Welcome Fellow Fab Four Fun Film Fans!

The Mods & Rockers! Film Festival presents a great variety of movies. There are several of obvious interest to us Beatles fans. (HELP! and WONDERWALL come to mind!)

But there are also several other films which have less obvious Beatles connections - which may be of interest to the dedicated Beatles fan. This page tells you about all the Beatle-related movies in the festival.

If having perused the full film festival schedule you spot a Beatles connection not mentioned on this page - please contact us immediately with full details.

BEDAZZLED (Peter Cook & Dudley Moore)
FRIDAY JUNE 25 - 7:00 PM

John Lennon was great friends with Peter Cook - and appeared several times on the Peter Cook & Dudley Moore 60’s BBC TV show “Not Only... But Also” including appearances reading his poems and a famous acting cameo as a smartly-uniformed attendant in a spoof news report about upscale public bathrooms!

TONITE LET'S ALL MAKE LOVE IN LONDON
FRIDAY JUNE 25 - 9:30 PM

Features very early Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd - recorded at Abbey Road at the same time as “Sgt. Pepper” - produced by former Beatles engineer Norman Smith.

Norman Smith behind the controls at Abbey Road

HELP! (plus Beatles rarities)
SATURDAY JUNE 26 - 6:15PM

Brand-new 35mm print! With guest: producer Walter Shenson live in-person!

This screening takes place just 4 days after Walter Shenson’s 80th birthday! Let’s give him a wonderful birthday gift - by having a jam-packed movie theatre for the man who HELPed the Beatles become “LEGENDS OF THE SILVER SCREEN”!

On the set of Help!

WONDERWALL
SATURDAY JUNE 26 - 8:15 PM

THE LONG-AWAITED AMERICAN PREMIERE! (just 31 years after George & Pattie Harrison and Ringo & Maureen Starr attended the World Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival - and 30 years after George & Pattie attended the British Premiere - in the middle of the “Get Back” sessions.)

FEATURING GEORGE’S ONLY MOVIE SCORE! (includes drumming by Ringo and guitar by Eric Clapton!)

AND THE PREVIOUSLY UNHEARD SONG NEWLY-DISCOVERED BY GEORGE IN HIS VAULTS! (Click here for more news on this newly discovered gem!)

AND - NEW REVELATION! - A POEM WRITTEN BY JOHN LENNON! Check back to this page soon for more details!

Also screening is the 1965 short “REFLECTIONS ON LOVE” shot by Wonderwall director Joe Massot - with famed Beatles photographer Robert Freeman as Director of Photography.

This short film includes brief documentary footage of the Beatles in 1965 - in a short but fun sequence - and a featured appearance by Jenny Boyd - sister of George’s first wife - Pattie Boyd. Jenny Boyd was the person who introduced the Beatles to the Maharishi (!) worked in the Beatles’ Apple Boutique - and later was later married to Mick Fleetwood! (Phew!)

Director Joe Massot personally commissioned George to write the Wonderwall soundtrack. He became close friends with the Beatles - especially John and George - who invited him to join them on their pilgrimage to Rishikesh, India in spring 1968. Joe shot some of the footage of that visit used in the “Anthology” TV series.

DIRECTOR JOE MASSOT WILL ATTEND THE PREMIERE AND PARTAKE IN A POST-SCREENING DISCUSSION!

GREAT EXPLOITATIONS! AN AUDIENCE WITH MARTIN LEWIS
SATURDAY JUNE 26 - 9:00 PM
SATURDAY JULY 3 - 9:00 PM

British humorist and Beatles authority Martin Lewis reveals the full story of his now notorious Beatles song hoax - which is still creating major controversy in the Beatles world. You can read the full true story on his website - without it spoiling the show! The hoax is just one of the many true wild stories in his acclaimed autobiographical show. And as the show’s many impressive reviews have stated - the fun is all in the story-telling....

Note: There will be two performances of this live stage-show during the festival. The first performance is scheduled to run in an adjacent theatre concurrently with the American Premiere of Wonderwall. However - Beatles fan who very understandably wish to attend the Wonderwall premiere - may see the Martin Lewis show the following weekend - Saturday July 3rd at 9:00pm.

