Magical Mystery Tour (film)

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Movie
German title Magical Mystery Tour
Original title Magical Mystery Tour
The Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour (Logo) .png
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 1967
length 52 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Bernard Knowles
The Beatles
script The Beatles
production Denis O'Dell
The Beatles
music The Beatles
Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes
camera Anthony Busbridge
Aubrey Dewar
Daniel Lacambre
Mike Sarason
cut Roy Benson
occupation
chronology

←  Previous
Hi-Hi Help! (Help!)
(1965)

Successor  →
Yellow Submarine
(1968)

Magical Mystery Tour is a musical film by the British band The Beatles from 1967. The soundtrack of the same name to the film was released in the form of a double EP in Great Britain and as an album in the USA .

The film premiered on British television on December 26, 1967 . The band wrote the script and directed it for the first time. The content was a psychedelic bus trip full of bizarre humor. The film received heavy negative reviews after it first aired and became the Beatles' first major failure. The music for the film, on the other hand, was successful. The soundtrack topped the charts in both the UK and the US.

Emergence

Conception and music recordings

The basis for the film was laid back in April 1967 when Paul McCartney went on a trip to the United States earlier this month. Inspired by Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters , he developed a rough concept for a one-hour Beatles film on the return flight to England. The rest of the group agreed with McCartney's idea, the start of filming was delayed by various other commitments - including preparing for the film Yellow Submarine until September 1967.

Work on the soundtrack , on the other hand, began earlier. The first piece recorded for the planned film was the theme song Magical Mystery Tour . Recordings for the song began on April 25, 1967 at Abbey Road Studios . In the following months, the group recorded the tracks Your Mother Should Know , I Am the Walrus , Blue Jay Way , Flying and The Fool on the Hill for the soundtrack.

Filming

Brian Epstein , the manager of the Beatles, died shortly before filming began . His death subsequently led to some difficulties in filming. Epstein had always taken care of the logistical needs.

Model for the Beatles film:
The Merry Pranksters' colorful bus

On September 11, 1967, the Beatles and their film crew boarded a rented bus to shoot some scenes in the West Country . The journey began in the morning in London at Allsop Place. The press and fans soon followed the brightly covered bus. The route passed through the English counties of Somerset , Devon and Cornwall . During the journey towards Newquay in Cornwall, various improvised scenes were filmed over the following days. The bus returned to London on September 15, 1967. On September 18, a striptease scene was filmed at the Raymond Revuebar nightclub in London . Stripper Jan Carson undressed to the music of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band .

In the period from September 19 to 24, 1967, various recordings took place at a disused airfield near West Malling in Kent .

After a long break, the scene with Ringo Starr and Jessie Robins was filmed on October 29, 1967 in Acanthus Road in London , in which the two board the bus. On October 30 and 31, 1967, the recordings for the Fool-on-the-Hill sequence with Paul McCartney took place in Nice . On November 3, 1967, recording was completed with the scene for George Harrison's composition Blue Jay Way . The film was filmed in Sunny Heights, Ringo Starr's estate in Weybridge .

content

While filming the film

Right from the start, the film had no fixed script or a precisely planned plot. The improvised scenes recorded during the bus rides served more as a rough link between the Beatles' songs specially recorded for the film. Another connection between the scenes takes place through voiceover passages spoken by John Lennon .

The film begins with a series of short excerpts from the scenes that can be seen later in the film. This beginning is underlaid with the title song Magical Mystery Tour . After Ringo bought two tickets for the trip in a shop as 'Richard B. Starkey', the bus journey begins shortly afterwards, initiated by Ringo and his aunt Jessica, who are the last passengers to board the waiting bus.

The tour guide Jolly Jimmy Johnson welcomes the travelers on board. A few scenes in the bus follow, a sad little man is introduced. It's Buster Bloodvessel, who has done the magical bus trip before and this time he thinks he's the tour guide - the trip before that, he thought he was the driver.

