Act unnaturally: The Beatles’ Ringo Starr in the movies
Ever since he’d been singled out as a “natural” in A Hard Day’s Night, Ringo Starr had decided he was an actor. Of course, what he was good at was playing Ringo the Beatle, but after Help! there were to be no more Beatles movies (the kind that actually required them to “act,” anyway). So our boy decided to cast about for outside projects.
Ringo Starr’s first film was the 1968 sex romp Candy, which turned out to be one of those British “comedies” that starred an especially attractive young woman getting into all sorts of naughty mischief (see Wonderwall) and a load of artsy-fartsy filmmaking gibberish. This was, of course, the time of heavy drug use among those with money and high profiles (see Head), and so Candy, based on a satirical Terry Southern novel, with a Buck Henry screenplay, probably looked like a laugh riot to those who put it together.
Inexplicably, Ringo was cast as a Mexican gardener who has sex with the titular character (Ewa Aulin) on a pool table. The role required him to do little more than babble in a bad Spanish accent.
Next was The Magic Christian, also by Terry Southern. Everybody knows about this one, because it had a hit song (Badfinger’s “Come and Get It”) and a solid performance from a very funny Peter Sellers. It made tons of money. But have you watched it lately? This was probably Ringo Starr’s second-best performance: He’s laconic, which is what he was in the Beatles movies — but the movie is a queasy mess, another hopelessly dated product of the time.
By: Bill Deyoung
Source: Something Else Reviews
