Peter Viney's Blog

Catch Us If You Can
1965

Directed by John Boorman
Written by Peter Nichols
Produced by David Deutsch

(US title Having A Wild Weekend)

CAST
The Dave Clark Five:
Dave Clark – Steve
+
Mike Smith
Denis Paynton
Lenny Davidson
Rick Huxley

Barbara Ferris – Dinah
David Lodge- Louis
Robin Bailey- Guy
Yootha Joyce – Nan
David de Keyser – Leon Zissell
Clive Swift- Duffy
Hugh Walters – Grey.
Ronald Lacey- Yeano
Julian Holloway – Assistant director
Susan Hanson – Laraine

The 60s retrospective series

UK release: July 1965. US release August 1965. It was released two weeks before Help! Probably wisely.

Catch Us If You Can: lobby card Dave Clark & Barbara Ferris

Why did the US insist on re-titling British pop movies? What was hard or British about Catch Us If You Can? The US title Having A Wild Weekend is a crass beach movie title. However, it is taken from the song in the movie. Maybe they just thought it the stronger song.

I didn’t see it in 1965. The Dave Clark Five were not popular among British R&B and soul fans like myself. The title I remember calling the film was Catch Up With The Beatles If You Can as it was aimed at replicating the success of A Hard Day’s Night – black and white, young new style director, no show tunes, zany story, loads of running about, comedy sections, laded with British backgrounds for the USA.

Dave Clark initiated and retained total control of the film, choosing John Boorman to direct and Peter Nichols to write the screenplay. It’s John Boorman’s first feature film.

The Dave Clark Five

They were a curious band, led by Dave Clark on drums, who was producer, manager and owner of the name. They started out in Tottenham way back in 1958, but I’d date them from the arrival of Mike Smith on keyboards and lead vocals in 1961. Mike Smith was the singer, main composer and arranger (and talent), but it remained The Dave Clark Five. Session star Bobby Graham drummed on the Dave Clark Five sessions. There is a description of sessions where they had to keep re-doing drum parts until they were easy enough and basic enough for Dave Clark to play on stage.

Bobby Graham: Dave wanted to produce and he couldn’t be up in the box and down in the studio at the same time. Mike Smith had written ‘Glad All Over’ with him and they weren’t too sure what they wanted from the drums. I was playing how I would normally play with the hi-hat, snare and bass and Dave asked, ‘Bobby, can you make that simpler please?’ He didn’t want complicated fill-ins he couldn’t play himself on live dates as that would have given the game away. In the end, I did this four-to-the-bar feel, a flam beat, and he said, ‘That’s lovely.’ I was on a lot of the hits but Dave did play on album tracks. The journalists wanted to catch him out. I got a call from the News Of The World who said, ‘We’ve just spoken to Dave Clark and he has told us that you’re drumming on his records.’ I said, ‘Not me.’ I was paid to do a job and I didn’t see why I should be exposing him.
Spencer Leigh, Independent obituary of Bobby Graham, 23 September 2009

As the Dave Clark Five had been a popular and successful dance hall band in Tottenham for a few years, he obviously could play drums well enough, but that wasn’t his focus. He was a lot more savvy than most musicians of the era, retaining ownership of all their copyrights. Sandie Shaw did the same. Very few others did.

After an initial success in the UK with Glad All Over and Bits and Pieces, their career took off far more in the USA. The contrast in success is extreme. They did way better in America later on. Dave Clark’s career went on to writing the musical Time, and he owns classic British TV shows like Ready Steady Go and is always described as ‘multi-millionaire.’

The cast

Although they perform the off-screen soundtrack music, there is no point in the film when any of the band are seen singing, playing instruments, or miming along.

