Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (film)



Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a 1978 American jukebox musical comedy film directed by Michael Schultz and written by Henry Edwards. The film tells the loosely constructed story of a band as they wrangle with the music industry and battle evil forces bent on stealing their instruments and corrupting their home town of Heartland. The film is presented in a form similar to that of a rock opera with the Beatles' songs providing "dialogue" to carry the story, with only George Burns having spoken lines that act to clarify the plot and provide further narration.

Its soundtrack, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, features new versions of songs originally written and performed by The Beatles. The film draws primarily from two of their albums, 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and 1969's Abbey Road. The film covers all of the songs from the Sgt. Pepper album with the exceptions of "Within You, Without You" and "Lovely Rita", and also includes nearly all of Abbey Road.

The production is somewhat adapted from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road, a 1974 off-Broadway production directed by Tom O'Horgan.

Overview
The film was produced by Robert Stigwood, founder of RSO Records, who had earlier produced Saturday Night Fever. RSO Records also released the soundtrack to the film Grease in 1978, which had Barry Gibb producing and Peter Frampton playing lead guitar on the title track. In 1976, the Bee Gees had recorded three Beatles cover songs "Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight", "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" and "Sun King" for the musical documentary All This and World War II.

Beatles producer George Martin served as musical director, conductor, arranger and producer of the film's soundtrack album.

Plot
Mr. Kite (George Burns), the elderly mayor of the wholesome small town of Heartland, recounts the history of Heartland's celebrated marching band, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, who brought happiness through their music, even causing troops in World War I to stop fighting. When the bandleader died in 1958, he left the band's magical musical instruments to the town, and as long as they remain in Heartland, people will live happily ever after. The City Hall contains the instruments, and is topped with a Magical Weather Vane in the shape of a marching band trumpeter that foresees good and ominous developments. The bandleader left his musical legacy to his handsome and good-hearted grandson, Billy Shears (Peter Frampton), who forms a successor Sgt. Pepper's band with his best friends the Hendersons (The Bee Gees). Billy's jealous and money-hungry stepbrother, Dougie (Paul Nicholas), serves as the band's manager.

Heartland loves the new band, and soon record company executive B.D. (Donald Pleasence) invites them to Hollywood with the promise of a record deal. Billy bids farewell to his sweet hometown girlfriend, Strawberry Fields (Sandy Farina). Once in Hollywood, B.D. gets the naive band to sign an exploitative contract by plying them with drugs and alcohol and getting sexy singers Lucy (Dianne Steinberg) and the Diamonds (Stargard) to seduce them. Lucy starts an affair with Billy, who momentarily forgets Strawberry. The band quickly succeeds with hit records and sold-out shows.

Meanwhile, the villain Mr. Mustard (Frankie Howerd) and his henchman the Brute drive to Heartland in their computer- and robot-equipped van. Mustard gets his orders via computer from a mysterious entity called F.V.B., who directs him to steal the magical instruments from City Hall, keep the drum, and bring the other instruments to them and others. Mustard does as directed. Without the instruments, Heartland, now under Mustard's control, quickly degenerates into a hotbed of vice and urban decay. Strawberry travels to Hollywood, manages to find Billy and the band at a recording session, and tells them of Heartland's plight. The band and Strawberry steal Mustard's van and use its computer to locate the stolen instruments. They manage to recover the cornet from the deranged, money-driven anti-aging specialist Dr. Maxwell Hammer (Steve Martin), the tuba from mind-controlling cult leader Father Sun (Alice Cooper), and the drum, which Mustard kept in his van. However, the computer malfunctions before they can locate the final missing instrument.

As Heartland continues to deteriorate, the band plans a benefit concert to save the town. B.D., Lucy and Dougie go along with the plan, exploiting the situation for financial gain. Dougie and Lucy, who have bonded over their shared love of money, plot to steal the show proceeds and run off, and to that end hide the bags of money in Mustard's van while Billy, Strawberry and the Hendersons are watching Earth, Wind & Fire perform at the benefit. Mustard and the Brute suddenly arrive and take back the van, which also contains the recovered instruments. They kidnap Strawberry, with whom Mustard has fallen in love from afar, drag her into the van, and drive off with Dougie, Lucy and the money hidden on board. Billy and the Hendersons see the van leave and pursue it in the town's hot air balloon.

