A Hard Day's Night

"The Beatles, starring in their first full-length, hilarious, action-packed film!"

1964 1h 28m EN

👍

7.3

SOLID

🔥

98%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

7.5

IMDB

★7.3TMDB · 769🍅98%Rotten Tomatoes●96Metacritic★7.5IMDB · 50,043

ComedyMusic

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Capturing John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in their electrifying element, 'A Hard Day's Night' is a wildly irreverent journey through this pastiche of a day in the life of The Beatles during 1964. The band have to use all their guile and wit to avoid the pursuing fans and press to reach their scheduled television performance, in spite of Paul's troublemaking grandfather and Ringo's arrest.

“The Beatles, starring in their first full-length, hilarious, action-packed film!”

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Cast

John Lennon
John
Paul McCartney
Paul
George Harrison
George
Ringo Starr
Ringo
Wilfrid Brambell
Grandfather
Norman Rossington
Norm
John Junkin
Shake
Victor Spinetti
T.V. Director

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Richard Lester
Writers: Alun Owen
Languages: English, French, German
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

88 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.6M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $11M — a 19.6× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

62 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, French, German.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Richard Lester, shot by Gilbert Taylor. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor John Jympson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

John Lennon and Paul McCartney and George Harrison carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Richard Lester directs. Gilbert Taylor behind the camera. John Jympson cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English, French, German.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

188 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Shot for just $0.6M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
3Grossed $11M — a 19.6× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
462 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
5Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, French, German.
6Directed by Richard Lester, shot by Gilbert Taylor. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Editor John Jympson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8John Lennon and Paul McCartney and George Harrison carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "The Beatles, starring in their first full-length, hilarious, action-packed film!".
10IMDB entry: tt0058182 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 19 themes, including "adolescence", "rock 'n' roll", "great britain", "culture clash".
12Released under 16 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Gilbert Taylor
Editing: John Jympson
Costume design: Julie Harris
Makeup / hair: John O'Gorman
Runtime: 88 min · 1h 28m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $560,000
Box office: $11,000,000
Return: 1964% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): G
IMDB: A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Rotten Tomatoes: 98% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 96/100
IMDB rating: 7.5/10 · 50,043 votes
MPAA: G

Awards

Nominated for 2 Oscars. 2 wins & 7 nominations total

Also by

Richard Lester

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-12-02
★ 7/10
Who says there were no pop videos in the 1960s? This is an example of one, two, three - indeed, possibly five - all loosely connected via a daftly enjoyable storyline featuring old "Steptoe" himself - Mr. Wilfrid Bramble. It has a plot, not that it remotely matters: the fab four are heading to London to do a television show and poor old Ringo gets separated - much to the chagrin of the programme's director. What ensues are various enjoyable escapades interspersed with some dapper performances from the band. The thing is riddled with charisma - the band are clearly having a whale of a time, Bramble looks like startled rabbit - as only he could - and the scenes with the screaming fans contribute well to the overall sense of adulation in which this band were held. It makes no pretence to be a film of great cinematographic worth - which is just as well 'cos it isn't - but as 90 minutes of almost fly-on-the wall fun and games, it's well worth a watch.

Production companies