The camera now shows Paul McCartney sitting next to an attractive young woman. Little George, the photographer, asks McCartney to take a picture of the young lady. Permission is granted and while Little George is taking his photos, Paul McCartney daydreams and you see him wandering around alone in different landscapes. This scene is musically supported by the song The Fool on the Hill . McCartney brings an announcement from the hostess out of this dream.

Reproduction of the Magical Mystery Tour bus

Shortly afterwards the tour company is taken to the office of an English officer. Also present is a sergeant who utters an incomprehensible torrent of speech until he is answered by Ringo Starr with the question: "Why?" ('Why?') Is stopped. The scene is suddenly in a meadow where the sergeant shows a short "bullfight" with a stuffed cow.

The next scene shows the “Magical Mystery Tour Marathon”. The Beatles hit She Loves You serves as background music in an instrumental arrangement. On an old airfield there is a race that turns into a race in which a motorcycle, a couple of bicycles, several cars and the bus driven by Ringo Starr take part. After the race, a group photo is taken and then the journey continues in the bus. The guide asks the travelers to turn their gaze to the right. This is the transition for a sequence that consists of landscape scenes colored in different colors and is underlaid with the instrumental piece Flying .

Shortly afterwards you can see the laboratory of the “four or five” magicians (represented by the Beatles and their assistant Mal Evans ). Three of them can be seen doing different jobs. Magician Ringo repeats the question: "Where's the bus?" ('Where's the bus?') Magician Paul looks up a map and gives the current location of the bus. The action returns to the inside of the vehicle, where a romance develops between Buster Bloodvessel and Aunt Jessica. In the following dream sequence - musically accompanied by an orchestral version of the Beatles song All My Loving  - Buster and Jessica are shown on the beach. Abruptly back on the bus, Buster Bloodvessel has accepted the post of tour guide and gives a short speech to the passengers, which leads to the next music clip - I Am the Walrus  .

It continues with a scene on the bus showing John Lennon with the little girl Nichola. Lennon entertains the girl with the nursery rhyme “Five little dickie birds sitting on your head…” ('Five little birds sitting on your head…') and gives her a balloon. A spoken transition informs you that Aunt Jessica is very hungry. A cross-fade brings another dream sequence. Aunt Jessica is sitting in a restaurant with Buster Bloodvessel and a waiter (played by John Lennon) is shoveling huge amounts of spaghetti onto her plate.

An abrupt change of scene shows the tour company on their way to a small tent that is set up in a field. One by one disappears into the tent entrance. The next shot shows the inside of the tent: a small hall with chairs and a screen . After everyone has taken their seats, the camera moves towards the screen and the music clip for Blue Jay Way follows , most of which shows George Harrison sitting on the floor and playing a keyboard painted with chalk on the floor . After the song has ended, the audience applauds, leaves the tent and gets on the bus to continue.

The next scene takes place again in the magician's laboratory. Now all five are present. The magicians determine that the passengers on the bus have “a lovely time” and when asked “What's next?” The answer follows: “A song!” With that, the film returns to the bus, where Ringo Starr the fellow passengers asks to sing together. Shortly afterwards the whole bus - accompanied by Shirley Evans on the accordion - sings a medley of songs ( Toot Toot Tootsie , Goodbye , The Happy Wanderer , When Irish Eyes Are Smiling , When the Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin 'Along , Never on Sunday and Cancan  - none of the titles come from the Beatles).

The bus stops and the tour group is split up. The men follow the guide into a nightclub, where they are shown a striptease. The background music comes from the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band , which performs its title Death Cab for Cutie .

Another abrupt cut follows, which leads directly to the final scene. In the style of classic show films by a Busby Berkeley, the Beatles - clad in white tails - walk side by side down a show staircase, while formation dance groups dance more or less decoratively around them. The music for it is the title Your Mother Should Know . When the song ends, the finale follows immediately. Underlaid with the repetition of the title track Magical Mystery Tour , some group scenes can be seen - the Beatles in their magician costumes also appear one last time - while the credits are running.