Mustard drives to F.V.B.'s headquarters where F.V.B. plans to suppress the magical instruments and take over the world. It is revealed that F.V.B. stands for "Future Villain Band", an Orwellian hard-rock band (Aerosmith) in contrast to the wholesomeness of Sgt. Pepper's band. F.V.B. is described as "the evil force that would poison young minds, pollute the environment, and subvert the democratic process"; they perform in militaristic uniforms on a high platform stage made to look like stacks of money, accompanied by uniformed youth twirling flags. To turn Strawberry into a "helpless groupie", F.V.B. chains her up onstage while the band plays "Come Together" and the lead singer (Steven Tyler) fondles her. Dougie and Lucy are also tied up and forced to watch. Billy and the Hendersons arrive and engage in hand-to-hand combat with F.V.B. When the lead singer chokes Billy, Strawberry despite her chains manages to push him off Billy and off the raised stage to his death, but Strawberry then falls and is also killed.

The town of Heartland, now cleaned up, holds an elaborate funeral for Strawberry, after which a depressed Billy attempts suicide by jumping from a rooftop. Before he can hit the ground, the Magical Weather Vane on top of City Hall comes to life (as Billy Preston) and catches him with a magical lightning bolt. The Magical Weather Vane then dances through the town square, tossing magical lightning bolts that transform Mr. Mustard and the Brute into a bishop and a monk, Mustard's van into a VW Beetle, Dougie and Lucy into an altar boy and a nun, and finally restore Strawberry to life. As Billy and Strawberry happily embrace, one last lightning bolt transforms his and the Hendersons' mourning suits into shiny new Sgt. Pepper uniforms. In the finale, the cast appear with numerous celebrities (of the time the film was made) in a tribute to the original Beatles album cover.

Feature performers

 * The Bee Gees, Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb, whose music had been integral to Saturday Night Fever (released by this film's international distributor, Paramount Pictures), play Mark, David and Bob Henderson, members of the re-formed Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
 * Peter Frampton, whose album Frampton Comes Alive! was the biggest-selling live album ever at the time, plays Billy Shears, leader of the re-formed band and grandson of the original Sgt. Pepper character.
 * Steve Martin's A Wild and Crazy Guy was released the same year as the film, reaching number two on the music-dominated Billboard 200 album charts. His performance as Dr. Maxwell Edison, singing "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", foreshadows his zany dentist role in Little Shop of Horrors.

The cast also features:
 * British comedian Frankie Howerd as Mean Mr. Mustard (his only major U.S. film appearance; he later quipped about the film "It was like Saturday Night Fever, but without the fever")
 * Paul Nicholas as Dougie Shears
 * Donald Pleasence as B.D., referred to in Burns' narrative voice-over as B.D. Hoffler, but officially known in the film's credits, publicity materials, and in-film posters as B.D. Brockhurst
 * Sandy Farina as Strawberry Fields
 * Dianne Steinberg as Lucy
 * Aerosmith as Future Villain Band (FVB)
 * Alice Cooper as Father Sun
 * Earth, Wind & Fire, who appear as themselves
 * Billy Preston as the magical Sgt. Pepper golden weather vane come to life
 * George Burns as Mr. Kite
 * Stargard as the Diamonds

Special guests
Additionally, the film becomes a time capsule of late 1970s pop culture with the last scene in which the cast is joined by "Our Guests at Heartland" to sing the reprise of the title track while standing in a formation imitating the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album cover. The scene was filmed at MGM Studios on December 16, 1977; indeed, according to co-star Carel Struycken (Mustard's henchman, "Brute"), Sgt. Pepper was the last film to be made at MGM under that studio's then existing management.

