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I Wanna Hold Your Hand
Directed by	Robert Zemeckis
Produced by	Steven Spielberg Bob Gale Tamara Asseyev
Written by	Bob Gale Robert Zemeckis
Starring	Nancy Allen Bobby Di Cicco Marc McClure Susan Kendall Newman Theresa Saldana Wendie Jo Sperber Eddie Deezen
Music by	The Beatles
Cinematography	Donald M. Morgan
Editing by	Frank Morriss
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	1978
Running time	104 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

I Wanna Hold Your Hand is a comedy film directed and co-written by Robert Zemeckis that takes its name from the 1963 Beatles song. It was produced and co-written by Bob Gale. The film is about "Beatlemania" and is a fictionalized account of the day of the Beatles' first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show (February 9, 1964). It was released in 1978 by Universal Pictures.

The movie was Robert Zemeckis' directorial debut. Even though the film was modestly budgeted, in order to convince Universal to bankroll the film, Steven Spielberg had to promise studio executives that, if Zemeckis was seen to be doing a markedly poor job, he would step in and direct the film himself.^[1]

Despite positive previews and critical response (The New York Times wrote that "the whole film sparkles with a boisterous lunacy" and called its plot "positively dazzling"),^[2] the film was not a financial success and was considered a flop, unable to recoup its rather modest $2.8 million budget. Zemeckis later said, "One of the great memories in my life is going to the preview. I didn't know what to expect [but] the audience just went wild. They were laughing and cheering. It was just great. Then we learned a really sad lesson....just because a movie worked with a preview audience didn't mean anyone wanted to go see it."^[3]

The time is 1964, The Beatles are about to go on the Ed Sullivan Show for the first time. Girls are fainting during their concerts from sheer excitement at being in the same theater with them. Pam Mitchell (Nancy Allen) is about to get married but wants to bed one of the guys before she does. Rosie Petrofsky (Wendie Jo Sperber), a very huge fan, just wants to be in the show with her idols, and Grace Corrigan (Theresa Saldana), is certain that if she can get some exclusive photos of The Beatles, her career as a photographer will be secured.

The film's soundtrack also features a total of 17 original Beatles recordings. They are:

1. "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
2. "Please Please Me"
3. "I Saw Her Standing There"
4. "Thank You Girl"
5. "Boys"
6. "Twist and Shout"
7. "Misery"
8. "Till There Was You"
9. "Love Me Do"
10. "Do You Want to Know a Secret?"
11. "P.S. I Love You"
12. "Please Mister Postman"
13. "From Me to You"
14. "Money (That's What I Want)"
15. "There's a Place"
16. "I Wanna Be Your Man"
17. "She Loves You"

The song "She Loves You" was featured twice toward the end of the film. The first time was during the group's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday - February 9th, 1964. For this sequence of the film, stand-in Beatle-lookalike doubles, dressed in identical attire and holding the same type of musical instruments in a similar manner, were seen mimicking the group's performance of the song from that show while being shown on the stage floor, albeit from a distance so as not to see their identities, while the actual footage of The Beatles on The Sullivan Show of 02/09/1964 was revealed from the camera operator's point-of-view. These two elements were combined together, along with reactions from the studio audience to recreate a brilliant moment in time. The second time "She Loves You" was featured occurred during the film's end credits.

• I Wanna Hold Your Hand at the Internet Movie Database