Reactions

The day after it was first broadcast on British television, there were scathing reviews in the daily newspapers. Paul McCartney, who ended up directing the film, appeared on The Frost Program that same day to answer David Frost's questions about the film's failure.

In retrospect, the main reasons given for the failure of the film were the unfavorable broadcast date, the broadcast in black and white, technical defects in the recording and the lack of a plot.

Reviews

“Funny, incredibly rhythmic film in which the Beatles satirize numerous dear habits of the British, but also poke fun at themselves. The affection of the singing group for the people from the lower classes, their own origins, is clearly noticeable and makes the film likeable. "

- Lexicon of international film

The Beatles on the making of the film

The following quotes by the Beatles are from The Beatles Anthology and reflect their opinions and memories:

John Lennon: “At the beginning of 1967 it was clear to us that we would not do any more concert tours. So when stage shows weren't in there, we wanted to replace them with something else. Television was the obvious answer. "

Paul McCartney: “I'm not sure whose idea was the Magical Mystery Tour . It could have been mine, but I'm not sure I want to take responsibility for it! We were all involved in it - but a lot of the material at the time could have been my idea because I came up with a lot of concepts, like Sgt Pepper . There was no script for Magical Mystery Tour , you don't need a script for that kind of thing. It was just a crazy idea. We said to everyone, "Be on the bus Monday morning." I said to everyone, "We'll make this up while we're driving, but no songs - it'll work."

Ringo Starr: “The Magical Mystery Tour was Paul's idea. It was a good way to work. Paul had a large sheet of paper - just a blank white sheet of paper with a circle on it. The plan was "We're leaving here - and we have to do something here ..." We filled it out as we drove. We rented a bus and off we went. There was a little planning: John always wanted a dwarf or two with us, and we needed an airplane hangar to set the scene. We made the music, of course. The videos were the best and it was fun. "

George Harrison: “I had no idea what was going on, and maybe I was too inattentive because my main problem was that I was in another world. Paul felt at the time that someone should try to get something off the ground, so he decided to push ahead with what was on his mind. "

John Lennon: “We had most of the scenes we wanted to do in our heads, but once we got to know our cast, we adapted our ideas to the people who concerned them. If someone wanted to do something that we hadn't planned, we let them do it. If it worked, it stayed. "

Paul McCartney: “I went to France and one morning I did the Fool-on-the-Hill part with some buddies. It wasn't really union compliant - you should have employed millions of cameramen, but we didn't want that. "

Ringo Starr: “We went to the beach, drew a heart, danced. Then we added music. It took us two weeks to film and a long time to edit. When we looked at the quick copies of the first three or four days, we found that he (cameraman) had forgotten to turn off the camera - so there was only the plaster to see for hours. "

Paul McCartney: “It was shown on BBC 1 on Boxing Day. I think a few people were surprised. The critics definitely had their big day and said, "Oh what a disaster, a disaster." "

Ringo Starr: “Since we are British, we thought we would give it to the BBC, which would then show it in black and white. We were stupid and they were stupid. People hated the movie. He gave everyone the opportunity to say, “You have gone too far. Who do they think they are? What is that supposed to mean?" "

Film music and soundtrack album

The following songs were played in the film, the compositions are, if not stated otherwise, by Lennon / McCartney : The titles in the sequence of their use in the film.

  1. Magical Mystery Tour
  2. The Fool on the Hill
  3. She Loves You (instrumental fairground organ version as background music)
  4. Flying
  5. All My Loving (orchestral version as background music)
  6. I am the walrus
  7. Jessie's Dream (previously unreleased instrumental piece)
  8. Blue Jay Way
  9. Death Cab for Cutie (written by Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes and performed by their band, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band )
  10. Your mother should know
  11. Magical Mystery Tour (repeat)
  12. Hello, Goodbye (credits)
  • On November 27, 1967, the soundtrack album Magical Mystery Tour was released in the USA , which in addition to the six movie songs contains five other titles, including Hello, Goodbye .
  • In Great Britain the double EP Magical Mystery Tour was released on December 8, 1967 , which contains the six songs of the film.

