'Saturday Night Out'

Aspects of The Searchers career remain obscure to many Yanks like me. But thanks to a video suggestion on YouTube, I've recently learned about their appearance in a movie titled: Saturday Night Out.

 

Directed by Robert Hartford-Davis and released by Compton-Cameo Films, Saturday Night Out had its world premiere in the UK in April 1964, (the same month The Searchers appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show here in the States.) The movie's plot depicts the romantic ups & downs of three British merchant seamen in Swinging London. 

 

According to IMDB.com, the film's June 1964 debut in Los Angeles, California, was followed by releases in Japan, Denmark and Finland. Although much of the cast is unfamiliar to me, a few names do stick out:

 

Bernard Lee: (the original "M" in the James Bond franchise; and a supporting actor in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.) 

 

Nigel Green: (Gorgo, Jason and The Argonauts, The Ipcress File, Zulu, Tobruk.) 

 

Francesca Annis: (Cleopatra, Dune) 

 

Inigo Jackson: (Beckett.)

 

The Searchers have a cameo in the film as a London club band performing the song "Saturday Night Out" (released as the B-side of "Needles & Pins" in '64.) Although the soundtrack suggests a two- or-three-part harmony, Tony Jackson is the only band member shown singing into a microphone.

 

Gear heads might be interested to know that Mike Pender is rocking a Burns six-string; Tony is playing his Hofner 500/1 violin bass; while John McNally strums his trusty Hofner Club 40.

 

I've yet to learn the actual extent of the film's US release, although it seems reasonable to believe it was screened in other American cities besides L.A. And in view of The Searchers' popularity in West Germany, it could've been released there, as well

 

IMDB.com characterizes Saturday Night Out as "...a typical British B movie of the period and...quite watchable." Unfortunately, the film does not appear to be currently available in any format. 

Thanks to John W from the USA