Having a Wild Weekend Movie Review

The Dave Clark Five, as anyone knows who devoured 16 magazine between the spring of 1964 and the summer of 1967, were the leading proponents of the Tottenham Sound, which meant that the group had been formed there (in 1960) instead of Liverpool. After the obligatory stint on The Ed Sullivan Show they recorded a series of hit songs, including “Glad All Over,” “Bits and Pieces,” “Do You Love Me,” “Can't You See That She's Mine,” “Because,” “Everybody Knows,” “Any Way You Want It,” “Come Home,” “Reelin’ and Rock-in’,” “I Like It Like That,” “Catch Us If You Can,” “Over and Over,” “At the Scene,” “Try Too Hard,” “Please Tell Me Why,” “You Got What It Takes,” and “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby.” Ring any bells? Having a Wild Weekend, released 10 months after A Hard Day's Night and three months prior to Help!, begins like a brisk Richard Lester film, but swiftly descends into cynical melancholia. Everyone is trying to have fun, but no one through the end credits really IS. Dave Clark plays Steve, a stunt man who runs off with a blonde dolly bird model named Dinah (Barbara Ferris). The other four members of the band are glorified extras in assorted outfits, who comment on their trek. The advertising executives who employ Dinah claim she's been kidnapped, thus keeping her in the headlines she's trying to escape. Steve and Dinah run into a dopers’ den, in which drug use looks dreary instead of fun, and then bump into a dull couple in the country, who clearly want to play a few rounds of partner swapping. Clark is movie star handsome, but has no discernible acting abilities whatever. Ferris is better, but her part is stupid. What if “dead grotty Susan” had been the focus of A Hard Day's Night? Having a Wild Weekend gives you an inkling. Fledgling director John Boorman's career could only go UP after this curio. P.S.: The costumes by Sally Jacobs are ghastly. AKA: Catch Us If You Can.

1965 91m/B GB Dave Clark, Barbara Ferris, Lenny Davidson, Rick Huxley, Mike Smith, Dennis Payton, Clive Swift, Hugh Walters, Robin Bailey, Yootha Joyce, David de Keyser, Robert Lang, Michael Blakemore, Marianne Stone, Julian Holloway, Susan Hanson; D: John Boorman; W: Peter Nichols; C: Manny Wynn; M: Dave Clark Five.