Hold On! (film)
Encyclopedia
Hold On! is a 1966 musical film
directed by Arthur Lubin
and starring Peter Noone
, Shelley Fabares
, Herbert Anderson
, and Sue Ane Langdon
. The film features performances by Herman's Hermits
and stars the band as fiction
alized versions of themselves. The soundtrack
was released as an album, also called Hold On!.
s choose "Herman's Hermits" as the "good luck name" of the next Gemini
space capsule
, NASA
scientist Edward Lindquist is sent by U.S. State Department
official Colby Grant to shadow the band on tour. His orders are to find out all he can about them to stave off a "P.R.
nightmare". (Grant fears that putting the band's name on the rocket will make the world think the U.S. is "still a colony of Great Britain".)
Aspiring starlet Cecilie Bannister hires a publicity agent and photographer to take photos of her with Herman and the band, sure that this publicity boost will get her a new contract with a movie studio
. They take an unflattering picture during a riot of teenage girls at Los Angeles International Airport
but the misleading story in the newspapers leads Lindquist to believe that Bannister is an "old friend" of Herman's. Likewise, Bannister believes that Lindquist is a writer and part of the band's entourage as they pump each other for information about the band that neither of them really has.
Herman and his bandmates, mobbed wherever they appear, are sequestered in their rooms at the Miramar Hotel by their manager, Dudley, in advance of a charity benefit performance. Herman sees teens playing on the beach and wishes he could be one of them, meet the girl of his dreams, and fall in love. Mrs. Page, the benefit organizer, introduces Herman to her daughter, Louisa, who offers to show him the sights of Los Angeles. Denied by Dudley, Herman and the Hermits sneak off to Pacific Ocean Park
where they split up, reasoning correctly that if they don't stick together, nobody will recognize them. Herman finds Louisa and falls in love while the other band members explore the park. Believing that the boys have been kidnapped, Dudley calls in the police.
Lindquist and Herman meet up again on the roller coaster and the scientist realizes than Bannister has been feeding him false information. Cleared of the kidnapping charges, Lindquist comes clean to the band about his mission and they arrange to have Grant see the band perform at the charity benefit. When teens overrun the country club
, the mayhem convinces Grant to cancel the rocket naming but nationwide teen protests force NASA to name the capsule "Herman's Hermits". During a climactic concert for 50,000 fans at the Rose Bowl
, the band is whisked by hypersonic jet
to Cape Kennedy
for the rocket launch and back in time to finish the concert and play one more song before the credits roll.
is Herman, the leader of Herman's Hermits
, a real-life English rock band comparable in popularity at the time to The Beatles
. While forced to take elaborate security procedures to avoid being "torn apart" by mobs of teenaged fans, Herman laments that he has nobody to talk to and dreams of meeting a woman who will love him for himself. Karl Green
(as Karl), Keith Hopwood
(as Keith), Derek Leckenby
(as Derek), and Barry Whitwam (as Barry) are the other four real-life members of Herman's Hermits. Playing supporting roles to Herman, they too wish to see America up close instead of just through a window. All five band members play fictionalized versions of themselves.
Herbert Anderson
plays Ed Lindquist, a NASA scientist with a nervous nature who is assigned to follow the band across the country by State Department official Colby Grant (Harry Hickox) to determine whether the U.S. can name a Gemini space capsule after the band. Lindquist is initially opposed to the assignment and even faints during his first encounter with the band. He grows to like and accept the young rockers as being "like boys anywhere" and supports the effort to name the capsule for them.
Sue Ane Langdon
plays Cecilie Bannister, an actress whose studio contract has expired. She believes that associating herself with Herman's Hermits will give her enough publicity to get a new contract and more acting jobs. To this end, she hires a publicity man (Mickey Deems) and his photographer (Phil Arnold
) while devising ever more elaborate schemes to get close to the band.
