Interview for Disc And Music Echo

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WALTER SHENSON – THE AMERICAN-BORN PRODUCER OF THE FIRST TWO BEATLES FILMS WRITES EXCLUSIVELY FOR DISC WEEKLY

I’LL let you into a secret about our new Beatles picture. All the stunts you will see on the screen — and there are plenty of them I can tell you — were performed by The Beatles themselves!

We did think of employing “doubles” for some of the more hazardous sequences, but the boys insisted in doing these themselves. Even to jumping on and off moving automobiles, crashing through windows, dropping through trapdoors, and being strung up by ropes!

Yes, it’s The Beatles who do all these things. They really entered into the spirit of the film. They are real professionals, and carried out these stunts with tremendous conviction.

At times, they really had me worried. For example, when we were shooting in Austria, The Beatles would do the ski-ing scenes.

Injuries

Of course, we had to use experienced skiers for some of the long shots. We just couldn’t risk having such valuable property as The Beatles tearing down the mountain slopes and risking broken legs — or worse. We had seen enough holidaymakers carried off daily with injuries caused through ski-ing!

But The Beatles do ski in the film. And they skied between filming as well. I was really worried that something might happen to them. Fortunately, nothing did.

Shooting is running well to schedule and the film should be finished around May 14 with the London premiere about the end of July or beginning of August. And I can promise you all a feast of fun when the film finally hits the screens. We are playing the film for laughs, and I can confidently say you will have plenty of them!

John and Paul have written six great new songs. One, of course, is “Ticket To Ride” — and you already know just how good that is. Another great single will be released just before the film comes out — and this will be the title song.

Titling a film is always a problem. Frankly, we have not yet come up with such a good one as “A Hard Day’s Night.” So far, we’ve had “Eight Arms To Hold You ” and “Help.” We may settle on this latter one, as it suits the film story. But nothing is final yet.

Even though I haven’t yet finished this film, I’m always being asked if I’m going to do another with The Beatles. Well, I had an option for a third one and The Beatles want to make a picture of a novel called ” A Talent For Loving ” — a Western with wide-open-spaces locations.

Another

I don’t know whether I would be involved in this one, but I can tell you this much: I certainly want to make another picture with the boys. But I think The Beatles would agree with me that there should not be more than one Beatles film a year in release.

The boys have had a real ball making this picture. I, director Dick Lester, and all the production staff and actors hope you will have as much of a thrill when it is finally shown.