The Dave Clark Five (unlike The Beatles in their films) do not portray themselves as musicians, but appear to be a team of freelance stuntmen/extras led by Dave Clark, who in real life had been a professional stunt man or extra on forty films by then. Dave Clark stars, with the rest of the band relegated as background comedy. That’s what Cliff Richard did in his movies too, with The Shadows in the background. There was a major difference … Cliff Richard was the lead singer. Dave Clark  was the manager / producer / drummer. The face you saw on TV was Mike Smith, standing up behind his Vox Continental keyboard and actually singing the songs.

Cliff Richard films had The Shadows hanging about to play, but they used professional actors for the comedy pals  … Melvyn Hayes and Richard O’Sullivan. That was right.

On that, Dave Clark becomes “Steve” in the story, but the other band members remain Mike, Dennis, Lenny and Rick – their real names. In July 1965 when it was released, The Monkees pilot was already conceived, but nothing appeared until April 1966. The Monkees was originally inspired by A Hard Day’s Night, but watching the antics of the lads, I’d say The Monkees were also strongly inspired by Catch Us If You Can.

When  “Steve” and Dinah meet the wealthy couple from Bath, Guy (Robin Bailey) and Nan (Yootha Joyce), Yootha Joyce twice addresses “Steve” (Dave Clark)  as “David”. It would seem that nobody noticed on set, including Dave Clark, because they didn’t do a re-take. Or, as films are shot out of sequence, it could even be they hadn’t decided to re-name him when it was filmed. I suspect the former. No one noticed.

Robin Bailey and Yootha Joyce add real acting credibility to the cast. Both are excellent.

Barbara Ferris is the female lead, Dinah and gets co-star billing with The Dave Clark Five. She’s fine in the role, but her future was mainly TV, surprisingly. She could have been quite a star. Marianne Faithful had been offered the role.

Locations

Dave Clark was experienced in the film world, and John Boorman was given wide licence to film interesting locations and space to let us see them. This was probably aimed at America. They start in London, around Smithfield meat market. They tour London extensively by car.

Then they’re off to Salisbury Plain, and the village of Imber. In 1943, everyone in Imber was ordered to leave and the village became a training ground for urban warfare. It still is, and that is its role in the film.  I’d wondered at first if it were Tyneham in Dorset, another ghost village requisitioned by the army in World War Two, but that’s on a naval gunnery firing range, not an urban warfare rehearsal base.

Once the wealthy couple pick up the hitch-hikers, we’re off to Bath and the Royal Crescent, then the Roman Baths in the centre. The Royal Crescent remains the preserve of the rich and famous. We once saw Nicholas Cage there, pushing a baby buggy, with a cigar in his mouth. Van Morrison and Johnny Depp are alleged to live nearby.

Then we’re in snow swept landscape. It could be Salisbury Plain, or Dartmoor. They’re on their way to Bigbury-On-Sea and Burgh Island in South Devon which would make Dartmoor logical.

Cars

Jaguar E-type

Austin Mini-Moke

Arriving in Bath. I think it’s a Lagonda

There was a conscious effort to show iconic British cars  … the E-type Jaguar, a Mini, an Austin 1100, a Mini-Moke, a gorgeous Bentley or Lagonda. Louis has a late 1930s classic MG. It all adds to the British ambience they were pushing.

Plot

It starts out with the lads waking up, then having breakfast in their home. This is a converted church with organ.

In such films, we all should believe that bands live together or in this case a team of stunt men / extras live together.

A “Butchers’ girl poster.”

They’re off to film in Smithfield meat market. London is adorned with posters of Dinah (Barbara Ferris) “the butcher’s girl.” It’s a campaign, “MEAT FOR GO!” In those days, we had national government-sponsored campaigns for milk (Drinka Pinta Milka Day) and eggs ( Go to work on an egg and Look for the Little Lion … a stamp on eggs to show they’d been tested with a light). I don’t recall a meat one, but it’s feasible. It means “Meat for GO!” i.e. energy, NOT “meat to go” which would be a takeaway meal in British English. They’re working for the “Meat Promotion Council.” We see a collage of photos of posters.

