McCartney warmly recalls the chaotic spirit of fun that characterized the film’s making. “Blue Jay Way,” appropriately, stars George in a swirling, psychedelic haze.ĭuring the ride, passengers on the bus appear and disappear, and scenes and locales shift at the drop of a hat. There was a method to their madness, as McCartney remembers in his genial commentary: who was the walrus? The Beatles didn’t want to give a definitive answer. “Fool on the Hill” is quite literal, with Paul actually spinning round and round on a hill, while “I Am the Walrus” memorably has the boys in their most groovy finery, transforming into the Egg Man, the Walrus, etc. John, Paul and George’s songs all get a turn in the spotlight, with extended sequences for “I Am the Walrus,” “The Fool on the Hill,” and “Blue Jay Way” among the fun. Of course, the film frequently seems as little more than excuse on which to hang music videos for Beatle songs, long before that term existed. (Remember Where’s Waldo? Watching Magical Mystery Tour, you could play Where’s Mal?) Spinetti, who also appeared in A Hard Day’s Night and Help! with the Fabs, portrays an unintelligible army drill sergeant in one amusing vignette, reprising an off-the-wall character from Joan Littlewood’s stage play Oh, What a Lovely War! (1963). Ringo and Auntie Jesse are joined by tour director Jolly Jimmy Johnson (Derek Royle), hostess Miss Wendy Winters (Mandy Weet), conductor Buster Bloodvessel (Ivor Cutler), and of course, the other Beatles, who portray whimsical wizards alongside pal and road manager Mal Evans. The film’s nominal plot follows Ringo and his recently widowed Auntie Jessie (Jessie Robins) on a British tour bus headed for the English countryside.
#MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR MOVIE AMAZON FULL#
The loopy musical travelogue Magical Mystery Tour found the Fab Four joined by a motley crew of performers including Ivor Cutler, Victor Spinetti, Jessie Robins, Nat Jackley, Derek Royle, and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, not to mention a bus full of fans-turned-extras. The new video releases are among the most lavish accorded any Beatles film, eclipsing even the fine Yellow Submarine from earlier this year, with over an hour of bonus material and a film-length Director’s Commentary from Paul McCartney. It epitomizes the loose, freewheeling nature of this largely improvised musical journey directed by Macca and his bandmates. That McCartney-drawn circle, later transformed into a pie chart, is included in the accompanying booklet. “Paul said ‘Look I’ve got this idea’ and we said ‘great!’ and all he had was this circle and a little dot on the top – that’s where we started,” Ringo Starr recalls in one of the special features included on Apple’s new DVD and Blu-ray of The Beatles’ 1967 BBC television film Magical Mystery Tour.
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