Catch Us If You Can

Catch Us If You Can (1965)

Britain’s swingin’est five come alive in the year’s biggest dramatic surprise!

Dinah is a famous model and actress who is getting tired of life in the limelight and wants to take a break. While shooting a commercial spot for meat, she meets Steve, a stuntman. Dinah and Steve hit it off and decide to head to an island to get away from it all, bringing along four of Steve's friends. Before long, Dinah is reported missing and everyone is looking for her, making their getaway anything but tranquil.

Date of release
1965-07-15
TMDB
5.4 / 10 (19)
Runtime
1h 27m
Genres
Comedy, Music
Director
John Boorman

Casting

Interesting facts

Catch Us If You Can is the 1965 feature-film debut of director John Boorman. It was written by Peter Nichols. The film is a vehicle for pop band the Dave Clark Five, whose popularity at the time rivalled that of the Beatles, and it is named after their hit song "Catch Us If You Can".

Production notes

Nat Cohen had turned down the chance to make a film with The Beatles. According to John Boorman, the success of A Hard Day's Night enabled Cohen to sell Warner Bros. Pictures a film about the Dave Clark Five before it had even been made. in April 1964 Variety listed a Dave Clark Film, then called Glad all over, with Sidney Hayers attached as director, Peter Rogers as producer and Kathy Kirby as the female lead.

Cohen eventually assigned the project to producer David Deutsch, who brought in John Boorman to direct. Boorman says he was given total creative freedom as long as he kept under budget as the film was already in profit before it had been made. Boorman hired Peter Nichols to write the script (as Charles Woods was busy writing a Beatles film). Boorman says Dave Clark wanted the band to play stuntmen.

In a running gag, Lenny Davidson is the only member of the Dave Clark Five who does not utter a single word in the film, usually because the others do not let him talk. He comes dressed as Harpo Marx to the Arts Ball party (until Dinah switches costumes with him to avoid being caught by the police and her bosses; this is evident not only in the film but also on the back cover of the soundtrack album).

Marianne Faithfull rejected the role of Dinah as being "too poppy."

Boorman later he had difficulty with Clark's lack of acting ability, writing "I cut his dialogue to the bare minimum. I had to play him silent and taciturn. Often this came off as sullen. There was nothing light-hearted about him, nothing youthful, nothing graceful or rhythmical - and he a drummer. I used Barbara to get us through the scenes. This made him resentful. He thought I was favouring her at his expense.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended