A Hard Day’s Night: The Beatles’ First Feature Film Where All They Had to Do Was Act Naturally

How a film developed only for its soundtrack with no plot and starring non-actors defied the odds to become a groundbreaking picture.

“Who are they?” Walter Shenson replied when he was asked if he would like to produce a film with The Beatles. Noel Rodgers, the British representative for United Artists Records, knew the UK’s Beatlemania was heading for the States and figured a way to cash in. He approached Bud Ornstein, the British production head of UA’s film division, with the idea of signing the Beatles to a three-picture deal.

Once Shenson, producer of The Mouse That Roared (1959) had been brought up to speed with the Beatle phenomena, he agreed to look into the prospect. UA assured him that if the film only made a profit in the UK, that would be good enough. The film would be made cheaply and knocked out quickly as the property they were really after was the soundtrack. United Artists had discovered late in 1963 that EMI’s contract with the Beatles did not cover film soundtracks.

The soundtrack allowed A Hard Day’s Night to be the first feature film in history to turn a profit while still in production. United Artists, not EMI, would release…