Shelley Fabares
plays Louisa Page, daughter of Mrs. Page (Hortense Petra), a young woman for whom Herman falls in love at first sight. Louisa convinces her mother to have Herman's Hermits play at a charity benefit. Bernard Fox plays Dudley, a fictionalized version of the band's real-life manager, Mickie Most
. He seeks to protect these young men both from the public and from themselves but the band chafes under his strict control. Louisa inspires Herman to lead the band's escape from their hotel which begins to tie the movie's three main plotlines together.
, stars the band as themselves on tour across the United States. The film was shot in Metrocolor
with the Panavision
photographic process at a 2.35:1 aspect ratio
. The film's theatrical soundtrack is monaural.
The film began production as There's No Place Like Space. The film's name was changed to A Must To Avoid and songwriter P. F. Sloan
was commissioned to write a theme song in less than two days. He completed the song and it appears in the film but the studio, realizing the negative connotation of A Must To Avoid, changed the name to Hold On!. Sloan wrote that title song as well. A total of eleven songs, ten sung by Herman's Hermits and one by Shelley Fabares
, appear in the film. A ten-song soundtrack album
was released by MGM Records in the U.S. and Canada and a six-song EP
in the United Kingdom
by EMI/Columbia.
said it "lets loose the bright presence of Herman's Hermits on the wide screen" but opined that "their high spirits have been cut down to fit producer Sam Katzman's trite formula for teen-age entertainment". The New York Times
called the film "an occasionally amusing but nonsensical pastiche" that served "as the cement to hold together the song sequences of Herman's Hermits".
Other contemporary reviewers were more forgiving, with The Film Daily
calling Hold On! a "fun and frolic in a formula vein" with the presence of Herman's Hermits making of "a foregone boxoffice win" with "youngsters". Boy's Life
described the film as only for "swingers who are really with it".
In December 2000, the Denver Post described the band as "a Backstreet Boys for their time" in an article titled "Not quite like Hard Day's Night". An April 2010 review in the Boston Globe noted that The Beatles
in A Hard Day's Night
and Help!
made getting a "British Invasion band to play themselves in a movie with a made-up story" look "so easy" that MGM believed that Herman's Hermits could share similar success but that with Hold On! the "only similarity to Help! is the exclamation mark".
For many years, the film was not available on home video in the United States. Turner Classic Movies
(TCM) ranked the demand for Hold On! as #380 on the TCM Not-On-Home Video list. While TCM does broadcast the film once or twice a year, in September 2010 USA Today
described the film as "rarely seen". The film was finally made available on DVD in 2011 through the Warner Archive Collection
.
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
directed by Arthur Lubin
Arthur Lubin
Arthur Lubin was an American film director and producer who directed several Abbott & Costello films and created the TV series Mr. Ed.Arthur Lubin was born Arthur William Lubovsky in Los Angeles, California in 1898...
and starring Peter Noone
Peter Noone
Peter Noone is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist and actor, best known as "Herman" of the successful 1960s rock group Herman's Hermits.-Early life:...
, Shelley Fabares
Shelley Fabares
Michele Ann Marie "Shelley" Fabares is an American actress and singer. Fabares is known for her roles as Donna Reed's oldest child, Mary Stone, on The Donna Reed Show , and as Craig T. Nelson's love interest and eventual wife, Christine Armstrong Fox, on the sitcom Coach. She also was Elvis...
, Herbert Anderson
Herbert Anderson
Herbert Anderson was an American character actor from Oakland, California, probably best remembered for his part as Henry Mitchell in the classic television sitcom Dennis The Menace.-Career:...
, and Sue Ane Langdon
Sue Ane Langdon
Sue Ane Langdon is a retired American actress.She began her performing career singing at Radio City Music Hall and acting in stage productions. In the mid-1960s she acted at Manhattan's Schubert Theatre in The Apple Tree musical, which starred a young Alan Alda...
. The film features performances by Herman's Hermits
Herman's Hermits
Herman's Hermits are an English beat band, formed in Manchester in 1963 as Herman & The Hermits. The group's record producer, Mickie Most , emphasized a simple, non-threatening, clean-cut image, although the band originally played R&B numbers...
and stars the band as fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
alized versions of themselves. The soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
was released as an album, also called Hold On!.
