Denis O'Dell
- Died:
- Dec 30, 2021
About
Denis O’Dell (1923 – December 30, 2021) was a British film producer, best known for his work on films featuring The Beatles, including “Magical Mystery Tour” and “A Hard Day’s Night”.
On “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)”, one of the last songs the Beatles recorded, John Lennon introduces Paul McCartney as a lounge singer called “Denis O’Bell”.
Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Denis O’Dell, who has passed away. Denis first worked with The Beatles on the film A Hard Day’s Night as associate producer, but he continued to work with the band as producer of Magical Mystery Tour, How I Won The War (with John), and became Head of Apple Films in 1968. Denis was the supervising producer of the 3 week shoot in January 1969 which became the source material for the recent Get Back trilogy.
From The Beatles on Twitter, January 3, 2021
I think I brought in Denis O’Dell, because I’d seen his work on How I Won The War, and he was pretty good on that, because he had got everything free, the army things.
John Lennon – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008
Denis O’Dell was the associate producer of How I Won The War and, when I went off to do Petulia with Julie Christie, he was asked to take over and become the head of Apple Films. And that’s when they decided they would do Magical Mystery Tour. I would hear Denis on the phone to Paul or whoever, saying, ‘I’ve found a great place… we’re going to film it all in an old off-shore military fortification tower.’ Then it would be, ‘We’re going to Egypt to shoot in the pyramids? Then, the next day, they would change their minds. He went crazy. From the moment that they finally decided to make it till the time that the first shots were made was only two weeks. It went off totally unprepared and half-cooked.
Richard Lester – Film director – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008
From Denis O’Dell obituary | Film | The Guardian:
Working in the film industry, Denis O’Dell, who has died aged 98, was a fixer, usually credited as an associate producer or assistant director and ensuring that everything was in place to make the film within budgetary constraints. He did not mind that others took the glory that he had made possible. Best known for his association with the Beatles, he worked on their first film, A Hard Day’s Night (1964), and was the producer on their television film Magical Mystery Tour (1967).
When the film company United Artists asked him to work with the director Richard Lester on A Hard Day’s Night, initially O’Dell was not keen. “I didn’t want to make a pop film as usually they are just a vehicle for making money,” he recalled. “Bud Ornstein told me: ‘These guys won’t last and we want to do it as cheaply and quickly as possible.’ I said I wasn’t interested, but my kids said: ‘Are you serious?’ I immediately took to Richard Lester as he liked taking chances: we shot moving scenes on a train rather than use back projection.”
By careful planning, the film ran to budget: “The final cost was £180,000 and United Artists’ share of the music track paid for the entire film in three days.” […]
Last updated on April 24, 2024