Catch Us If You Can (film)
| Catch Us If You Can | |
|---|---|
A poster bearing the film's US title: Having a Wild Weekend
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| Directed by | John Boorman |
| Produced by | David Deutsch Basil Keys |
| Written by | Peter Nichols |
| Starring |
Dave Clark Julian Holloway Lenny Davidson Rick Huxley Mike Smith Denis Payton Barbara Ferris |
| Music by |
The Dave Clark Five John A. Coleman Basil Kirchin |
| Cinematography | Manny Wynn |
| Edited by | Gordon Pilkington |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
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Release date
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April 1965 (UK) 18 August 1965 (U.S.) 16 May 1970 (German TV premiere) |
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Running time
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91 min. |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
Catch Us If You Can (1965) (released with the title Having a Wild Weekend in the U.S.) was the feature-film debut of director John Boorman. It was designed as a vehicle for pop band The Dave Clark Five, whose popularity at the time almost rivaled that of The Beatles, and named after their hit song "Catch Us If You Can".
During the filming of a TV commercial for a "Meat For Go" campaign set in London's Smithfield Market, stuntman Steve (Dave Clark), disillusioned by the inanity of his job, absconds in an E-type Jaguar (one of the props) with a young actress/model, Dinah (played by Barbara Ferris). After a visit to an open-air swimming-pool in central London and a memorable scene in and around the Great Conservatory in the grounds of Syon House, they make their way across a wintry southern England towards an island (Burgh Island) off the coast of Devon, which Dinah is contemplating buying (presumably to escape the pressures of her celebrity as the "Butcher Girl" on the back of the TV meat advertising campaign). This act of rebellion is cynically exploited by the advertising executive behind the campaign, Leon Zissell (played by David de Keyser), who deputes two of his henchmen to pursue the fleeing couple.
On their journey, Steve and Dinah encounter first a group of proto-hippies (squatting in MOD-owned buildings on Salisbury Plain - some of this sequence was shot in the evacuated village of Imber), and then an unhappily married middle-aged couple (the duo of Yootha Joyce and Robin Bailey) in the opulent surroundings of the Royal Crescent in Bath, Somerset. Steve also plans to visit his boyhood hero, Louie (David Lodge), whose youth club in London's East End he attended, and who has since relocated to Devon.
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Wikipedia