Trivia for
A Hard Day's Night (1964)

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• Norm and Shake are loosely based on The Beatles real-life road managers Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans, respectively.
  
  
• The people chasing The Beatles into the train at the beginning of the film are real fans.
  
  
• The word "Beatles" is never mentioned in the movie.
  
  

• The movie's working title initially was "The Beatles", then "Beatlemania", until Ringo Starr who was exhausted after a long day coined a phrase 'A Hard Day's Night', that was accepted by the studio.
  
  
• The song "You Can't Do That" was cut from the concert scene at the end of the film, but the scene in which it is performed is still intact.
  
  
• Ringo Starr is invited to "Le Cercle" gambling club, the same club where James Bond makes his first appearance in Dr. No (1962).
  
  
• Another James Bond connection is the song, "This Boy" (a.k.a. "Ringo's Theme"), an instrumental version of which was used in the film to accompany Ringo's solo scene. The guitarist was Vic Flick, who previously played on "The James Bond Theme" from Dr. No (1962).
  
  
• A young Phil Collins can be seen in the audience at the television theatre. He's wearing glasses.
  
  
• DIRCAMEO appearance of Richard Lester: seen briefly at the back of the stage while The Beatles perform "Tell Me Why".
  
  
• The Beatles first shared the bill with Wilfrid Brambell at the Royal Command Variety Performance in November 1963.
  
  
• When shooting began, The Beatles had not yet joined the British actor's union. They were hastily inducted on the set with Wilfrid Brambell proposing their membership, and Norman Rossington seconding the motion.
  
  
• In the scene where Paul's grandfather suggests Ringo to be parading instead of reading a book, the book he's reading is "Anatomy of a Murder".
  
  
• John's line, "She looks more like him than I do" was dubbed in after shooting.
  
  
• The woolly sweater worn by the film's T.V. Director (Victor Spinetti) was his own. The sweater was given to him as a gift and later given to a fan club who had asked him for it.
  
  
• John's written answer to the female reporter asking him if he has any hobbies, is the word "tits".
  
  
• Pattie Boyd (later George Harrison's first wife) appears in several scenes in the first act, all on the train. 1) She is one of the two "schoolgirls on the train" they first encounter 2) Paul chats her up with her friend. 3) She sits next to Paul and smiles and sings on "I Should Have Known Better".
  
  
• The tire that Ringo Starr trips over in the scene at the river bank had to be thrown again and again, as it kept rolling incorrectly. Finally, after numerous wasted takes, it was offered to young actor 'David Janson' , on hand to play the young boy Ringo meets. Janson rolled the tire correctly on the first try.
  
  
• George Harrison stumbles and falls during the opening sequence of the group running down a street towards the camera. This wasn't intended and he ripped the suit he was wearing, but as he quickly recovered, laughed and continued running, it was decided to retain the shot in the film.
  
  
• The song accompanying the boys' romp in the field was orignally "I'll Cry Instead". It was changed to the previously-released track "Can't Buy Me Love" when the director felt the first song didn't fit the mood properly.
  
  
• United Artists was pressuring the producers to finally come up with a title for the film. When John told producer Walter Shenson about Ringo's malapropisms, Shenson thought that Ringo's phrase "a hard day's night" might make a good title. John agreed. Shenson called United Artists with the proposed title, which was coolly received. Shenson suggested that they ask the secretaries and other young employees, who may be fans of The Beatles, what they thought of the proposed title. The suggestion worked and the title was accepted.
  
  
• While all four Beatles attended the movie's premiere, reportedly none stayed for the whole show.
  
  
• Ringo was praised for his solo scene at the riverside as a forlorn soul. However, his expression in that scene was actually the result of being severely hung over after a previous night of heavy drinking.
  
  
• CAMEO appearance of Brian Epstein): in the hotel lobby prior to The Beatles' appearance at the press reception.
  
  
• Two scenes were filmed but never used. A sequence where the Beatles are stuck in a traffic jam along with their chauffeur (Frank Thornton) and a solo scene where Paul meets a Shakespearean actress (Isla Blair) rehearsing in her dressing room.
  
