SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND: THE MOVIE

Publicity poster for Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: The Movie (© Michael Schultz/Apple Corps/RSO Records/Universal Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

As regular readers  of my movie mini-reviews here will know, I have a penchant for viewing movies slated by the critics, if only because more often than not I discover that I actually like them – I'm contrary that way! And so it proved once again on Sunday afternoon [2 August 2020], when I viewed Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: The Movie (hereafter SPLHCBTM, for purposes of brevity, relatively speaking!).

Directed by Michael Schultz, produced by Robert Stigwood, and originally released in 1978, as its title suggests this fantasy movie musical features many of the songs that first appeared on the Beatles' iconic Sgt Pepper album (as well as some from their Abbey Road album), but the Fab Four do not star in it. Instead, it features a then still extraordinarily youthful-looking Peter Frampton (best known for fronting the rock bands Humble Pie and The Herd) and the Bee Gees brotherly trio of Barry, Maurice, and Robin Gibb.

SPLHCBTM's quite surreal, and sometimes decidedly psychedelic, plot and visuals tell the suspending-of- all-disbelief tale of a legendary brass band quartet named – yes indeed – Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, hailing from the homely little American town of Heartland but whose spirits-lifting music is instrumental (sorry!) in bringing World War I to a close and makes them immensely popular for decades afterwards, continuing to perform until a now-elderly Sgt Pepper's sudden death, whereupon their metaphorical baton is passed on to his young grandson Billy Shears (played by Frampton). When he grows older, Billy forms a new, pop-rock version of his grandfather Sgt Pepper's original band with his three best friends, the Henderson brothers Bob, Dave, and Mark (the Bee Gees).

Their music comes to the attention of a Mr Big-in-Showbiz character named B.D. (a totally unrecognizable Donald Pleasence), who brings them to his palatial home in Los Angeles and swiftly signs them up, within a week of which they become major stars throughout the USA and beyond (as you do), despite being managed by Billy's less than honest, money-mad half-brother Dougie (Paul Nicholas). They also face constant temptation of the carnal kind from another of B.D.'s signings, a foxy foursome performing as Lucy and the Diamonds (Dianne Steinberg and Stargard).

Meanwhile, however, their hitherto wholesome Heartland hometown falls under the dark shadow of the villainous Mr Mustard (played in his own inimitable fourth-wall-demolishing style by famous British comedian Frankie Howerd in his only major American movie role), which sees most of its stores and even its City Hall bought up by Mustard and converted into sleazy clubs and casinos, to the despair of Heartland's honorable mayor Mr Kite (George Burns, who also serves as the movie's narrator). Billy's loyal girlfriend, Strawberry Fields (Sandy Farina), who had stayed behind in Heartland when Billy and the boys journeyed to L.A. to meet with B.D., now makes her own way there to warn them of what is happening back in Heartland, not knowing that Mustard is actually following orders received within his computerized, android-assisted headquarters concealed inside his grotty van from a mysterious unseen entity named FVB whose aim is to take over the world.

In order to do so, however, FVB needs the magical joy-bringing musical instruments of the original Sgt Pepper's band, now proudly displayed in Heartland's museum inside City Hall, so Mustard duly steals them and distributes three of the four to various persons designated by FVB. These malcontents include a deranged plastic surgeon named Dr Maxwell Edison (Steve Martin) and a malevolent, mind-warping cult leader who calls himself Father Sun (Alice Cooper). If all of this seems convoluted and just the teensiest bit OTT, you ain't seen – or heard – nothing yet!

Suffice it to say that Strawberry, Billy and the boys, aided and abetted by Dougie and Lucy, pursued by a manic Mustard as they seek to recover the stolen instruments, and finally confronting the villainous FVB, who turns out to be a megalomaniacal rock band called Future Villain Band (Aerosmith), get to perform a sizeable number of Beatles songs along the way, and some of them quite impressively (e.g. 'Here Comes the Sun', 'You Never Give Me Your Money', 'A Day In The Life'). However, for me the two stand-out performances are actually Frankie Howerd's hilarious rendition of 'When I'm Sixty-Four' (click here to view it), and (click here) Steve Martin's hysterically insane interpretation of 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' (a song by Paul McCartney that I have to confess I'd never heard or even heard about before, and which sounds deceptively like a children's song until you listen to the words and realize that they are actually describing the murderous activities of a youthful serial killer!).

A tragic, moving scene is the unexpected death and sorrowful funeral of Strawberry Fields, but hey, this is SPLHCBTM, so that is soon rectified by the Sgt Pepper-dedicated gilded weather vane atop of Heartland's City Hall. For not only does it magically come to life as Billy Preston strutting his stuff in an eye-dazzling gold lamé suit but also it soon works the very same magic upon Strawberry too, restoring her into the land of the living as good as new, before swiftly banishing the baddies and kitting out the goodies in shiny new outfits – just in time for them to bring this bright, breezy, if sometimes decidedly bewildering movie to a happy-clappy close with a huge array of mostly music-based showbiz stars joining together to sing the movie's theme song. Knowing that this scene was coming, I paid close attention to see how many stars I could spot, with my eventual tally including Helen Reddy, Keith Carradine, the Paley Brothers, Leif Garrett, Carol Channing, Tina Turner, Peter Noone, Dr John, José Feliciano, Rick Derringer, Robert Palmer, Sha-Na-Na – and, with no apparent reason whatsoever for his inclusion there, Barry Humphries as his Aussie housewife-superstar alter ego Dame Edna Everage.

Beatles purists will no doubt hate this movie with a vengeance, but as an exercise in vividly colourful visuals, entertaining if indisputably nonsensical storylines, an outrageously eclectic mix of stars that would never be expected to appear together (Frankie Howerd, Alice Cooper, George Burns, Peter Frampton, Donald Pleasence, and the Bee Gees – really??!!), and the unquestionable quality of the classic, timeless songs upon which this whole eccentric extravaganza is hung, it is very far indeed from being the worst big screen or small screen experience of two hours' tenure that the critics would have you believe it to be. Take my word for it, I enjoyed it immensely – then again, I'm sure that you know me well enough to know that I would! But if you'd like to make your own mind up about it, click here to watch this movie's official trailer.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE! 

Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees as Sgt Pepper and His Lonely Hearts Club Band (© Michael Schultz/Apple Corps/RSO Records/Universal Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)