Clearly a tie in for the record that was released around the same time, Magical Mystery Tour is sort of a free form collection of skits and ideas The Beatles supposedly put together. The Beatles were certainly going for the auteur title in this film because along with a writing credit they also take a director's credit. The result is a real amateur's mess of a home movie. Probably the person who should get top credit on this film is the editor Roy Benson who had to take 10 hours of rushes and cut them into a 50 minute film.
Paul McCartney was apparently the driving force behind this film with a few contributing ideas from the other band members. John Lennon was supposedly responsible for the silly spaghetti shoveling scene. McCartney is in the dumb military scene but real actor Victor Spinetti kind of steals that scene as an insane drill sergeant.
I suppose it should be mentioned that the so called plot involves The Beatles and some other people riding on a bus called unsurprisingly the Magical Mystery Tour. Ringo sits next to woman who is playing his Aunt and they do some lame comedy shtick. John Lennon looks completely bored and I can't even remember if George Harrison actually does anything on the bus although I think he's seated next to Lennon. Now that I think about it Harrison looks like he would like to be somewhere else and who can blame him.
The Beatles perform a couple of decent songs including "I Am the Walrus", "Magical Mystery Tour" and "The Fool on the Hill." The film is known for being broadcast on the BBC in black and white although it was filmed in color since hardly anyone in England at the time had color television sets. Needless to say this mess was not beloved by the critics or the public.
The running time is a "thank god it's not any longer" 52 minutes.
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