More chasing and more studied pointlessness as we head into the film's final scenes. We look at the Buster Keaton influence on the escalating police chase scenes, and ask whether Ringo is actually back where he belongs when he rejoins the group, given that there's been no narrative resolution of his earlier discontent. We look at the filming and editing techniques of the concert scene, and have a look at John's final words for Grandfather.
Links
A Hard Day's Night is often on BBC iPlayer, although not at the moment, and available to rent on a few streaming services
There's also a good quality copy on YouTube at the moment, which might of course be taken down soon. Do yourself a favour and buy the Blu-ray anyway.
Get Samira Ahmed's excellent book about the film, from the BFI Modern Classics series
The Young Ones episode "Boring" has the discriminatory language we refer to cut out on BBC iPlayer but you can find the original scene if you're interested enough to Google it. This does have an Abbey Road visual gag for good measure though
Videos
Buster Keaton's Cops, an influence on A Hard Day's Night's absurdist police chase scene
The film's car thief John Bluthal as the Leaning Tower of Pisa replica salesman in Superman III
The series
A Hard Day's Night (Part 1: A train)
We kick off our deep dive into the Beatles' 1964 film debut, unpacking the absurdist class comedy of the train carriage scene. "Who's that little old man?"
Listen on Spotify
A Hard Day's Night (Part 2: And a room)
Beatlemania meets magic realism as we continue through the film, from a hotel room stowaway to Ringo's class-conscious dance moves in the nightclub.
A Hard Day's Night (Part 3: And a car)
From press conference chaos to a tender rendition of If I Fell, we compare John Lennon's jokey delivery to Paul McCartney's straightforward And I Love Her.
A Hard Day's Night (Part 4: And a room)
Three solo spotlights in one go: John Lennon, George Harrison and Paul McCartney each get their moment, including Paul's performance of And I Love Her.
A Hard Day's Night (Part 5: And a room)
Ringo Starr steps into the spotlight as we explore his standout scene with Wilfred Brambell, then join him parading by the Thames and meeting a fellow deserter.