As yet another addition to books about the Beatles, this genteel yet engaging memoir has the advantage of being written by someone who was actually there with the Fab Four. A longtime member of the British film industry, O'Dell first worked for the Beatles as assistant producer for director Richard Lester's A Hard Day's Night
and producer for Lester's How I Won the War, which featured John Lennon as a supporting actor. After this film, O'Dell was asked to be one of the directors for the Beatles' new organization, Apple Corps, and his experiences as the head of Apple Films make up the bulk of his book. Nicely illustrated with rare photos from the Beatles' trips to India and their U.S. announcement of Apple's formation, the book will be of special interest to Beatles fans mostly because of O'Dell's accounts of working on various unproduced Beatles film projects, including a film scripted by playwright Joe Orton, "which included the Beatles appearing in drag, committing murder and going to prison" and a planned version of The Lord of the Rings
in which Stanley Kubrick would direct the Beatles ("John was keen to play Gandalf"). While O'Dell's noncinematic observations tend to be accurate yet broadly general ("The musical visions and styles of the group were becoming more and more disparate"), his detailed view from an experienced film producer's side of things—aided by coauthor Neaverson (The Beatles Movies)—provides a welcome insight into a small but crucial part of the Beatles' artistic legacy.
(Jan.)