The "guests" were:


 * Peter Allen
 * Keith Allison
 * George Benson
 * Elvin Bishop
 * Stephen Bishop
 * Jack Bruce
 * Keith Carradine
 * Carol Channing
 * Sarah Dash
 * Rick Derringer
 * Barbara Dickson
 * Donovan
 * Dr. John
 * Randy Edelman
 * Yvonne Elliman
 * Jose Feliciano
 * Leif Garrett
 * Geraldine Granger
 * Adrian Gurvitz
 * "Charlotte, Sharon, and Ula"
 * Billy Harper
 * Eddie Harris
 * Heart
 * Nona Hendryx
 * Barry Humphries as Dame Edna Everage
 * Etta James
 * Bruce Johnston
 * Joe Lala
 * D.C. LaRue
 * Jo Leb
 * Marcy Levy
 * Mark Lindsay
 * Nils Lofgren
 * Jim Dandy
 * John Mayall
 * Curtis Mayfield
 * Cousin Bruce Morrow (Cousin Brucie)
 * Peter Noone
 * Alan O'Day
 * Lee Oskar
 * The Paley Brothers
 * Robert Palmer
 * Wilson Pickett
 * Anita Pointer
 * Bonnie Raitt
 * Helen Reddy
 * Minnie Riperton
 * Chita Rivera
 * Johnny Rivers
 * Monte Rock III
 * Danielle Rowe
 * Seals & Crofts
 * Sha-Na-Na
 * Del Shannon
 * Joe Simon
 * Connie Stevens
 * Al Stewart
 * John Stewart
 * Tina Turner
 * Frankie Valli
 * Gwen Verdon
 * Diane Vincent
 * Grover Washington, Jr.
 * Alan White
 * Lenny White
 * Jackie Lomax
 * Margaret Whiting
 * Hank Williams, Jr.
 * Johnny Winter
 * Wolfman Jack
 * Bobby Womack
 * Gary Wright

Production
The film began as a 1974 live Broadway show called Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road, which was produced by The Robert Stigwood Organization. Stigwood had purchased the rights to use 29 Beatles songs for the play and was determined to do something with them, so he brought the songs to Henry Edwards to write a script. Edwards had never written a script for a film, but had impressed Stigwood with musical analysis he'd written for The New York Times. "I spread the songs out on my apartment floor and went to work," said Edwards. "Mr Stigwood wanted a concept. I told him I'd like to do a big MGM-like musical. We'd synthesize forms and end up with an MGM musical but with the music of today."

With a script in place, the cast was assembled. In the spring of 1977, Frampton, The Bee Gees, and Martin met to begin work on the soundtrack. Filming started in October 1977 on the backlot of MGM Studios in Culver City, where the set of Heartland, USA was built. Interiors were filmed at Universal City Studios.

Critical reaction
Upon release, the film received scathingly negative reviews, with critics taking issue with its thin plot and incomprehensibility. The film has however been praised for its musical renditions of classic Beatles songs, and has since gained a cult following. As of September 1, 2014, review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes reports that 15% of 20 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 2.9 out of 10.

According to movie historian Leonard Maltin, the picture "...ranges from tolerable to embarrassing and just doesn't work. As for the Bee Gees' acting talents, if you can't say something nice..."

Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film's "musical numbers are strung together so mindlessly that the movie has the feel of an interminable variety show"; while it may have been "conceived in a spirit of merriment, ... watching it feels like playing shuffleboard  at the absolute insistence of a bossy shipboard social director. When whimsy gets to be this overbearing, it simply isn't whimsy any more." She complimented Martin on his "completely unhinged rendition of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," but pointed out that his scene is a "reminder that the film is otherwise humorless."

Newsweek's David Ansen called Sgt. Pepper "a film with a dangerous resemblance to wallpaper."

Rolling Stone writer Paul Nelson shredded virtually every aspect of the production, from stars Frampton ("Absolutely no future in Hollywood") to director Schultz ("Would seem to need direction merely to find the set, let alone the camera") to the soundtrack album ("The album proves conclusively that you can't go home again in 1978. Or, if you do, you'd better be aware of who's taken over the neighborhood.").

Perry Seibert of Allmovie called the film "quite possibly the silliest movie ever conceived," with a "handful of high camp moments" featuring Martin, Burns; Earth, Wind & Fire; Aerosmith, and Billy Preston who "somehow transcend the jaw-dropping inanity that poisons the rest of the cast."

The Intelligencer's Lou Gaul called the film "A sort of modern Fantasia for today's teens." The Valley Independent's Ron Paglia called it "Good, campy fun," citing Steve Martin's performance as "a high point," and the celebrity filled finale as "something special" before concluding "there's much to enjoy."

It was noted that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, who both attended the premiere, subsequently shunned the film; John Lennon and George Harrison refused to view the film altogether.