Dave Clark as Steve

Steve (Dave Clark) is her co-model in some, so are the lads. The advertising executives are getting restless. They’ve spent half a million on the campaign and they’re not getting the sales results. It reminds me of Marshall McLuhan pointing out that some adverts cost more than the programme they’re embedded in. I bet this picture didn’t cost that much.

Dinah is fed up with her role, and is on a long contract to remain “the face of meat”, not a pleasant phrase. Steve  is appointed to drive her out of the meat market in an E-type Jaguar, both dressed in striped shirts (as burglars are portrayed in British cartoons) with eye masks. The lads are funny meat porters chasing them.

They drive out, and stop the car. They hear the call for a re-take, but decide to just escape, taking the E-type. This involves driving around London by day and evening, passing interesting places at speed, places that were then new like the Piccadilly underpass and the Westway. Good close up collages of signs and British street furniture.  They stop and deface some posters of Dinah.

Dinah defaces her own image on the poster

In Oxford Street, Dinah picks up a megaphone (conveniently left in the car by a director) and harangues passers-by, not that we hear what she says.  They go to a swimming pool where Steve teaches her underwater skin diving. Then on to Kew Gardens so she can show him an orange on a tree. Dinah tells Steve she is buying an island in Devon.

Dinah: I wish we didn’t have to go back. I wish we could just go on.
Steve: Where is this island of yours?

Barbara Ferris as Dinah

She is draping coquettishly around a pillar and speaking breathily and in quite a sexy way. Steve remains his gruff impassive self. They maintain social distancing.

The advertising agency is run by  Leon Zissell (David de Keyser) and he despatches underlings to trace her, lead by Duffy (Clive Swift) with Grey (High Walters).  Leon seems to know a lot about her likes and dislikes too. In a possible goof they report back to him  that she’d been in Oxford Street with a megaphone just thirty minutes earlier. His office is south of the river, and it’s pitch dark outside. The megaphone scene was broad daylight, and it is winter, but even in those days the time scale doesn’t work. Throughout Duffy and Grey will pursue our escaping pair, the younger in a Mini, the older in a larger Austin 1100 as befits his status.

They go to the church hall (where the lads live) which is now the scene of a party (with DC5 soundtrack, of Having a Wild Weekend). Mike Smith is swinging on a climbing rope, it’s his voice we hear … will he start singing? No. First it’s a fabulous rock song (in late 50s style) and second, Boorman’s close up filming of the dancers is very good indeed.  I can’t think of any other pop exploitation movie where the band would not have played in a scene like this. Lenny Davidson is sitting at the edge, a wallflower, eating a paper cup. Meanwhile, Dinah has had a shower (a scene never missed) and has let Lariane have her burglar outfit of striped shirt and leather skirt. Lariane (Susan Hanson) is a good comic cameo. She has two ambitions. To be a top model, and to get through (or is it “two”) O levels. The girls look alike. Blonde with flick ups. Dinah sees the pursuers outside. She leaves with Steve, while of course they pursue Lariane.

The escaping couple drive (via a night lights speed sequence) to Salisbury Plain, past the wreckage of tanks, and park near a ruined village.

Why does Steve open his door, while Dinah always climbs over hers?  They walk to the ruined buildings, which they find full of long-haired alternative types sitting around. One has a guitar. Oddly, NOT a cue for a song, though the harmonica and guitar are plaintive and calming. It seems a bit late to call them beatniks in 1965, but also too early to call them hippies. Now they’d be travellers. Dinah asks if they’re “beats” and they say, no, “dead wood.”

Steve looks suspicious. Note hair length.

I was hugely surprised at the length of the hair for 1964/65, even assuming they designed wigs that long. Steve looks very uptight (then he always does) and wooden (then he always does) though Dinah is friendly. They ask if he has any spliffs and explain “Pot.” One asks if he has any “H … horse.”  Steve’s “No!” is emphatic. Quite early for that in England, I thought. When I used to sell ice-cream on the beach in 1964 and 1965, there was a large similar group ensconced under the pier who smoked funny-smelling roll-ups. I guess we thought it was herbal tobacco for asthmatics.

