Among the treasures are first draft scripts for the two Beatles movies he directed: “A Hard Days Night” (1964) and “Help!” (1965); the scripts are entitled “The Beatles” and “Beatles Two.”
The landmark, “A Hard Days Night,” influenced a generation of musicians and directors; both the band and Lester received the inaugural MTV Video Vanguard Award in 1984 for “essentially inventing the music video.” The film’s July, 1964 release followed on the heels of the band’s appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show five months earlier.
The Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night – move trailer (1964)
The Beatles followed up their film debut with “Help!” – another Lester effort, which was filmed through the haze of a lot of dope. "We showed up a bit stoned, smiled a lot and hoped we'd get through it,” said Paul McCartney. “If you look at pictures of us you can see a lot of red-eyed shots; they were red from the dope we were smoking. And these were those clean-cut boys!,” commented Ringo Starr in The Beatles Anthology.
The partying made it difficult, at times, to get work done. “Dick Lester knew that very little would get done after lunch,” said Ringo. “In the afternoon we very seldom got past the first line of the script. We had such hysterics that no one could do anything.” Many years later, John Lennon said “We were smoking marijuana for breakfast during that period. Nobody could communicate with us, it was all glazed eyes and giggling all the time. In our own world. It's like doing nothing most of the time, but still having to rise at 7 am, so we became bored.”
The Beatles – Help! – move trailer (1965)
The Beatles originally hooked up with Lester because they were fans of the work he’d done with comedians Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan on the 1960 short, “The Running Jumping And Standing Still Film.”
The 78-year old director’s career includes “The Three Musketeers” and the first two Superman movies, among others; he reconnected with McCartney to direct the 1991 concert film, “Get Back.”
Lester recently closed his office at London’s famed Twickenham Studios, and decided it was time to donate his collection to the BFI; the archive contains more than 60 boxes of letters, scripts, notes, receipts and photographs covering Lester's 40 year career.
The Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
The Beatles – Help! (1965)
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