I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978)

Thanks for the memories!

So much average

Overrated

Good start, but then it gets ruined

As American Graffiti focuses on one night in the lives of a group of California teenagers, I Wanna Hold Your Hand goes across the plains two years later and focuses on A Day In the Life of Beatle-crazed teenagers hoping for a glimpse of the best band in history (their opinion which I share). Released in 1978, the same year as the god- awful Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, this does a much better job as an homage to the Beatles and equally deserves the exposure and saturation of the Pepper movie. Wendy Jo Sperber, Nancy Allen and Teresa Saldana are manic fans who travel from New Jersey to New York to catch even the slightest glimpse of their idols while in town to appear on "The Ed Sullivan Show". Pandemonium appears to dog their every step as they try to break into the band's hotel as well as the CBS Studio hosting the live broadcast. Supported by beatnik-folk-purist Susan Kendall Newman, jealous Beatle-hater and Four Season fan Bobby Di Ciccio, obsessive Beatle- geek Eddie Deezen and mild-mannered future Jimmy Olsen actor Marc McClure (see what I did there?) as an unlicensed getaway car driver (actually one of the limos from his father's funeral parlor), the girls fight a never-ending battle for an encounter with John, Paul, George, Ringo, and the American Way (sorry). Seriously, all the leading and supporting actors give this film 110% in hilarity, likability and authenticity. You really want them to get what they want and you're laughing your head off at everything that goes wrong during their exploits. One of the biggest laughs comes early in the film in which Rosie (Wendy Jo Sperber) goes insane and screams at the top of her lungs when she mistakes a life sized cardboard cut- out of Paul for the genuine article. This movie made me think of the Hairspray yet to come at that time, as Rosie's character is what Tracy Turnblad might be like two years after desegregating the Corny Collins Show. Her hair is still straight, although some of it's bunched up in a hideously hilarious looking ribbon. The hysteria, the screaming, chanting crowds, the cop chases, and the pandemonium are all chief ingredients of every John Waters movie. Could it be he might have seen this and it seeped into his subconscious? Finally, I think this movie, this film, this cinematic comedic masterpiece (and yes, I'm as obsessive a Beatles fan as they were) should be reissued through the Criterion Collection as it paints a very accurate as well as affectionately satirical picture of Beatlemania on "Sullivan Day". Music licenses were a lot less expensive to acquire in 1978, and this may not be the case these days, with the Beatles now enjoying a higher level of popularity than when they were a band. This wasn't the case in the late 70s, and the Sgt Pepper movie didn't do them very many favors. In fact, the Beatles were so "over" then, there wasn't much interest in anything to do with them, so the licensing of their music was obtained for...a song (okay, yes I had to say it, very sorry). Hopefully good will triumph over evil and this film will see a remastered release (with a stolen limo full of extras). If you're either a fan of broad slapstick comedy, the Beatles music, or both (as I am), and you haven't seen this yet, try to get yourself a copy whether owned or loaned. You know this can't be bad.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand follows a group of fanboys and fanboyettes who put all modern day internet fan communities to shame on a journey to meet their idols. There's a lot of screaming, shouting and overall hyperactivity with its lightning fast, 1930's-like repertoire and I watched the entire film with the biggest smile on my face. Crazy over the top comedies like these are my forte and I Wanna Hold Your Hand is one of the most energetic I've ever seen. The film begins with Ed Sullivan (Played by Ed Sullivan look-a-like Will Jordan) on the set on his own show off air introducing the movie Patton style, setting the stage for just how big The Beatles had become by January 1964. This was only three months after the assassination of JFK but this is never mentioned in the film. The film shows how Beatlemania provided an escape from the real world.Wendie Jo Sperber and Eddie Deezen (a voice forever implanted into my head from years of childhood exposure on Dexter's Laboratory) as Rosie and Ringo (as he calls himself) are the two most hyperactive of the cast members. I find it adorable that these two, one a social outcast and the other puppy dog eyed time bomb being brought together through their insane Beatles' worship; especially when Rosie tells Ringo, "You're the only boy I feel I can really talk to". Likewise Pam Mitchell's (Nancy Allen) scene in which she invades The Beatles' hotel room as she strokes and licks Ringo Star's guitar neck is erotic cinema at its finest (she even takes off her engagement ring and puts t into her shoe beforehand, nice touch). The cinematography really puts a lot of emphases put on that guitar neck only for Ringo himself to later comment that it's covered in sticky stuff, sexy. I'd do the same thing as well, not with The Beatles but there are other celebrities of whom I was in their hotel room I would be rubbing my face against everything they've touched and don't lie, you would too. I Wanna Hold Your Hand also features Paul Newman's daughter Susan Kendall Newman in her second of three film appearances. Her character of Janis is introduced complaining to the manager of a record store that "all I see around the store is Beatle albums. What about Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, don't they get equal floor space?"; back to the USSR for you Ms. Frankfurt School. It seems every generation has their socially righteous trying to ruin everyone's fun although the movie does manage to make her into a sympathetic and more likable character as the film progresses. The film even gives significant attention to Beatles' haters. One of the film's greasers Tony (Bobby Di Cicco) hates The Beatles so much he abuses Beatles' fans and even attempts to sabotage their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show; talk about haters gonna hate. The other stroke of genius is while we do see The Beatles they are never shown in their entirety. Rather the film takes the Ben-Hur Jesus approach in which only the bodies are seen but never the faces. If they actually did cast actors to play The Beatles in which we see their faces it would take you out of the film. There are even shades of American Graffiti present in I Wanna Hold Your Wand with its early 1960's setting, young people, rock music and cars.I Wanna Hold Your Hand marked the directorial debut of Robert Zemeckis. Like in Zemeckis' Forrest Gump years later, I Wanna Hold Your Hand combines fiction surrounding a historical event. Much of the film's cast being reunited the following year in the comically less successful 1941 (directed by Steven Spielberg) despite also being written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. I've always considered Zemeckis to be a much better director than Spielberg. I Wanna Hold Your Hand captures that feeling of having such a strong devotion to something. As you become increasingly attached to these characters you feel that if they really did miss The Beatles performance on The Ed Sullivan Show then their lives really wouldn't be worth living.

