Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band ** (1978, Peter Frampton, Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb, Frankie Howerd, Paul Nicholas, George Burns, Donald Pleasence, Carol Channing, Steve Martin) – Classic Movie Review 11,518

Director Michael Schultz’s 1978 film Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band features Seventies pop superstars the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton, who impersonate the Beatles in this daft musical comedy that features new versions of 29 of the original Fab Four’s finest tunes and is now significant as a time capsule of late 1970s pop culture. It takes the form of a rock opera, with the songs carrying the story, though there are a few spoken lines throughout the movie and George Burns has most of them.

In a plot silly enough for a Sixties Beatles movie, the blue meanies are out to steal Sgt Pepper’s Band’s instruments, while they also battle the music industry and the evil forces corrupting their hometown of Heartland.

Sgt Pepper (Billy Preston) asked his adolescent grandson Billy Shears (Peter Frampton) to form a band to continue to spread the message of joy and love after he is gone. With Billy’s brother Dougie Shears (Paul Nicholas) as their manager, Billy and his three best friends, brothers Mark (Barry Gibb), Dave (Robin Gibb) and Bob Henderson (Maurice Gibb), start up as a new Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Even if the pop stars can’t act, it is hard to dislike a film that features comic turns by Frankie Howerd (as crazed Mean Mr Mustard), George Burns (as Mr Kite), Donald Pleasence (as Big Deal Records president B.D. Hoffler) and Carol Channing, pop appearances by so many old luminaries, as well as Steve Martin singing ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’. Sandy Farina plays Billy’s hometown girlfriend Strawberry Fields.

In the wow of a cast are Aerosmith as the Future Villain Band, Alice Cooper as cult leader Father Sun, Earth, Wind and Fire, Billy Preston, Peter Noone, Helen Reddy, Chita Rivera, Sha-Na-Na, George Benson, Wilson Pickett, Barbara Dickson, Randy Edelman, Nils Lofgren, John Mayall, Curtis Mayfield, Keith Carradine, Donovan, Jose Feliciano, Anita Pointer, Minnie Riperton, Al Stewart, Tina Turner, Frankie Valli, Wolfman Jack and Bobby Womack.

It is written by Henry Edwards, loosely based on the 1974 off-Broadway play Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road by Tom O’Horgan and Robin Wagner.

The soundtrack, released as an accompanying double album, features new versions of songs written and performed by The Beatles, mainly from1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and 1969’s Abbey Road. The film has all the songs from the Sgt Pepper album except ‘Within You, Without You’ and ‘Lovely Rita’ and nearly all of Abbey Road. It was recorded before the film, in the spring of 1977.

The film was a minor box office success (budget, $13 million: box office $20.4 million) but was savaged by critics.

Frankie Howerd later quipped: ‘It was like Saturday Night Fever, but without the fever’. The Bee Gees’ music had been integral to the success of Saturday Night Fever (1977).

Peter Frampton’s album Frampton Comes Alive! was the biggest-selling live album ever at the time.

Robert Stigwood had bought the rights to use 29 Beatles songs when he produced the 1974 Broadway show and wanted to use them, so he brought the songs to Henry Edwards, who had never written for a film, to write a script. Edwards recalled: ‘I spread the songs out on my apartment floor and went to work. Mr Stigwood wanted a concept. I told him I’d like to do a big MGM-like musical. We’d synthesize forms and end up with an MGM musical but with the music of today.’

Filming started in October 1977 on the backlot of MGM Studios in Culver City, where the set of Heartland, USA was built. Interiors were filmed at Universal City Studios.

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,518

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