Plot
When the children of American astronautAstronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
s choose "Herman's Hermits" as the "good luck name" of the next Gemini
Project Gemini
Project Gemini was the second human spaceflight program of NASA, the civilian space agency of the United States government. Project Gemini was conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, with ten manned flights occurring in 1965 and 1966....
space capsule
Space capsule
A space capsule is an often manned spacecraft which has a simple shape for the main section, without any wings or other features to create lift during atmospheric reentry....
, NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
scientist Edward Lindquist is sent by U.S. State Department
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
official Colby Grant to shadow the band on tour. His orders are to find out all he can about them to stave off a "P.R.
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
nightmare". (Grant fears that putting the band's name on the rocket will make the world think the U.S. is "still a colony of Great Britain".)
Aspiring starlet Cecilie Bannister hires a publicity agent and photographer to take photos of her with Herman and the band, sure that this publicity boost will get her a new contract with a movie studio
Movie studio
A movie studio is a term used to describe a major entertainment company or production company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to film movies...
. They take an unflattering picture during a riot of teenage girls at Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport is the primary airport serving the Greater Los Angeles Area, the second-most populated metropolitan area in the United States. It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually...
but the misleading story in the newspapers leads Lindquist to believe that Bannister is an "old friend" of Herman's. Likewise, Bannister believes that Lindquist is a writer and part of the band's entourage as they pump each other for information about the band that neither of them really has.
Herman and his bandmates, mobbed wherever they appear, are sequestered in their rooms at the Miramar Hotel by their manager, Dudley, in advance of a charity benefit performance. Herman sees teens playing on the beach and wishes he could be one of them, meet the girl of his dreams, and fall in love. Mrs. Page, the benefit organizer, introduces Herman to her daughter, Louisa, who offers to show him the sights of Los Angeles. Denied by Dudley, Herman and the Hermits sneak off to Pacific Ocean Park
Pacific Ocean Park
Pacific Ocean Park was a twenty-eight acre , nautical-themed amusement park built on a pier at Pier Avenue in the Ocean Park section of Santa Monica, California, which was intended to compete with Disneyland...
where they split up, reasoning correctly that if they don't stick together, nobody will recognize them. Herman finds Louisa and falls in love while the other band members explore the park. Believing that the boys have been kidnapped, Dudley calls in the police.
Lindquist and Herman meet up again on the roller coaster and the scientist realizes than Bannister has been feeding him false information. Cleared of the kidnapping charges, Lindquist comes clean to the band about his mission and they arrange to have Grant see the band perform at the charity benefit. When teens overrun the country club
Country club
A country club is a private club, often with a closed membership, that typically offers a variety of recreational sports facilities and is located in city outskirts or rural areas. Activities may include, for example, any of golf, tennis, swimming or polo...
, the mayhem convinces Grant to cancel the rocket naming but nationwide teen protests force NASA to name the capsule "Herman's Hermits". During a climactic concert for 50,000 fans at the Rose Bowl
Rose Bowl (stadium)
The Rose Bowl is an outdoor athletic stadium in Pasadena, California, U.S., in Los Angeles County. The stadium is the site of the annual college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, held on New Year's Day. In 1982, it became the home field of the UCLA Bruins college football team of the Pac-12...
, the band is whisked by hypersonic jet
Supersonic transport
A supersonic transport is a civilian supersonic aircraft designed to transport passengers at speeds greater than the speed of sound. The only SSTs to see regular service to date have been Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144. The last passenger flight of the Tu-144 was in June 1978 with its last ever...
to Cape Kennedy
Cape Canaveral
Cape Canaveral, from the Spanish Cabo Cañaveral, is a headland in Brevard County, Florida, United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic coast. Known as Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated from it by the Banana River.It is part of a region known as the...
for the rocket launch and back in time to finish the concert and play one more song before the credits roll.
Cast
Peter NoonePeter Noone
Peter Noone is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist and actor, best known as "Herman" of the successful 1960s rock group Herman's Hermits.-Early life:...
is Herman, the leader of Herman's Hermits
Herman's Hermits
Herman's Hermits are an English beat band, formed in Manchester in 1963 as Herman & The Hermits. The group's record producer, Mickie Most , emphasized a simple, non-threatening, clean-cut image, although the band originally played R&B numbers...
