Having a Wild Weekend (aka Catch Us If You Can) - (1965)
For a time, The Dave Clark Five were considered among the chief rivals to The Beatles. They were always a step behind, however - the second British Invasion group to hit the States, the second to land on Ed Sullivan, and the second to put out a promotional film with artistic ambitions in excess of what one would expect from a pop group.
After The Beatles hit a home run, financially and critically, with A Hard Day's Night, the Dave Clark Five followed with Catch Us If You Can, subsequently retitled in America as Having a Wild Weekend. I presume the film was re-titled because their album was similarly re-titled - likely because the record company wanted to sell the album as a party theme album, and perhaps because they failed to recognize that Catch Us If You Can is probably the group's best song.
It's easy to see that Having a Wild Weekend (I'll use the American title) is inspired by and intended as something of a challenger to A Hard Day's Night. At its worst, the movie comes off as imitation. Where it is most interesting, however, is in its artistic ambitions (or pretensions, depending on how you see it). The film marked the feature debut of one John Boorman - who would go on to direct such films as Point Blank, Deliverance, Excalibur, The General, and on and on (some misses on the resume, but also some classics).
