The Beatles wrote their music and won over fans with their charm, but they couldn’t have reached their level of success without the people who worked with them along the way. Producers, assistants, managers, and former bandmates all helped The Beatles become the biggest band in the world. While they didn’t receive as much recognition as the band, some people who helped lift The Beatles to success have become the subjects of both documentaries and fictional movies. Here are five to check out.
‘Good Ol’ Freda’ is a movie about The Beatles’ longtime secretary
At 17, Freda Kelly scored the job that thousands of people would have given anything to have. She became the secretary to The Beatles and the head of their fan club. She was also one of the few people to work with them for the entirety of their time together as a band.
In 2013, she was the subject of the documentary Good Ol’ Freda, which examines her incredible, often-overlooked career. After moving on to different jobs, Kelly rarely spoke of her time with the band.
“The people in that scene, it just doesn’t come up a lot,” filmmaker Ryan White said, per The Guardian. “It’s just so normal to all of them… My mind was completely blown when I found out the scope of her tenure, the importance of her job.”
In the film, Kelly speaks about her relationship with the band and manager Brian Epstein, the bizarre items she used to send to fans (locks of hair, for example), and her struggle to keep their romantic relationships a secret. It also includes four original Beatles songs. This is a rare feat, but the band gave the film clearance to use them because of their relationship with Kelly.
‘Produced by George Martin’ follows the life of the band’s producer
Producer George Martin was a crucial part of The Beatles’ success. He wasn’t all that thrilled by the band when he first heard them, but he agreed to produce for them. He gave them a record deal and worked with them through their time as a band and into their solo years.
The 2011 documentary Produced by George Martin follows Martin from his childhood to his time as one of England’s most influential producers. It does not focus solely on The Beatles — he worked with many artists in his time — but they play an essential role in his story.
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The film also features interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as artists like Cilla Black, Michael Palin, and Jeff Beck.
‘The Lost Weekend: A Love Story’ is a documentary about John Lennon’s assistant and romantic partner
Decades after John Lennon’s “lost weekend,” an 18-month period long characterized by his separation from Yoko Ono and drunken debauchery, the new documentary The Lost Weekend: A Love Story presents an intimate look at this time. It primarily focuses on May Pang, who worked as the personal assistant to Lennon and Ono.
Due to their marital problems, Ono felt that she and Lennon needed to separate, and she encouraged Pang to begin a romantic relationship with the former Beatle. As promised in the title, the film chronicles their love story. It also focuses on the work Lennon did during this time with Pang’s help. He collaborated with a number of different artists and released three solo albums. For all of his negative press coverage at the time, Lennon’s lost weekend was one of his creatively fruitful periods after The Beatles.
‘Backbeat’ is a movie that tells the story of The Beatles’ one-time bass player
The 1994 film Backbeat is not a documentary, but it chronicles The Beatles’ time in Hamburg, Germany. It also focuses on Stuart Sutcliffe, one of the original members of The Beatles and Lennon’s close friend, who died of a brain hemorrhage in 1962. The film follows his time with the band and his relationship with Astrid Kirchherr, who he fell in love with in Germany.
It’s a relatively unusual Beatles film because it centers on the guitarist who stepped back from the band before they were famous. While McCartney bristled at certain aspects of his portrayal in the movie, he said that actor Stephen Dorff did an incredible job of portraying Sutcliffe. The film received further praise from former Beatles drummer Pete Best, Kirchherr, and Sutcliffe’s sister Pauline.
‘Midas Man’ is an upcoming movie about The Beatles’ manager
While the biopic Midas Man is still in the works, it will tell the story of one of the most influential figures in their career: their manager, Epstein. Jacob Fortune-Lloyd will portray Epstein in a cast that includes Emily Watson, Jay Leno, and Lukas Gage. The film will follow Epstein’s rise from a worker in his family store to the manager of the biggest band in the world, all before his untimely death in 1967.
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