The Beatles in film The Beatles in film The Beatles appeared in five motion pictures, most of which were very well received. The exception was the (mostly unscripted) television film "Magical Mystery Tour" which was panned by critics and the public alike. Each of their films had the same name as their associated soundtrack album and a song on that album. The Beatles had a successful film career, beginning with A Hard Day's Night (1964), a loosely scripted comic farce, sometimes compared to the Marx Brothers in style. A black-and-white film, it focused on Beatlemania and the band's hectic touring lifestyle and was directed
The Beatles bootleg recordings earliest professional film footage of the Beatles, and would have been the Beatles' first appearance on television, but the footage was shelved for over a year, and was first broadcast after the Beatles had achieved nationwide success. The video has been seen on The Beatles Anthology and other documentary sources, and audio from both dates have circulated amongst bootleggers. As the Beatles were concluding their final two-week Hamburg engagement in late December 1962, portions of their performances were taped by Star-Club stage manager Adrian Barber; the tapes were acquired by Ted "Kingsize" Taylor, the leader of KingsizeTaylor and The Dominoes