publication

title format language date Label Remarks
Magical Mystery Tour VHS English
26th Mar 1990 MPI Home Video / Apple George Martin's sound remixed in Hi-Fi Digital Stereo
DVD Nov 14, 1997 MPI Home Video / Apple USA only. The picture quality is inferior compared to the VHS release
DVD / Blu-ray 0Oct 5, 2012 EMI / Apple Soundtracks: 5.1 and 2.0 , remixed by Sam Okell's sound producer is Giles Martin , digitally restored film in 4K , plus the Magical Mystery Tour Special , which contains the following scenes not included in the film: Nat's Dream, Ivor Cutler - I'm Going in a Field and Traffic - Here We go Round the Mulberry Bush ; modified scene settings of the songs Your Mother Should Know, Blue Jay Way and The Fool on the Hill; Hello Goodbye as featured in Top of the Pops 1967; The Making of Magical Mystery Tour; Ringo the actor; Meet the supporting cast and a Director's Commentary from Paul McCartney. The limited edition contains the film on DVD and Blu-ray, the replica of the double EP as a vinyl version and a 60-page book.

Charts and sales

Chart placements

Charts Top ranking Weeks
Chart placements
Austria (Ö3) Austria (Ö3) 1 (3 weeks) 3
Switzerland (IFPI) Switzerland (IFPI) 1 (6 weeks) 6th
United Kingdom (OCC) United Kingdom (OCC) 1 (...Template: chart placements / maintenance / preliminary Where.) ...Template: chart placements / maintenance / preliminary
United States (Billboard) United States (Billboard) 1 (39 weeks) 39

Awards for music sales

Country / Region Award Sales
Awards for music sales
(country / region, Award, Sales)
United States (RIAA) United States (RIAA) Gold record icon.svg gold 50,000
All in all Gold record icon.svg 1 × gold
 50,000

Main article: The Beatles / Music Sales Awards

Web links

literature

  • Tony Bramwell and Rosemary Kingsland: Magical Mystery Tours: My Life with the Beatles. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005. ISBN 0-312-33043-X .
  • Mark Lewisohn: The Complete Beatles Chronicle. Hamlyn, 2006. ISBN 0-600-61001-2 .
  • Barry Miles: Paul McCartney. Many Years From Now. Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1999. ISBN 3-499-60892-8 .
  • Philip Norman: Shout !: The Beatles in Their Generation. Fireside Books, 2005. ISBN 0-7432-3565-7 .
  • John C. Winn: That Magic Feeling: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy, Volume Two, 1966-1970. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-307-45239-9 .
  • DVD - The Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour .
  • Booklet for the CD-EP Magical Mystery Tour

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John C. Winn: That Magic Feeling: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy, Volume Two, 1966-1970. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2009. p. 80.
  2. ^ Neville Stannard: The Long & Winding Road. A History of the Beatles on Record. London: Virgin Books, 1983. pp. 59 and 145.
  3. ^ Mark Lewisohn: The Complete Beatles Chronicle. Hamlyn, 2006. p. 253.
  4. ^ John C. Winn: That Magic Feeling: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy, Volume Two, 1966-1970. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2009. p. 103.
  5. ^ Mark Lewisohn: The Complete Beatles Chronicle. Hamlyn, 2006. p. 239.
  6. ^ Barry Miles: Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1999. P. 445 f.
  7. ^ Brian Roylance, Nicky Page, Derek Taylor (Eds.): The Beatles Anthology. Chronicle Books, San Francisco 2000; as a translation from English: Ullstein, Munich 2000. ISBN 3-550-07132-9 , p. 270.
  8. ^ Magical Mystery Tour. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 17, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g The Beatles: The Beatles Anthology . ISBN 3-550-07132-9 , p. 272.
  10. ^ The Beatles: The Beatles Anthology . ISBN 3-550-07132-9 , p. 273.
  11. ^ The Beatles: The Beatles Anthology . ISBN 3-550-07132-9 , p. 274.
  12. ↑ a b c d Chart sources: AT CH UK US