I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND was the first film directed by Robert Zemeckis (it was also produced by Steven Spielberg). It's a fictional comedy that plays on a winning idea of having a group of New Jersey teenagers traveling into New York City with the goal of meeting The Beatles on their historic first trip to the United States, one early February weekend in 1964. Their adventures will take them right up to the momentous Sunday Night TV appearance of The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. The young actors here include: Nancy Allen (she plays an engaged girl who's too mature to get involved by something as trivial as The Beatles); Theresa Saldana (an aspiring reporter looking to snag exclusive photos of The Fab Four); Susan Kendall Newman (Paul Newman's daughter, playing a folk music lobbyist looking to expose the saccharine Beatles); Wendie Jo Sperber (a wildly obsessed Beatlemaniac who's in love with Paul); Eddie Deezen (bespectacled "geek actor for all seasons" with a serious Beatles addiction); and Bobby DiCicco and Marc McClure (two guys along for the ride who don't care much for the English quartet but tag along anyway to get the girls).The movie is quite a distant cousin away from the classic American GRAFFITI. It's a wild day out, and its comic style includes a good dose of slapstick pratfalls and the like. Nerdy Eddie Deezen is at the center of most of the silliness, but Wendie Jo Sperber is well suited to her role as the biggest female Beatles Nut of the group. Theresa Saldana's character is a tad more interesting and complex, and Nancy Allen gives one of the better performances I've seen from her as the conflicted bride-to-be who feels herself helplessly switching allegiance from her fiancé in favor of John, Paul, George and Ringo. (The Beatles themselves only appear in the movie via old film clips; stand-ins are used and photographed from behind in key moments). Murray the "K", the original DJ who documented the Beatles' every move in New York, comes back a dozen or so years after the fact to recreate his old persona. Impressive is that none of the film was actually shot in New York, but the sets and subbing locations fooled me for many viewings until I ultimately found out it's actually California. A favorite scene capturing the a sign of those times centers around a younger boy who sports a moppish Beatles-like haircut, admonished by his typically conservative dad.Finally, I wish to add that the most recent 2004 DVD release from Universal is not the best way to experience this movie. I had been pretty familiar with the film from seeing it several times on VHS, but that version was issued in the much preferred audio format of MONO. The 2004 DVD has since remixed the sound to an undesirable 5.1 arrangement which now almost completely drowns out the accompanying music soundtrack which consists of many vintage Beatles classic recordings, taken from the actual records. They were intended to be heard in the background more prominently right along with the spoken dialogue, but are now toned down whenever people are speaking to the point where you can barely decipher anything that's accompanying the talking. **1/2 out of ****

"I Wanna Hold Your Hand" is the hysterical story of young girls who want to see the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, and the lengths that they go to achieve their goal.Nancy Allen, Teresa Saldana, and the late Wendy Jo Sperber are the three crazed girls in this 1978 film, directed by Robert Zemeckis, who also helped write the script. The film also stars Bobby DiCicco, Eddie Deezen, and Marc McClure.The film covers the events of February 9, 1964, the day the Beatles made their American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. Rosie (Sperber) is determined to get into the show and is constantly looking for phone booths whenever Murray the K is giving away tickets if you can answer questions such as, "Which Beatle is left-handed?" She winds up meeting Richard "Ringo" Klaus (Deezen) who is a nearly insane Beatles fanatic who has taken over a room in the hotel without the hotel's knowledge. Pam Mitchell (Allen) is engaged and rather disdainful of the whole thing, but gets swept up in the events; Grace (Saldana) hopes to start her photography career by getting backstage, but the guard wants a bribe. Janis Goldman plays a protester who thinks the Beatles are a corruptive force in the world of art."I Wanna Hold Your Hand" is heavy on slapstick, but much of the slapstick is very funny the way it's done. The best part of the movie for me is that all the things these girls do, many girls in New York City no doubt tried with as much conviction and passion. And the film captures perfectly the insanity that ruled the teen girl population of New York that day. The only thing not shown is how they screamed during the entire Sullivan show -- there is a dog act with no attendant screaming. Mitzi McCall and Charlie Brill could not hear one word of their skit which was overpowered by screams.On a sad note, two of the stars met with tragedy. Teresa Saldana was badly injured in a knife attack. She was able to resume her career and founded Victims for Victims, devoting much of her time to helping survivors of trauma. Wendy Jo Sperber died of cancer at the age of 47. Both of them, along with the rest of this fine cast, give wonderful performances.If you're a baby boomer, this is a great film for you to watch and relive the innocence of the time and the Beatle furor. If you're not, it's a fun, charming movie.