Dinah: Why do you live like this? For kicks?

Yeano (Ronald Lacey) is their stoned incoherent guru. All is interrupted when shelling breaks out, and the building is surrounded by troops with bayonets. I guessed at once it was urban warfare training but if you didn’t know that, you might be perplexed as the explosions are large. Everyone is jumping out of windows. Steve had walked outside (sulkily, I thought) and went back to grab Dinah and run.

A shell explodes right by the Jaguar. We see it with bonnet up, wheel at 90 degrees, black stuff all over it. I’m sure this was carefully arranged and they did not damage an E-type. Dave Clark gets to do the stunt man run through explosions too.  The guitar player escapes, now holding a banjo. They watch from the upper floor of another building as the soldiers round up the beatniks (?).

Again, if you didn’t know about restricted training areas, you might expect shooting to start. They run to the road.

Steve and Dinah start hitching. An elegant and old car picks them up (a Bentley? A Lagonda?). The wealthy couple inside are Guy (Robin Bailey) and Nan (Yootha Joyce).

Back in London the executives are smoking cigars and swilling brandy. A sure 1965 sign of villainy.

Leon: We must be very careful how we handle their recapture. We must bide our time till we catch them in a colourful situation.
Executive: But not too colourful, huh? … Nothing too blue for example.

The four drive to Bath, to Guy and Nan’s house in the Royal Crescent. They phone the lads (who we’d largely forgotten existed) and tell them the address in Bath. Off they set in an open Mini-Moke in winter to drive the 100 miles to Bath.

 

The lads arrive in The Royal Crescent, Bath

But our baddies are also on the trail! The advertising agency has put it about that Steve had kidnapped Dinah and it’s the big story. However, they plan to “rescue” her in front of the assembled press.

Guy (Robin Bailey), Nan (Yootha Joyce), Steve (Dave Clark)

In Bath, Dinah and Steve are offered a bath. Dinah goes first. It seemed strongly to me that they were going to turn out to be predatory swingers, as Guy taps on the bathroom door to ask if Dinah wants help.

Nan sits too close to Steve on the sofa, and puts her arm round the back, and Steve distractedly starts stroking the cat. (If I were the scriptwriter, I couldn’t have resisted the screamingly obvious line, but Peter Nichols must have a cleaner mind than me).

Later the same stroking the cat turns up between Guy and Dinah. Second miss.

Guy (Robin Bailey) and Dinah (Barbara Ferris)

Steve declines alcohol and a cigarette. He’s not a lot of fun, really.  That theme seems to be developing, but it doesn’t and while Guy says they are both “collectors” it turns out to be old radiograms and such. Dinah’s quite flirty.

There is to be a fancy dress party to which they’re invited … I think it’s the Pump Rooms next to the Roman Baths, though a sign looks like the Fashion Museum. Guy is Frankenstein’s monster. Everyone is in a major movie role … Nan as Charlie Chaplin. Mike as Jean Harlow, Lenny (who never speaks) as Harpo Marx, Dinah as a Max Sennett Bathing Belle.

Nan (Yootha Joyce) and Guy (Robin Bailey)

Those of you who have read the review here of Cliff Richard in 1964, in Wonderful Life  (linked)  here may see a strong similarity with that film’s choice of characters for its History of The Movies sequence. An addition here is a Toulouse-Lautrec with a broad Bristol accent complaining at the bar. Others are a Peter Sellars Indian, a black & white minstrel (two you couldn’t do in 2020) and a St Trinian schoolgirl (sorry, three) and a belly dancer (four). Someone is holding a cut out Frank Ifield mask, which may be an EMI-Columbia in-joke.

The party starts with energetic dancing to Catch Us If You Can  then more slowly to When. Anyway, the advertising guys arrive with the press and the police who try to find them in Don’t You Realize (and the police officers are mistaken for people in fancy dress). Someone is smoking a spliff – there also seemed to be one in the dance at he converted church, which makes three.

