Mister Beewees
When Timo Langer, boy editor, and I completed the first cut of PICTUREWISE 3 (here), the sequel to the two-part video essay on A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, it was about fifteen minutes long. Criterion suggested that ten minutes would be a better length for online content (maybe the standards were set by YouTube’s original upload limits; at any rate, people prefer shorter clips), so we made some trims. But I preserved the deleted scenes so I could empty my trim-bin all over Shadowplay.
The first bit we deemed snippable is an amusing story from the production of THE THREE MUSKETEERS, which besides its humorous content shows how money gets wasted on films. Lester, being a socially responsible chap, was always tormented by this. “You think — I’m wasting hospitals here!”
lester beewees from David Cairns on Vimeo.
The Three Musketeers/The Four Musketeers (Two-Movie Collection)
Something I didn’t realize: my Lester video essay is also on the UK Blu-ray of A HARD DAY’S NIGHT from Second Sight — A Hard Day’s Night: 50th Anniversary Restoration [Blu-ray]
shadowplay 
July 22, 2014 at 2:09 pm
The Musketeers are in many ways a period rendition of the Fab Four.
July 22, 2014 at 8:29 pm
Well, the Italian title for A Hard Day’s Night was Tutti Per Uno.
July 22, 2014 at 9:52 pm
“Four Waiters in ze Weend” (Quatre Garcons dans le Vent).
July 22, 2014 at 10:15 pm
Just watched Ken Annakin’s The 5th Musketeer the other night. What an awful film!
July 22, 2014 at 11:49 pm
Oh, I’m sure it is! Haven’t seen it since catching a bit of the cut version on TV as a kid and realizing it wasn’t one of the good ones.
Just looked up Annakin, who was only ever fair, and found this intriguing item. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genghis_Khan_(1992_film)
July 23, 2014 at 2:09 pm
“dans le vent” is idiomatic for “fashionable.”
July 24, 2014 at 11:05 pm
Thanks, David. Sounds like it would have been a fascinating film. I also learned that Annakin was born in Beverley (Yorks) and died in Beverly Hills (Cal)!
July 25, 2014 at 12:17 am
That has a certain neatness.
April 3, 2015 at 11:39 am
[…] Fans of Richard Lester’s Musketeer movies might also like to check out the anecdotes and related comments in David Cairns’s Shadowplay blog, here and here. […]