'Hard Day's' a breezy romp that still excites

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A late-summer sleeper of 1964 when it reached American movie screens, "A Hard Day's Night" was admirably timed to reinforce the early stages of Beatlemania, which had been swelling throughout the year. A breezy, endearing impression of the hectic professional life confronting the phenomenally popular rockers from Liverpool, the movie confirmed everything well-wishers would tend to wish for: a group portrait of easygoing, playful, quick-witted young musicians, essentially unspoiled by runaway success and celebrity.

George Martin, the musical director who had become a mentor for the quartet while supervising their recordings at the Abbey Road studio in London, alludes to this time frame as a "golden treadmill" period in his commentary for the DVD edition of "A Hard Day's Night." Issued last year by Miramax, which acquired rights to the film several years ago, the DVD is an invaluable supplement to the picture in its theatrical form.

A 40th-anniversary revival begins today at the American Film Institute Silver Theatre and runs for a week. The movie seemed exceptionally fresh and entertaining when new. While clearly a backstage musical comedy, "A Hard Day's Night" updated the show-business context to rock in its second decade. (Ringo Starr, adept at non sequiturs, coined the title just in time for it to be useful, inspiring a last-minute title song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.)

The idea of a pop music exploitation film that was cinematically deft came as a considerable novelty. As a rule, rock movies were cinematic heavy furniture, wedded to static variety-show formats (the Alan Freed paradigm) or melodramatic conventions that harnessed newcomers to creaky conveyances (almost every Elvis Presley movie).

"A Hard Day's Night" pretended to accompany the quartet of Messrs. Starr, Lennon and McCartney and George Harrison on a typical round of appearances, culminating in a jubilant television special in London. Between numbers, the performers cheerfully outrun fans, outquip the press and tease their managers.

Director Richard Lester borrowed pictorial schemes from the cinema-verite documentaries of the period, emphasizing zoom lenses and hand-held camerawork that placed a premium on flexibility and intimacy. His approach also reflected the puckish revue comedy that had flourished in England and the United States from the late 1950s.

A transplanted Philadelphian, Mr. Lester had acquired some early TV experience in his hometown. It seemed to suffice when he began directing commercials and television shows in England, where he attracted the patronage of Peter Sellers, then a prince of madcap radio comedy with "The Goon Show."

Mr. Sellers staked his new collaborator to the modest budget for a whimsical comedy short, "The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film." Mr. Sellers also made a fleeting appearance. This slapstick beau geste had enough of a vogue to be nominated for a 1960 Academy Award as best live-action short. Anyone familiar with it recognized "A Hard Day's Night" as a sustained and accomplished variation: a running, jumping, song-playing, leaping-in-slow-motion and sometimes wistfully reflective romp tailored to the Beatles.

In the interim, Mr. Lester had directed three features that failed to catch on, but, happily, the Beatles knew and liked "Running, Jumping." Mr. Lester had a free hand with a tight budget of $500,000 while shooting the group's debut feature. As he notes on the DVD, the United Artists management of that generation practiced a very enlightened paternalism: Filmmakers got a certain amount of money and were expected to deliver a presentable movie by the time of the premiere.