Filmmaker Susan Siedelman’s debut film “Smithereens” is a unique film for its time and a film that documents life in New York in 1982 and so much more! A Criterion Collection DVD worth checking out!
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TITLE: I Wanna Hold Your Hand – The Criterion Collection #967
YEAR OF FILM: 1978
DURATION: 99 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Color, 1:85:1 Aspect Ratio, Dolby Digital 5.1, with English subtitles
COMPANY: The Criterion Collection
RELEASED: March 26, 2019
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Written by Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale
Produced by Tamara Asseyev, Alexandra Rose
Executive Producer: Steven Spielberg
Associate Producer: Bob Gale
Cinematography by Donald M. Morgan
Edited by Frank Morriss
Casting by Sally Dennison
Art Direction by Peter Jamison
Set Decoration by John M. Dwyer
Costume Design by Rosanna Norton
Starring:
Nancy Allen as Pam Mitchell
Bobby Di Cicco as Tony Smerko
Marc McClure as Larry Dubois
Susan Kendall Newman as Janis Goldman
Theresa Saldana as Grace Corrigan
Wendie Jo Sperber as Rosie Petrofsky
Eddie Deezen as Richard “Ringo” Klaus
Christian Juttner as Peter Plimpton
Will Jordan as Ed Sullivan
On February 9, 1964, the Beatles made their first live appearance on American television on The Ed Sullivan Show, ratcheting up the frenzy of a fan base whose ecstatic devotion to the band heralded an explosive new wave of youth culture. I Wanna Hold Your Hand looks back to that fateful weekend, following six New Jersey teenagers, each with different reasons for wanting to see the Fab Four, on a madcap mission to Manhattan to meet the band and score tickets to the show. With this rollicking first feature, director Robert Zemeckis and cowriter Bob Gale established themselves as a filmÂmaking team par excellence, adept at mining America’s cultural memory for comedy and adventure with a winning mixture of sweet nostalgia and playful irreverence.
Years before filmmaker Robert Zemeckis directed popular films such as the “Back to the Future” films, “Who Framed roger Rabbit”, “Forrest Gump”, “Cast Away”, Zemeckis directed his first feature film “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”.
Written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale (who also co-wrote the “Back the Future” films) and executive produced by Steven Spielberg (the first film which Spielberg produced) and is a fictionalized account of the day the Beatles made their first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show”.
The film would star Nancy Allen (“Robocop” films, “Blow Out”, “Carrie”), Bobby DiCicco (“The Philadelphia Experiment”, “1941”, “The Big Red One”), Mark McClure (“Back to the Future” films, “Superman” films from the ’70s and ’80s), Susan Kendall Newman (“A Wedding”), Theresa Saldana (“The Commish”, “Raging Bull”, “The Evil That Men Can Do”), Wendie Joe Sperber (“Back to the Future” films, “8 Simple Rules”, “Bosom Buddies”) and Eddie Deezen (“Grease” films, “WarGames”, “The Polar Express”, “Kim Possible” series).
And the film was released on Blu-ray and DVD courtesy of the The Criterion Collection featuring a new 4K digital restoration approved by director Robert Zemickis and co-writer Bob Gale.
“I Wanna Hold Your Hand” is set on February 8th and February 9th of 1964, the latter day in which the Beatles would make their historic first live appearance on American television on “The Ed Sullivan Show”.
In Maplewood, New Jersey, hardcore Beatles fan Rosie (portrayed by Wendie Joe Sperber) and her friend Pam (portrayed by Nancy Allen) are visiting the local record shop where many other Beatles fans are there to purchase the album “I Want to Hold Your Hand”.
While Rosie is loving the Beatles fan atmosphere, Pam doesn’t want to be there because she is supposed to get married the day after. Meanwhile, their friend Janis (portrayed by Susan Kendall Newman), who prefers folk music and whose father owns the record shop, detests the Beatles and tries to speak out against them.
Their friend Grace (portrayed by Theresa Saldana) arrives and tells Rosie that she found a way they can meet the Beatles and that’s by getting a limousine, traveling to New York and parking in front of the hotel where the Beatles are staying.
Grace is able to flirt with her friend Larry DuBois (portrayed by Mark McClure), whose father has access to limousines because he works as the local undertaker. So, Grace recruits Larry and the five travel are on their way to travel to New York, meanwhile the streetwise Tony Smerko (portrayed by Bobby DiCicco) who likes Janis jumps into their car and that makes it six who are traveling to New York with their own reasoning for wanting to meet the Beatles.
Rosie, who is a big fan wants to meet the Beatles. Pam who ends up joining her friends and is more concern of getting ready for her marriage. Grace who wants to get exclusive photos of the Beatles in hopes to get a job with a publication. Larry who did it for Grace. Janis who wants to protest in front of thousands of Beatles fan. And Tony who hates the Beatles, wanting to go to be with Janis.
As the group ends up driving to the hotel, Tony pulls out a Beatles-style wig and puts it on and screams “I wanna hold your clams!”, making fans think that Tony is a Beatles, surrounding the car.
