![]() However, when it became clear that the track was not appropriate for that project, it was shelved and quietly forgotten until the Beatles convened in September 1967 to discuss how to proceed with the business of being the Beatles. Paul McCartney had originally written the “Magical Mystery Tour” song for inclusion on the Sgt. Distancing themselves from their public image seems to be precisely what the Beatles had in mind for their next film project as well. Like the group, he had also hoped to find a vehicle wherein the Beatles would not have to play themselves (as they had in their earlier films) but rather, as noted in The Beatles at the Movies, “four characters who look, think and talk like the Beatles but are different characters” (92). It is interesting to note that just prior to the production of Magical Mystery Tour, Walter Shenson (the producer of the two previous Beatle films – A Hard Day’s Night and Help!) had been actively searching for a third film project for the band. The four Beatles planned to make their new film entirely on their own free from the studio system, the producers, the directors, or anyone else that might hinder the creative processes or perpetuate the mop top image that their previous movies had ingrained in the public consciousness. ![]() Unfortunately, as Beatles’ producer George Martin explains in Roy Carr’s The Beatles at the Movies (New York: HarperPerennial, 1996), things did not turn out that way and “if the Beatles’ professional career were to be plotted on a graph, Magical Mystery Tour was definitely a dip” (113). Or, at least that was how they envisioned it. ![]() It would be an extravagant film, every bit as colorful, interesting, and original as their music. ![]() Then, in early September, just a few weeks after the death of their manager, Brian Epstein (the victim of an accidental overdose of prescription-drugs on August 27, 1967), the Beatles began work on their next project – a film for television entitled Magical Mystery Tour. They were, by all accounts, perceived as infallible. Since the record’s June release, the group had become cultural and musical icons and had attained a form of rock sainthood. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album and looking for a follow-up. And that's the whole point.The fall of 1967 found The Beatles feasting on the critical and commercial success of the Sgt. When I first screened this movie, I watched it at least six times trying to find out the plot, etc. Watch through the eyes of the Beatles and it's not so bad after all. Many people have dismissed this film as a failure and a mess. Ringo is giving the acting job in the film and went on to star in other 1960s films such as "Candy" and "The Magic Christian". Paul contributes "The Fool On The Hill" and supervised the film shoot. George plays "Blue Jay Way" and his Indian mysticism comes through. But where else will you see a performance of "I Am The Walrus"? You can see where each of the Beatles were heading: John wrote the spaghetti dream sequence and was in real life deeply into surrealism. The Beatles tried to do that with this film and it's hit and miss. Imagine it: you're a famous British rock star who captured the world with Beatlemania, you're on your own now, you're watching and helping shape pop culture around the world, you're sampling the sexual, drug, and youth revolutions of 1967, and you want to capture it on film. Like "A Hard Day's Night" a mere three years earlier which captured a day in the life of the Beatles, this film shows what the Beatles were living and experiencing then. This film is disorganized, cluttered, plotless, psychadelic, over the top, and represents perfectly what the Beatles were living through at that present time. Magical Mystery Tour was the first project by the Beatles after the death of their manager and it shows. ![]()
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