The Cooler

To promote Ringo Starr’s latest album “Stop And Smell The Roses“, a special 11-minute promotion film was created to showcase three of its tracks (two of them have been written by Paul McCartney):

• Private Property
• Attention
• Sure To Fall

The film was produced by Paul McCartney’s company, MPL Communications. It was directed by ex-10CC Lol Creme and Kevin Godley, and featured Ringo Starr, Barbara Bach, Paul and Linda McCartney.

From Club Sandwich N°26, 1982:

A new mini-film produced by MPL Communications called “The Cooler” was recently entered in the short film category at the Cannes Film Festival, held from 14-26 May. It is a short musical psycho-drama starring Ringo Starr, Barbara Bach, Paul and Linda McCartney, and set in a prison camp, policed entirely by women, somewhere, sometime in the future.

Ringo plays an habitual escapee who, at the beginning of the film, is caught and thrown into “The Cooler”, a form of solitary confinement he knows only too well. As his mental state deteriorates, he fantasises about his position and his ambiguous relationship with the camp commandant, played by his wife, Barbara Bach. Paul McCartney appears three times in the film — as a prisoner, Ringo’s cowboy father, and as the bass player in a Country and Western band. Linda McCartney appears as one of the guards — watch out for them!

The music featured in the film is taken from the album, “Stop & Smell the Roses”, and the three tracks are “Private Property” by Paul McCartney, “Sure to Fall”, by Carl Perkins, Quinton Claunch and William Cantrell, and “Attention” by Paul McCartney. Plans for a commercial distribution are being finalised.