Meanwhile, the Rosie, Pam and Grace end up sneaking into the hotel where the Beatles are staying.
While Grace and Rosie take the service elevator up, Pam drops her engagement ring and stays behind to find it. When security arrives, she hides inside the janitor closet.
Grace wants to get off at Floor 11 and take the stairs, so she won’t be detected by security, while Rosie takes Floor 12 where there are plenty of security.
Rosie is caught but she manages to escape and meets Richard “Ringo” Klaus (a crazy Beatles fan) who tries to take anything which the Beatles step on as part of his Beatles collection. And the two end up being pursued, which brings the two close to each other.
Grace gets caught but escapes and manages to get into the Ed Sullivan Theater and is caught by security who tells her that he’ll let her in if she knocks on the door at night and brings $50.
Pam who is hiding in the janitor’s closet, opens the door and sees the Beatles who are leaving the hotel from the rear entrance. Meanwhile, as janitorial approaches, she hides inside the janitors cart and as janitorial leave briefly before cleaning the Beatles hotel room, Pam who is left alone realizes she is in the Beatles room all by her lonesome and immediately, her inner fandom for the Beatles goes wild.
As for Janis, she continues to protest against the Beatles and ends up rescuing a kid named Peter (portrayed by Christian Juttner) who is willing to give her a ticket to the Ed Sullivan Show for free. While Tony tries to protest and show his disgust to the fans (especially that the girls dig the Beatles and have no interest in him) and a radio host for not playing The Four Seasons.
Will any of them actually succeed in meeting or seeing the Beatles?
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“I Wanna Hold Your Hand” is presented in color (1:85:1 Aspect Ratio). According to the Criterion Collection, the new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director film scanner from the 35 mm original camera negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices and warps were manually removed using MTI film’s DAS, white Digital Vision’s was used for jitter, flicker, small dirt, grain and noise management.
For the most part, the film looks very good considering its age. Colors looked great, the film while not perfectly pristine, no major damage to the film and this is the best I have ever seen. Also, the film has its grain and no noticeable DNR which was great to see. It’s important to note that if you want to see the best picture quality of the film, Blu-ray is the way to go!
As for audio, the original monaural soundtrack was created in 2004 by Universal/BlueWave using the original 35 mm magnetic dialogue, music and effects track and was approved by the filmmakers.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“I Wanna Hold Your Hand” comes with the following special features:
- Audio Commentary – Featuring an audio commentary with director and co-writer Robert Zemickis and co-writer Bob Gale which was recorded back in 2004.
- Spielberg, Zemeckis and Gale – (41:55) Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale were interviewed in 2018.
- Allen and McClure – (21:36) Nancy Allen and Marc McClure were interviewed in the fall of 2018 in Los Angeles.
- Early Short Films – (21:36) Robert Zemeckis’ early short films.
- Trailer – A trailer for “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”
- Radio Spots – Radio Spots for “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”
EXTRAS:
Featuring a quad-page fold out with the essay “All Perfectly Normal” by Scott Tobias.
I grew up in the generation who saw these films as a kid who had cable TV ala HBO in the house. And recall watching this movie multiple times.
Of course, the appeal for me as a kid was that it featured music by the Beatles but it also showcased actors and actresses that were well-known during the ’80s.
Fastforward to 2019 and realizing a lot of the characters appeared on many films that I grew up with, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale became filmmaking legends who won multiple awards and that “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” is the first feature film for both men and also learning much later that Steven Spielberg was the executive producer and that it was his first film as a producer.
But also knowing that several of the cast members have since passed away.
Watching the film, I found it to be a lot of fun, adventurous and so entertaining. I was really impressed of how much Zemeckis and Gale were able to include for each of the character’s own storyline, some wild and crazy adventure that is not necessarily too far-fetched (maybe the ending scene with Tony Smerko possibly was a bit farfetched) but it was so cool to see because it centers around the day the Beatles made their historic appearance on the “Ed Sullivan Show”.
I guess you could say it was audacious for its time but it was so fun and entertaining that the film holds up 40-years later. And I also have to add that it features wonderful music from the Beatles and the fact that they were able to create this film with so many Beatles songs included is fantastic!
The film also benefited of using the actual footage of the Beatles appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show”, as well as having hundreds of extras who were cast as fans.
As for this release, it was great to have special features with Zemeckis, Gale and Spielberg being interviewed and a little facts about what happened behind-the-scenes, plus an interview with actor Mark McClure and Nancy Allen who discussed their experiences working on the film. I do wish that Bobby Di Cicco, Susan Kendall Newman and Eddie Deezen were included in the special features but I was glad they added this feature.
Also, the radio spots were also entertaining and reminiscent of the years when people would say how cool a film was on radio or TV commercials.
While the film doesn’t break new ground, it’s still wonderfully entertaining and for those who are wanting a delightfully entertaining film, definitely give “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” a try!