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Magical Mystery Tour (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Magical Mystery Tour | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | The Beatles |
| Produced by | John Lennon Paul McCartney George Harrison Ringo Starr Gavrik Losey Dennis O'Dell |
| Written by | John Lennon Paul McCartney George Harrison Ringo Starr |
| Starring | John Lennon Paul McCartney George Harrison Ringo Starr Vivian Stanshall Mal Evans Ivor Cutler |
| Music by | The Beatles |
| Cinematography | Daniel Lacambre |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) | December 26, 1967 (UK release) |
| Running time | 55 min. |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Help! |
| Followed by | Yellow Submarine |
| IMDb profile | |
Magical Mystery Tour, starring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, is an hour-long television film that initially aired on BBC1 on Boxing Day in 1967. Upon its initial showing, the film was poorly received by critics and audiences, but is now considered something of a cult classic.
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The film was unscripted and shooting proceeded on the basis of a mostly handwritten collection of ideas, sketches, and situations, which Paul McCartney called the "Scrupt". The situation is that of a group of people on a British charabanc bus tour, focusing mostly on Mr. Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr) and his aunt, Mrs Jessie Starkey (Jessie Robins). Other group members on the bus include the tour director Jolly Jimmy Johnson (Derek Royle), the tour hostess Miss Wendy Winters (Mandy Weet), Buster Bloodvessel (Ivor Cutler), and the other Beatles.
During the course of the tour, "strange things begin to happen" at the whim of "four or five magicians", four of whom are played by The Beatles themselves and the fifth by long-time road manager Mal Evans.
During the journey, Starkey and his aunt argue considerably. Meanwhile, Mrs Starkey begins to fall in love with Buster Bloodvessel, who displays eccentric and disturbing behaviour. The tour involves several strange activities, such as an impromptu race in which each tour group member employs a different mode of transportation (some run, a few jump into cars, a group of people have a long bike they pedal). The tour also goes through a long crawl tunnel which leads to a set-up projector theatre, and involves a strange scene where the group walks through what appears to be a British Army recruitment office. The film culminates with the group splitting up to see strip shows.
The film is punctuated by musical interludes which include The Beatles performing "I Am the Walrus" wearing animal masks, George Harrison singing "Blue Jay Way" while waiting on Blue Jay Way Road and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band performing "Death Cab for Cutie".
At various times, an audience is seen when something funny or unexpected happens; for example, when John asks a little girl, Nicola, if she wants him to blow up a red balloon for her, she exclaims a straightforward "NO", prompting John to pull a face that says "Why Do I Bother?"
The film was first shown in the United Kingdom as a made-for-television film on the BBC; it was shown in black-and-white on BBC1, then in colour on BBC2 a few days later. The poor critical reaction to the telecast soured American television networks from acquiring the film, while its one-hour running length made it commercially unviable for theatrical release. It wasn't seen in the US until 1976, when New Line Cinema acquired the rights for limited theatrical and non-theatrical distribution; it wasn't seen on American television until the 1980s in syndication. The critical reception in 1967 had been so poor that no one had properly archived a negative, and the re-release version had to be copied from poor-quality prints. By the end of the 1980s, MPI (via rights holder Apple Corps) had released the movie on video, and a DVD release followed many years later.
The British public's reaction to the film was scathing. Hunter Davies, the band's biographer, said: "It was the first time in memory that an artist felt obliged to make a public apology for his work." McCartney later spoke to the press, saying: "We don't say it was a good film. It was our first attempt. If we goofed, then we goofed. It was a challenge and it didn't come off. We'll know better next time."[1] However, with the passage of time, McCartney's view of it has changed: "Looking back on it, I thought it was all right. I think we were quite pleased with it."
The documentary The Compleat Beatles (narrated by Malcolm McDowell) gave this description: "Largely a project of Paul's, the idea was to travel the English countryside in a bus filled with friends, actors and circus freaks, and to film whatever happened. Unfortunately, nothing did.”
Much of the film was shot in and around RAF West Malling, an airfield in Kent that had recently been decommissioned.[2] Many of the interior scenes, such as the final ballroom sequence for "Your Mother Should Know", were shot in the disused aircraft hangars. The exteriors, such as the "I Am the Walrus sequence, and the marathon race, were filmed on the runways and taxi aprons. RAF Air Training Corps cadets can be seen marching in some scenes, and during "I Am the Walrus" an RAF Avro Shackleton is seen orbiting the group.
The mystery tour itself was shot throughout the West Country of England, including Devon and Cornwall, [3] although most of the footage was not used in the finished film. The final striptease sequence was shot at Paul Raymond's Raymond Revuebar in London, and the sequence for "The Fool on the Hill" was shot around Nice, France.
- "Magical Mystery Tour"
- "The Fool on the Hill"
- "Flying"
- "I Am the Walrus"
- "Blue Jay Way"
- "Your Mother Should Know"
- "Hello, Goodbye" (finale played over end credits)
- "Death Cab For Cutie" (written by Vivian Stanshall and performed by his band, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band)
- "All My Loving" (orchestrated, as background music)
- "She Loves You" (played during the marathon with a carnival-style organ)
USA
| Year | Company | Format(s) | Comments |
| 1978 | Media-Home Entertainment | VHS/Beta | - |
| 1988 | Video Collection/Apple | VHS & Laserdisc | This version came with a digitally re-mixed and re-mastered soundtrack by Producer George Martin. |
| 1992 | MPI/Apple | Laserdisc | - |
| 1997 | MPI/Apple | DVD | The first ever DVD release of MMT. |
| 2003 | Avenue One | DVD | Reportedly of bootleg quality, though sold in major retailers such as Best Buy, after the MPI edition was discontinued. |
UK
| Year | Company | Format(s) | Comments |
| 1980's | Empire Films | VHS | - |
| 1988 | MPI/Apple | VHS & Laserdisc | This version came with a digitally re-mixed and re-mastered soundtrack by Producer George Martin. |
| 1997 | MPI/Apple | DVD | The first ever DVD release of MMT. |