Sauve qui peut

John Boorman's first feature, obviously thrown together as a cash in on "A Hard Day's Night"; shows his skill and promise as a director from the

get go. Dave Clark (of the Dave Clark Five) and a model who could be the girl George Harrison dismisses in the agent's office in "Hard Day's Night; take off on a holiday weekend across England as her obsessive manager trys to hunt her down.

In a series of scenes that seem halfway improvised, they run into aimless young people, uptight middle class folks, and others. The movie goes out of it's way to portray these people as, well, people and not "types", i.e. mods or rockers, hips or squares. There is a silly romp section around the roman baths at Bath.

The Dave Clark Five, the reason for the whole movie, are kept in the background even more than the Spencer Davis Group in "The Ghost Goes Gear." Only three songs are heard, but they're not bad. An interesting neither fish nor fowl entry, should be seen by British Invasion fans or fans of Boorman( I'm both).

I remember what a big deal the city of Kenosha made when "A Hard Day's Night" played at the Orpheum downtown theater. "Having a Wild Weekend," on the hand, blew through the area before I had a chance to see it. I think I have watched the movie from start to finish maybe four times in forty years. I like the film but it's no "A Hard Days Night."

1) The Beatles were far superior to the Dave Clark Five musically by the time the two movies were released.

2) Ringo as a leading character is vastly more enjoyable than Dave Clark's moody Steve. 3) The Beatles played their film for comedy while the Dave Clark Five went for mood.

4) The 4 Beatles had distinctive characters while the Dave Clark Five had one leading man and 4 bland supporting actors.

5) A hard day's Night moves rapidly while "Having A Wild Weekend" drags much of the time.

However, I still like "Having a Wild Weekend." Dinah was a cute little number and Steve had James Bond-like qualities. The costume party scene was a rave. The hippies being rounded up by the British army was a foreshadowing of the near future.

I was surprised in a positive way. In judging a 60s British pop film it's only fair to look beyond the Beatles at the wider canon and it contains some proper turkeys, stiff, cliched and beyond banal. Occasionally though filmmakers at least tried to be interesting and off-the-wall and this is one of those occasions. It doesn't always work and it's a bit flat in places but it definitely has its moments. The segment with the proto-hippies (or evolving beatniks) is particularly fascinating as a snapshot of a cultural undercurrent entering the mainstream consciousness. As with all films part of its appeal is in what, even unwittingly, the film shows us of the period in which it was made. As other reviewers have noted in that respect there are some revealing shots of of some very bemused members of the public in what is presumably London, all grey and very unSwinging. So not great but well worth sitting through.

This movie could have been SO much better with less Dave Clark. Apparently Mr Clark was the Master of the Universe with all things DC5. He cast himself as one of the two leads in this movie and it suffers because of him.

He can't act, he speaks monotonously, his demeanor is dour and completely un-interesting. The young lady in the movie is good and so are the other members of the band.

Mike Smith has charisma and it shows. Rick Huxley is funny. He shows a natural talent for goofing at the right time. Unfortunately these two are not allowed to have larger parts in the film.

The script is ok. It's worth watching for the mid-sixties snapshot it presents.

But Dave Clark? Yeesh!

John Boorman in his first outing as a director, he does a reasonable job of capturing the media and fashion scene in 1965. He also presents some great shots of the handsome, iconic locations in London, Bath and then Devon. Filmgoers can clearly see the similarities of this film, with Dick Lester's Beatles 1964 film, 'Hard Days Night' by the frantic scurrying around by Dave and his group in an attempt to give the film energy. Nevertheless, under Boorman's direction the film has pace and tempo, hence never allowing scenes to drag. However, like all films with pop singers and groups, the acting is substandard. The problem for Boorman was to have the group hanging around locations while in the background, Dave Clark as Steve, is grabbing all the action as well as the beautiful model, played by Barbara Ferris. At times I felt sorry for them, as they were never more than shadows, gawping at Dave as he had all the lines. The storyline is thin and lacks sparkle. Ferris comes across as a bit of an airhead model and Dave Clark, as Steve, looks sullen, moody and plain miserable for most of the time. His acting is rather wooden and as he had the lead role, watching the film is heavy going. With a dull and melancholy storyline, I found the whole thing uninspiring and pretentious.