Costumes changed. Dinah is Harpo Marx. I’m not sure who Steve’s meant to be

A fight starts. They switch costumes (so Dinah becomes Harpo) to fool the pursuers and escape through the Roman Baths, in a scene which involves many of the extras pushed into the water or falling in.  One group forms a circle and starts singing rugby songs.

I was surprised they were allowed to film in such a historic location. The Roman Baths were closed for swimmers in 1976 after a dangerous amoeba which causes meningitis was found there. In 2019, climate change protestors jumped in. Not a good idea. (The water is processed and can be swum in at the thermal spa nearby. You can drink the cleaned up version in the Pump room. To say it tastes vile is an understatement).

Back in London, we see Leon, the boss examining slides of the huge photos of Dinah with more than normal interest and passion while listening to recordings of her voice. Earlier, the newspaper reporter had asked Leon, ‘Do you find her attractive?’ and got a very strange look.

Steve and Dinah set off to find an old friend Louis (David Lodge) who is trying to set up a Wild West resort in a barn. (When is playing again). This involves finding a road full of snow drifts.  They look genuine to me. There’s jostling about and falling in the snow together, but still nary a hint of romance.

Louis is such a great friend that he can’t remember Steve’s name. this causes Steve to look ‘saturnine and solitary’ (the press description of him). Louis tells them he reckons it’s a publicity stunt. Steve looks even more furrowed brow serious. If that were possible. They go off horse riding. I notice that Dave Clark rides well. A stunt man’s job?

Mini Moke on snowy road

The lads arrive in the Mini Moke with much chasing around on snow and slush – incredibly dangerous in a tiny open car with no seat belts.  The snow seems off the fields but piled up at the side of the road. That happens in country areas where a snow plough puts the snow in heaps, but sunlight melts it on the fields. They are pursued by the police in a large Ford Zodiac and the advertising guys. Good guitar chase music, though they frightened a lot of sheep driving across fields.  Then all six are in the Mini-Moke. The chase takes them into a flood – snow melt? Obviously another day of filming.

They all escape and see the island. Steve and Dinah cross to it on a truly weird tracked contraption through shallow water.  It was a one-off “sea tractor.”

Burgh Island

The hotel is deserted. Out pops Leon who was waiting for them.  Leon seems especially hands on friendly with Dinah. She is definitely provocative.

There are sexual undercurrents with Leon, and Steve looks even more worried:

Leon: Every butcher in the land is delighted.
Steve: And all you had to do was sit in your office.
Dinah: Wondering what we were doing? Imagining yourself in our situation?
then:
Leon: As long as you enjoyed it.
Dinah: It was a gas Leon (purrs) You should have come.
Leon: Perhaps next time.

We see that at low tide, the island is connected to the shore by a beach sandspit.

Dinah: It’s not even a proper island. A gimmick.

The police and press and the lads are assembled there. The three walk down, Leon has his arm round her. As they reach the cameras, Dinah grabs Steve and kisses him passionately for the first time.

The kiss. Leon in sunglasses watches.

There has been ZERO sexual chemistry between them before. Steve decides its all publicity.

Photographer: Stunt boy! In a bit …
Steve:  Goodbye.

He walks away from her. We don’t know if he’s right.

When plays again.

THE END

Overall

It was better than I expected and also unusual in avoiding that inevitable “cue for a song”  or seeing any musical performances. The songs are background, plus there are long instrumental car chase pieces. There’s a lot of car chase, but also a lot of interesting camera work and direction in the moving scenes. Black and white, as so often comes out well. It’s also 4:3 screen ratio, so a budget filming decision. A lot of extras were in the army training sequence and in the fancy dress ball. Dave Clark doesn’t even try to act. He just looks serious at all times. It doesn’t matter. There are good supports, though “the lads” are definitely lost with little to do and only very mildly funny lines.

It’s a visual treat.