The Strawberry Alarm Clock

PSYCH-OUT
THURSDAY JULY 1 - 9:15 PM

Jack Nicholson stars as a hairy San Francisco hippie musician in 1967! Also featured is the L.A. psychedelic band STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK - huge Beatles fans - who took part of their name directly from a copy of Billboard showing “Strawberry Fields Forever” riding high in the charts!

THE KNACK
FRIDAY JULY 2 - 9:30 PM

Between shooting “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!” - director Richard Lester filmed this brilliant satire about the art of seduction. It stars a pre-Phantom of The Opera Michael Crawford - who Lester later put together with John Lennon in his 1967 movie “How I Won The War.”

Beatles' Director and Chum Dick Lester

HEAD (with Monkee Micky Dolenz live in-person!)
SATURDAY JULY 3 - 4:00 PM

The Monkees first and only movie. Don’t forget that the Beatles immediately accepted the Monkees as cool fun people. Michael Nesmith was invited to the famous orchestral session for “A Day In The Life.” Peter Tork visited the London “Wonderwall” sessions in early 1968 - and reportedly contributed tambourine to one track. And of course Ringo became an honorary Monkee in those Pizza Hut commercials!

This is a fun movie - co-written by Jack Nicholson! - in which the Monkees tried to shake their teenybop image.

THE TOUCHABLES
SATURDAY JULY 3 - 6:15 PM

A very camp bizarre movie - the first one directed by famous Beatles photographer Robert Freeman. (He shot the photos seen on the covers of albums such as “With The Beatles” “Help!” and “Rubber Soul.”)

GREAT EXPLOITATIONS!
SATURDAY JULY 3 - 9:00 PM

A second performance of Martin Lewis’ one-man show.
(See above.)

SUMMER HOLIDAY
SUNDAY JULY 4 - 12:00 PM

This movie stars Cliff Richard & the Shadows. Up till the Beatles’ breakthrough in 1963 - Cliff was the most successful pop act in Britain. And he’s still having hits in 1999 - 41 years after he was launched as ‘the British Elvis’ !!!

John Lennon himself once said, "I think the first English record that was anywhere near anything was “Move It “ by Cliff Richard, and before that there'd been nothing."

There are several stories that relate The Beatles to Cliff Richard.

How this movie - “Summer Holiday” - influenced the Beatles’ strategy for conquering America... And how Cliff’s longtime backing group The Shadows inspired the Beatles first instrumental...

HAVING A WILD WEEKEND HOLIDAY (aka Catch Us If You Can)
SUNDAY JULY 4 - 12:00 PM

The other film on this July 4th British double-bill is the first (and only!) movie by the group who were - for a year - the Beatles’ biggest rivals in America.

NOT the Rolling Stones. Nor The Who, Yardbirds or Animals. Not even Herman’s Hermits, Gerry & the Pacemakers or Freddie & The Dreamers!

No - the pretenders in the white pants (!) were five guys from Tottenham in north London - who for a while were being touted by some misguided pundits as serious rivals to the Beatles - with their “Tottenham Sound”!

Well history records who won that little battle! But check out the band that was fleetingly (though mainly in the media’s mind) - the main competition!

THE MODS & ROCKERS ENGLISH TEA PARTY & MOVIE
GO-GO MANIA (aka Pop Gear)
SUNDAY JULY 4 - 4:00PM - 8:00PM

This special event concludes the film festival with a wild Mod English Tea Party to celebrate July 4th in British style! There will be an all-star live band playing 60’s music - and you can be certain that there will be plenty of Beatles songs heard!

Preceding that there will be a rare screening of GO GO MANIA - an all-star concert movie featuring the cream of the British Invasion. It features the full-length versions of two great performances by the early (1963) Beatles filmed in rich 35mm color! The songs are “SHE LOVES YOU’ and ‘TWIST AND SHOUT” - and they have to be seen on the big screen to be really appreciated!

There are also performances by several other pals of the Beatles - singing specially-written Beatles compositions. These include:

Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas Peter & Gordon The Fourmost Sounds Incorporated The Remo Four Tommy Quickly