Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

SnoopyStyle The Beatles are coming to America to perform on Ed Sullivan's show. In New Jersey, engaged Pam Mitchell (Nancy Allen), Grace Corrigan (Theresa Saldana) and Rosie Petrofsky (Wendie Jo Sperber) are eager to go. Janis Goldman (Susan Kendall Newman) intends to protest their bad music. Grace recruits Larry Dubois (Marc McClure) for the limo from his family funeral business. They are joined by irreverent delinquent Tony Smerko (Bobby Di Cicco). They arrive at the hotel surrounded by a mob of young girls. The group scatters as they try to sneak into the hotel. Rosie finds Beatles collector Richard Klaus (Eddie Deezen).It's a wild wacky time as the teens try to get to the seminal cultural event. The problem starts with the fact that not all of the six characters are friends. This disparate group is itching to come apart and that's exactly what they do. In fact, they scatter into six single individuals. The missing aspect of this wacky misadventure is friendship. The movie concentrates on the crazy hijinx but without the friendship, I don't care. The story could split the group but it needs to keep some of the kids together. The movie fails to deliver the relationships.

JoeKarlosi I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND was the first film directed by Robert Zemeckis (it was also produced by Steven Spielberg). It's a fictional comedy that plays on a winning idea of having a group of New Jersey teenagers traveling into New York City with the goal of meeting The Beatles on their historic first trip to the United States, one early February weekend in 1964. Their adventures will take them right up to the momentous Sunday Night TV appearance of The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. The young actors here include: Nancy Allen (she plays an engaged girl who's too mature to get involved by something as trivial as The Beatles); Theresa Saldana (an aspiring reporter looking to snag exclusive photos of The Fab Four); Susan Kendall Newman (Paul Newman's daughter, playing a folk music lobbyist looking to expose the saccharine Beatles); Wendie Jo Sperber (a wildly obsessed Beatlemaniac who's in love with Paul); Eddie Deezen (bespectacled "geek actor for all seasons" with a serious Beatles addiction); and Bobby DiCicco and Marc McClure (two guys along for the ride who don't care much for the English quartet but tag along anyway to get the girls).The movie is quite a distant cousin away from the classic American GRAFFITI. It's a wild day out, and its comic style includes a good dose of slapstick pratfalls and the like. Nerdy Eddie Deezen is at the center of most of the silliness, but Wendie Jo Sperber is well suited to her role as the biggest female Beatles Nut of the group. Theresa Saldana's character is a tad more interesting and complex, and Nancy Allen gives one of the better performances I've seen from her as the conflicted bride-to-be who feels herself helplessly switching allegiance from her fiancé in favor of John, Paul, George and Ringo. (The Beatles themselves only appear in the movie via old film clips; stand-ins are used and photographed from behind in key moments). Murray the "K", the original DJ who documented the Beatles' every move in New York, comes back a dozen or so years after the fact to recreate his old persona. Impressive is that none of the film was actually shot in New York, but the sets and subbing locations fooled me for many viewings until I ultimately found out it's actually California. A favorite scene capturing the a sign of those times centers around a younger boy who sports a moppish Beatles-like haircut, admonished by his typically conservative dad.Finally, I wish to add that the most recent 2004 DVD release from Universal is not the best way to experience this movie. I had been pretty familiar with the film from seeing it several times on VHS, but that version was issued in the much preferred audio format of MONO. The 2004 DVD has since remixed the sound to an undesirable 5.1 arrangement which now almost completely drowns out the accompanying music soundtrack which consists of many vintage Beatles classic recordings, taken from the actual records. They were intended to be heard in the background more prominently right along with the spoken dialogue, but are now toned down whenever people are speaking to the point where you can barely decipher anything that's accompanying the talking. **1/2 out of ****

blanche-2 "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" is the hysterical story of young girls who want to see the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, and the lengths that they go to achieve their goal.Nancy Allen, Teresa Saldana, and the late Wendy Jo Sperber are the three crazed girls in this 1978 film, directed by Robert Zemeckis, who also helped write the script. The film also stars Bobby DiCicco, Eddie Deezen, and Marc McClure.The film covers the events of February 9, 1964, the day the Beatles made their American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. Rosie (Sperber) is determined to get into the show and is constantly looking for phone booths whenever Murray the K is giving away tickets if you can answer questions such as, "Which Beatle is left-handed?" She winds up meeting Richard "Ringo" Klaus (Deezen) who is a nearly insane Beatles fanatic who has taken over a room in the hotel without the hotel's knowledge. Pam Mitchell (Allen) is engaged and rather disdainful of the whole thing, but gets swept up in the events; Grace (Saldana) hopes to start her photography career by getting backstage, but the guard wants a bribe. Janis Goldman plays a protester who thinks the Beatles are a corruptive force in the world of art."I Wanna Hold Your Hand" is heavy on slapstick, but much of the slapstick is very funny the way it's done. The best part of the movie for me is that all the things these girls do, many girls in New York City no doubt tried with as much conviction and passion. And the film captures perfectly the insanity that ruled the teen girl population of New York that day. The only thing not shown is how they screamed during the entire Sullivan show -- there is a dog act with no attendant screaming. Mitzi McCall and Charlie Brill could not hear one word of their skit which was overpowered by screams.On a sad note, two of the stars met with tragedy. Teresa Saldana was badly injured in a knife attack. She was able to resume her career and founded Victims for Victims, devoting much of her time to helping survivors of trauma. Wendy Jo Sperber died of cancer at the age of 47. Both of them, along with the rest of this fine cast, give wonderful performances.If you're a baby boomer, this is a great film for you to watch and relive the innocence of the time and the Beatle furor. If you're not, it's a fun, charming movie.

poppcorn-jones In 1965 I was the Vice President of the Penninsula Chapter of the Beatles Fan club in Los Altos, CA.I never laughed so hard in a theatre as in 1978 when I saw this Masterpiece. This movie was so rite on w/details that the writers had to have been there! When the Beatles stayed at Doris Day's Cabanna hotel in Palo Alto, their bath water was being sold in aspirin bottles $2.00 ea. A fan ate a cigarette butt that was said to be Ringo's. And YES! They cut up the sheets and sold squares! Just As they did in NY. This movie is the REAL DEAL! Eddie Deezen and Wendie Jo Sperber are the greatest comedy team since RALPH and ALICE!!