, a real-life English rock band comparable in popularity at the time to The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
. While forced to take elaborate security procedures to avoid being "torn apart" by mobs of teenaged fans, Herman laments that he has nobody to talk to and dreams of meeting a woman who will love him for himself. Karl Green
Karl Green
Karl Green is an English songwriter, musician and bassist who was the bass guitarist and backing singer for the 1960s British band, Herman's Hermits, which featured Peter Noone...
(as Karl), Keith Hopwood
Keith Hopwood
Keith Hopwood is an English musician, singer-songwriter, composer, businessman and record producer, who served as the rhythm guitarist and backing vocals for the 1960s pop band, Herman's Hermits...
(as Keith), Derek Leckenby
Derek Leckenby
Derek "Lek" Leckenby was an English musician and lead guitarist, most famous for his work with English pop group Herman's Hermits.-Early life:Leckenby was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire...
(as Derek), and Barry Whitwam (as Barry) are the other four real-life members of Herman's Hermits. Playing supporting roles to Herman, they too wish to see America up close instead of just through a window. All five band members play fictionalized versions of themselves.
Herbert Anderson
Herbert Anderson
Herbert Anderson was an American character actor from Oakland, California, probably best remembered for his part as Henry Mitchell in the classic television sitcom Dennis The Menace.-Career:...
plays Ed Lindquist, a NASA scientist with a nervous nature who is assigned to follow the band across the country by State Department official Colby Grant (Harry Hickox) to determine whether the U.S. can name a Gemini space capsule after the band. Lindquist is initially opposed to the assignment and even faints during his first encounter with the band. He grows to like and accept the young rockers as being "like boys anywhere" and supports the effort to name the capsule for them.
Sue Ane Langdon
Sue Ane Langdon
Sue Ane Langdon is a retired American actress.She began her performing career singing at Radio City Music Hall and acting in stage productions. In the mid-1960s she acted at Manhattan's Schubert Theatre in The Apple Tree musical, which starred a young Alan Alda...
plays Cecilie Bannister, an actress whose studio contract has expired. She believes that associating herself with Herman's Hermits will give her enough publicity to get a new contract and more acting jobs. To this end, she hires a publicity man (Mickey Deems) and his photographer (Phil Arnold
Phil Arnold
Phil Arnold was an American screen, stage, television, and vaudeville actor. He appeared in approximately 150 films and television shows between 1939 and 1968....
) while devising ever more elaborate schemes to get close to the band.
Shelley Fabares
Shelley Fabares
Michele Ann Marie "Shelley" Fabares is an American actress and singer. Fabares is known for her roles as Donna Reed's oldest child, Mary Stone, on The Donna Reed Show , and as Craig T. Nelson's love interest and eventual wife, Christine Armstrong Fox, on the sitcom Coach. She also was Elvis...
plays Louisa Page, daughter of Mrs. Page (Hortense Petra), a young woman for whom Herman falls in love at first sight. Louisa convinces her mother to have Herman's Hermits play at a charity benefit. Bernard Fox plays Dudley, a fictionalized version of the band's real-life manager, Mickie Most
Mickie Most
Mickie Most was an English record producer, with a string of hit singles with acts such as The Animals, Arrows, Herman's Hermits, Donovan, Suzi Quatro and the Jeff Beck Group often issued on his own RAK Records label....
. He seeks to protect these young men both from the public and from themselves but the band chafes under his strict control. Louisa inspires Herman to lead the band's escape from their hotel which begins to tie the movie's three main plotlines together.
Production info
Hold On!, largely an excuse to string together performances by Herman's HermitsHerman's Hermits
Herman's Hermits are an English beat band, formed in Manchester in 1963 as Herman & The Hermits. The group's record producer, Mickie Most , emphasized a simple, non-threatening, clean-cut image, although the band originally played R&B numbers...
