The Beatles, Year One

By Richard Corliss Sunday, Jan. 25, 2004
    • The fans scream in the cold at New York City's Idlewild Airport at the arrival of their four idols, whom they hadn't even heard of three months earlier. The press asks the mop tops when they're going to get a haircut, and George gets a laugh when he replies, earnestly, "I had one yesterday." In a crowded elevator, Paul lightens the mood by announcing, "Ladies and gentlemen, on your right you'll see the Washington Memorial." Running down a hotel corridor, George mimics the mob outside--"Ban the bomb!"--and John ad-libs, "Ban the Pope." Trapped in their suite, Ringo plaintively asks, "Are we going out?"

    To celebrate (and, of course, exploit) the 40th anniversary of their conquest of America, Apple Corps will reissue on Feb. 3 the feature-length documentary The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit, with a 51-min. add-on of outtakes and reminiscences. The original film, a cinema verite record of the group's tour by Albert and David Maysles, is a brisk rough sketch of A Hard Day's Night, which the boys started making later that month. Same dashing from train to limo to photo op to TV stage. Same use of wit as armor against imprisonment and ennui. And the same amazing display of grace and good humor by four blithe Liverpudlians, ages 20 to 24. Leaving their hotel room to go to the Peppermint Lounge, they wave a sweet goodbye to the two-man camera crew. Did celebrity ever take such innocent pleasure in its own good fortune? Was the world ever this young?