The Beatles Begin Filming ‘Magical Mystery Tour’

By the second half of the ’60s, the Beatles had already made two movies filled with comical escapades and quick-witted mischief.

Both 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night and 1965’s Help! had been nicely obtained by followers and critics, however the identical couldn’t be stated for the band’s third foray into the world of filmmaking, 1967’s Magical Mystery Tour.

It is tough to explain the plot of Magical Mystery Tour, particularly as a result of there actually is not one. A bunch of family and friends embark on a bus journey, and varied unusual happenings ensue due to a cohort of “magicians” – 4 of whom are performed by the Beatles themselves and the fifth by their long-time street supervisor Mal Evans. The movie is designed to be structureless – a stream of consciousness that may finest be in comparison with Ken Kesey’s journey with the Merry Pranksters — underscored with the songs that would seem on the Magical Mystery Tour album.

When the 52-minute movie was first broadcast throughout British televisions on Dec. 26, 1967, it understandably confused viewers. “It wasn’t the kind of thing we could do a disclaimer before it and say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, what you are about to see is a product of our imaginations,'” Paul McCartney stated in 2012’s Magical Mystery Tour Revisited, “and believe me, at this point they’re quite vivid.”

Ringo Starr positioned the blame on McCartney. “It was Paul’s idea, really,” he stated.

Watch a Trailer for ‘Magical Mystery Tour’

When filming started on Sept. 11, 1967, McCartney did certainly have an concept – a lot of them truly, however not a definitive script. Instead, he introduced alongside a hand-drawn, round diagram with sketched potentialities for the movie, which he dubbed a “scrupt.”

They had skilled assist from co-producer Denis O’Dell, who had labored as an affiliate producer on A Hard Day’s Night, in addition to 1967’s How I Won the War starring John Lennon. (O’Dell would go on to go Apple Films for the Beatles in 1968.) But the dearth of a transparent plan doomed the mission from this very first day.

“We knew most of the scenes we wanted to include, but we bent our ideas to fit the people concerned, once we got to know our cast,” Lennon later admitted. “If somebody wanted to do something we hadn’t planned, they went ahead. If it worked, we kept it in.”

The bulk of labor came about by way of Sept. 25, with many scenes being filmed on the Royal Air Force West Malling, a decommissioned army airfield in Kent. The ballroom scene for “Your Mother Should Know” came about in an outdated air-craft hangar, the sequence for “I Am the Walrus” was filmed proper out on the runway. In one other set location clue, RAF Air Training Corps cadets come marching by way of.

Pretty a lot something was truthful recreation, as assistant producer Gavrik Losey advised the Guardian in 2012. “There was nobody there blowing a whistle and stamping their feet and saying, ‘Do this and do that.'”

Watch ‘I Am the Walrus’ From ‘Magical Mystery Tour’

Bills rapidly ballooned, notably across the very pricey “Your Mother Should Know” scene, however McCartney deemed it mandatory. “The big prop was that great big staircase that we danced down, that was where all the money went: in that particular shot on that big staircase,” McCartney remembered in Many Years From Now. “I stated, ‘Sod it, you’ve received to have the Busby Berkeley ending,’ and it’s a good sequence. Just the very fact of John dancing, which he did readily. You can see by the enjoyable expression on his face that he wasn’t compelled into something.”

Such an elaborate, disorganized approach ensured that things went wrong from time to time, Losey confirmed. “Like when the turbines collapsed earlier than the formation dancers needed to go dwelling,” he said. “Bribes needed to be produced, and signed footage. They had been Come Dancing dancers, the actual factor, introduced down from Newcastle, Cardiff and Birmingham. We had about 20 busloads. The Beatles had been a fantastic calling card.”

The bulk of filming was done in two weeks but the editing process, which began on Sept. 25, took far longer than expected at 11 weeks. Ultimately, roughly 10 hours of material had to be trimmed down to 52 minutes.

Still, in at least one case, a song couldn’t be matched with the haphazard footage on hand. Film editor Roy Benson ended up pairing a re-used B-52 aerial sequence from 1964’s Dr. Strangelove with the instrumental “Flying.” He was able to do this because he had access to Shepperton Studios, where Dr. Strangelove had been filmed, though this reportedly upset director Stanley Kubrick.

Magical Mystery Tour did not charm viewers when it was initially broadcast — first in black and white, then in color — but it did offer a unique visual representation of the Beatles’ boundless creativity and their continuing role as pop culture icons. “It stays a really attention-grabbing commentary of English society,” Losey added, “from the standpoint of 4 very brilliant guys who had the cash to pay for it.”