DVD

No subtitles. 4:3. Clear transfer. The sleeve notes were written by someone who hadn’t seen it:

On a sunny island they mix with beatniks and society hipsters while singing classic hits during a wild weekend.

• It’s not sunny. It’s winter.
• The island only features in the last few minutes.
• The beatniks are not on the island.
• Nor are the “society hipsters”  which they’re not.
• No one sings anything from start to finish.
• It IS the weekend. They fled on Friday. Bath is Saturday.

Soundtrack

UK LP – a different E type judging by the registration. Maybe they DID break the one in the film.

Most of the songs were co-written by Dave Clark and Lenny Davidson rather than Mike Smith. However, MikeSmith co-wrote Having A Wild Weekend which the American distributors must have thought the best song.

TRACKS IN THE FILM:

Catch Us If You Can (Dave Clark & Lenny Davidson)
Having A Wild Weekend (Dave Clark & Mike Smith)
Don’t You Realize (Dave Clark & Mike Smith)
When (Dave Clark & Lenny Davidson)
Sweet Memories (Dave Clark & Lenny Davidson)
Time (Dave Clark & Lenny Davidson)
When (Dave Clark & Lenny Davidson)
I Can’t Stand It (Dave Clark & Lenny Davidson)
On The Move (Dave Clark & Denis West Payton)
Move On (Dave Clark & Denis West Payton)
Ol Sol (Dave Clark & Denis West Payton)

The UK LP has these from the film:

Catch Us If You Can
On The Move
I Can’t Stand It
Don’t You Realize
Sweet Memories

sheet music

CHART:
Catch Us If You Can single.  UK #8, US #5
Catch Us If You Can LP UK #8
Having A Wild Weekend US LP US #15 Billboard / US #11 Cashbox

Dave Clark has guarded rights to the material, and only released compilations. The original albums have never been on CD, which is why they command high prices secondhand on vinyl.

POP EXPLOITATION FILMS

The Young Ones (1962)
Play It Cool (1962)
Summer Holiday (1963)
What A Crazy World (1963)
Live It Up! (1963)
Just For You (1964)
Wonderful Life (1964)
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
Gonks Go Beat (1965)
Catch Us If You Can (1965)
Help! (1965)

THE 60s REVISITED REVIEWS …

A Taste of Honey (1961)
The Young Ones (1962
Some People (1962)
Play It Cool (1962)
Summer Holiday (1963)
Sparrows Can’t Sing (1963)
The Small World of Sammy Lee (1963)
Tom Jones (1963)
The Fast Lady (1963)
What A Crazy World (1963)
Live It Up! (1963)
Just For You (1964)
The Chalk Garden (1964)
Wonderful Life (1964)
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1965)
Gonks Go Beat (1965)
Cat Ballou (1965)
The Ipcress File (1965)
Darling (1965)
The Knack (1965)
Catch Us If You Can (1965)
Help! (1965)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Morgan – A Suitable Case For Treatment (1966)
Alfie (1966)
Harper (aka The Moving Target) 1966
The Chase (1966)
The Trap (1966)
Georgy Girl (1966)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Nevada Smith (1966)
Modesty Blaise (1966)
The Family Way (1967)
Privilege (1967)
Blow-up (1967)
Accident (1967)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
I’ll Never Forget What’s ‘Is Name (1967)
How I Won The War (1967)
Far From The Madding Crowd (1967)
Poor Cow (1967)
Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush (1968)
The Magus (1968)
If …. (1968)
Girl On A Motorcycle (1968)
The Bofors Gun (1968)
The Devil Rides Out (aka The Devil’s Bride) (1968)
Work Is A Four Letter Word (1968)
The Party (1968)
Petulia (1968)
Barbarella (1968)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Bullitt (1968)
Deadfall (1968)
The Swimmer (1968)
Theorem (Teorema) (1968)
Medium Cool (1969)
The Magic Christian (1969)
The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (1970)
Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970)
Performance (1970)