, stars the band as themselves on tour across the United States. The film was shot in Metrocolor
Metrocolor
Metrocolor is the trade name used by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for films processed at their laboratory. Virtually all of these films were actually shot on Kodak's Eastmancolor film.-External links:* at Internet Movie Database...
with the Panavision
Panavision
Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses during the widescreen boom in the 1950s, Panavision expanded its product...
photographic process at a 2.35:1 aspect ratio
Aspect ratio
The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,...
. The film's theatrical soundtrack is monaural.
The film began production as There's No Place Like Space. The film's name was changed to A Must To Avoid and songwriter P. F. Sloan
P. F. Sloan
P.F. Sloan is an American pop-rock singer and songwriter. He was very successful during the mid-1960s, writing, performing and producing Billboard top 20 hits for artists such as Barry McGuire, Jan & Dean, Herman's Hermits, Johnny Rivers, The Grass Roots and the Mamas and the Papas...
was commissioned to write a theme song in less than two days. He completed the song and it appears in the film but the studio, realizing the negative connotation of A Must To Avoid, changed the name to Hold On!. Sloan wrote that title song as well. A total of eleven songs, ten sung by Herman's Hermits and one by Shelley Fabares
Shelley Fabares
Michele Ann Marie "Shelley" Fabares is an American actress and singer. Fabares is known for her roles as Donna Reed's oldest child, Mary Stone, on The Donna Reed Show , and as Craig T. Nelson's love interest and eventual wife, Christine Armstrong Fox, on the sitcom Coach. She also was Elvis...
, appear in the film. A ten-song soundtrack album
Soundtrack album
A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television program. In some cases, not all the tracks from the movie are included in the album; however there are rare cases of songs in the trailers that do not appear in...
was released by MGM Records in the U.S. and Canada and a six-song EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
by EMI/Columbia.
Critical reception
When the film was initially released, the Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
said it "lets loose the bright presence of Herman's Hermits on the wide screen" but opined that "their high spirits have been cut down to fit producer Sam Katzman's trite formula for teen-age entertainment". The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called the film "an occasionally amusing but nonsensical pastiche" that served "as the cement to hold together the song sequences of Herman's Hermits".
Other contemporary reviewers were more forgiving, with The Film Daily
Film Daily
The Film Daily was a daily publication that existed from 1915 to 1970 in the United States.For 55 years, Film Daily was the main source of news on the film and television industries...
calling Hold On! a "fun and frolic in a formula vein" with the presence of Herman's Hermits making of "a foregone boxoffice win" with "youngsters". Boy's Life
Boy's Life
Boy's Life is a 1991 novel by New York Times bestselling author Robert R. McCammon. It received the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1992....
described the film as only for "swingers who are really with it".
In December 2000, the Denver Post described the band as "a Backstreet Boys for their time" in an article titled "Not quite like Hard Day's Night". An April 2010 review in the Boston Globe noted that The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
in A Hard Day's Night
A Hard Day's Night (film)
A Hard Day's Night is a 1964 British black-and-white comedy film directed by Richard Lester and starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—during the height of Beatlemania. It was written by Alun Owen and originally released by United Artists...
and Help!
Help! (film)
Help! is a 1965 film directed by Richard Lester, starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. Help! was the second feature film made by the Beatles and is a...
made getting a "British Invasion band to play themselves in a movie with a made-up story" look "so easy" that MGM believed that Herman's Hermits could share similar success but that with Hold On! the "only similarity to Help! is the exclamation mark".
Home video
The film was broadcast nationally on August 21, 1970, as part of "The CBS Friday Night Movies".For many years, the film was not available on home video in the United States. Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
(TCM) ranked the demand for Hold On! as #380 on the TCM Not-On-Home Video list. While TCM does broadcast the film once or twice a year, in September 2010 USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
described the film as "rarely seen". The film was finally made available on DVD in 2011 through the Warner Archive Collection
Warner Archive Collection
The Warner Archive Collection is a manufactured-on-demand DVD series. It was started by Warner Home Video on March 23, 2009 with the intention of putting previously unreleased back catalog films on DVD for the first time ever. Using recordable DVDs, they custom burn discs for each order rather than...
.