing of "A Hard Day's Night" on Turner Classic Movies on New Year's Eve, I went to Amazon and tracked down a used version of this 1978 book. I haven’t seen a copy of it since I was in high school. It's the full script of the film placed alongside a collection of frame-by-frame still photos from the movie. There's also a great interview with the film's director, Richard Lester, discussing how the whole project came together. I borrowed it from the Lorain Public Library so many times that I memorized the whole script. It was even on my bed the night John Lennon died. I fought the temptation to steal it—take it without checking it out—but I didn’t. Then one day someone else did just that. It disappeared. To have this copy here on my desk now is like looking at an old friend. And it reads just as well now as it did then too.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Students of film and Beatles fans alike will treasure this book, a collection of still photos from each frame of the movie set side-by-side with the screenplay. It includes a prologue of an interview between the editor and Dick Lester with his memories of the shooting and deleted lines and scenes of dialogue. A marvelous analysis of one of the best films of the twentieth century--and I say that not as a Beatles fan, but a film buff.