  
• Mal Evans, one of the Beatles assistants along with Neil Aspinall, makes a cameo in the film. He is the person carrying the upright bass/cello in between John Lennon and Anna Quayle (Millie) as they are talking in the hallway backstage at the television theater.
  
  
• The movie's conversation "Are you a mod, or a rocker?." - "I'm a mocker." between a reporter and Ringo was voted as the #58 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
  
  
• United Artists wanted to produce "A Hard Day's Night" because the Beatles' contract with Capital Records did not include a provision covering film scores. As a result, the original soundtrack for "A Hard Day's Night" was released on United Artists Records. All of the selections were simultaneously released on Capital, as well, on either the "Something New" album or as 45 rpm singles.
  
  
• Writer Alun Owen put together the plot of the movie while following them around on their tour of France before they went to America. From observing them, he created their "stereotypes": John is a smart-ass, Paul is "cute" and sensible, George is quite and shy, and Ringo is dim-witted and sad. He also picked up their manner of speech, and their daily routine with which he created the plot (Despite the comic elements, it really was a "day-in-the-life" look at the Beatles).
  
  
• Beatles producer George Martin got an Academy Award nomination for his music score in the movie. But The Beatles themselves weren't nominated for their music.
  
  
• There was a scene filmed, but cut, which featured Paul flirting and dancing with a ballerina preparing for her performance. It was cut to save time and because Paul already had his own plot line with his "grandfather".
  
  
• According to Norman Rossington, in the scene where John takes the scissors and cuts the tailor's tape and says "I now declare this bridge open." John improvised other versions where instead of "bridge" he would say "Synogouge", "Fish and Chips Stand", etc. Also of interesting note, the tailor in the scene is the Beatles real tailor. Another nugget: In the same scene, when Norm and Shake walk into the room, there's a copy of John Lennon's book "In His Own Write" on the shelf (the black book with the picture).
  
  
• The constant mention of Paul's grandfather being "very clean" are references to actor Wilfrid Brambell playing a rag and bone man in "Steptoe and Son" (1962), featuring the catch-phrase, "You dirty old man." "Steptoe and Son" (1962) was remade in the USA as "Sanford and Son" (1972).
  
  
• Once Ringo Starr's line "A Hard Day's Night" was confirmed as the movie's title, it was put to music by John Lennon and Paul McCartney with participation of George Harrison and Ringo Starr. The Beatles collectively composed the song that same night, playing it the next morning to producer Walter Shenson in their dressing room.
  
  
• Screenwriter Alun Owen claimed that the word "grotty" was a word used in Liverpool to mean "grotesque", but the Beatles never heard it before and believed Owen made it up. It subsequently passed into general usage and linguists certainly cite The Beatles as the popularizers of the word in the early 1960s and trace its origins to Liverpool.
  
  
• Besides Grandfather's gambling at "Le Cercle Club," there is other James Bond connections: Richard Vernon (the grumpy old man on the train) plays Smithers - the man who lectures Bond on gold in Goldfinger (1964), and Margaret Nolan (girl at "Le Cercle Club") also appeared in that film, as "Dink", the girl at the hotel swimming pool.
  
  
• In the scene where The Beatles are running and playing in the field, John Lennon was not there. He was away promoting his new book "John Lennon: In His Own Write." A body double filled in for John, and close-up shots of him were edited into the scene later. A copy of the book can be seen on a mantelpiece in the background of a shot of Norm, Shake and Paul's (very clean) grandfather.
  
  
• Screenwriter Alun Owen claims that the only Beatle who ad-libbed was John Lennon. The truth is that all four members of The Beatles sparked each other's imagination and improvised.
  
  
• While Paul McCartney is singing "And I Love Her," the camera panning around him picks up an arc light that flashes straight into the lens. United Artists executives, reviewing the dailies and certain the shot had to be a mistake, asked producer Walter Shenson if he was aware of it; Shenson replied it had taken them all morning to get it like that.
  
  
• The camera's 360-degree pan around Paul McCartney during his performance of "And I Love Her" was achieved by dangling the camera from strings marionette-style and moving it in a circle around McCartney.
  
  
• Premiered in England on the eve of Ringo Starr's 24th birthday.
  
  

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