Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (TV movie)
From BeatlesWiki
In 1967, The Beatles planned a TV movie. This was intended to be set to the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the first video album. For reasons unknown, the movie was scrapped in favor of Magical Mystery Tour.
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A Day In The Life Sequence
The only part of the movie that was actually filmed was the sequence for A Day In The Life. It featured footage of the session where the orchestra was overdubbed onto the track. For this film, the people in the orchestra were asked to wear full evening dress, but to also wear novelties as well. Violinist David McCallum wore a clown nose, while another violinist, Erich Gruenberg wore a gorilla paw on his bow hand. Every member of the ochestra wore some sort of funny hat or novelty. Among these novelties were upside-down glasses, stick-on nipples, red noses, fake eyes, fake cigars, and bald wigs. The two bassoon players attached balloons to their bassoons, making them inflate every time a note was played. Also in the clip were Pattie Harrison, Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Mike Nesmith, Donovan and Simon and Marijke from The Fool. Marijke actually plays tambourine on the song. The film showed a female Beatles fan being ejected from Abbey Road Studios by Mal Evans, and bubbles being blown in the studio. All while this was happening, NEMS Enterprises filmed with Tony Bramwell producing. It was filmed on seven handheld cameras. It was later edited with some stock footage into a finished clip of the song. The entire sequence for this song was 19 minutes and 15 seconds, obviously lasting much longer than the song itself. Clips of this footage first appeared in the 1988 documentary Imagine: John Lennon. A longer clip, lasting almost all of the song's length was aired in The Beatles Anthology TV series.
Plans For The Film
The film had been very possible for quite some time in 1967. Even though the film had been abondoned in the end, The Beatles continued plans for it until autumn of 1967, although newspapers had stopped talking about the film by the previous summer, giving th impression that The Beatles had abondoned the idea. A filming schedule was put together on September 26, during the filming of Magical Mystery Tour. If it had been released, it would have been the first video album. That title instead went to Blondie's 1979 "Eat To The Beat." Although no more of the film had been shot after the A Day In The Life sequence, much was scheduled. If was revealed to have a budget of 34,000 pounds with a one-month principal photography period. It was planned to have a final running length of 52 minutes and would be shot in color. The screenplay was to be written by Ian Dallas, with directing by Keith Green and co-produced by Vic Singh and Tommy Weber. It was planned to have had two cameramen, one of which was Aubrey Dewar, who filmed Magical Mystery Tour. For a cost of 2,200 pounds, they would have 115 extras, including 24 children, 24 office workers, 12 rockers on motorcycles, 12 Model Rita Maids, 8 morris damcers, one milkman, one meditator, and one Arab Sheik.
Filming Locations
A then-confidential document, labelled production budget features several filming locations, all named along with the song they go to and the proposed filming date. Here are the locations as well as the songs they were intended to go to as well as the suggested filming dates.
- Longleat/Country, Sgt. Pepper's lonely Hearts Club Band and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise), To be filmed on October 21, 1967.
- Kew Gardens, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, To be filmed on November 5, 1967.
- Circus, With A Little Help From My Friends, To be filmed on November 6, 1967.
- Fun Fair, Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite, To be filmed on November 9, 1967.
- Airfield, When I'm 64, To be filmed on November 10, 1967.
- Modern Middle C. House, She's Leaving Home, To be filmed on November 11, 1967.
- London Streets etc., Lovely Rita, To be filmed on November 12, 1967.
- School, Getting Better, To be filmed on November 14, 1967.
- Factory/Offices/Lifts, Within You, Without You, To be filmed on November 16, 1967.
- Studio, Within You, Without You and Good Morning, Good Morning, To be filmed on November 17, 1967.
- Studio/Meditation Room, Fixing A Hole, To be filmed on November 18, 1967.
- Observatory/Planetarium, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, To be filmed on November 20, 1967.
- Recording Session, A Day In The Life, Already Shot
Source
- LEWISOHN M., 1992, The Complete Beatles Chronicle, Hamlyn -- Buy it on Amazon.com
