Catch Us If You Can

In addition to a bunch of foreign-language movies sitting on my DVR that I have to watch before they expire, I've also got what feels like a disproportionate number of British films from various eras. A different sort of movie is the "British Invasion" movie Having a Wild Weekend (originally called Catch Us If You Can in the UK, although the print TCM ran has the US title on it.

The movie stars the British band the Dave Clark Five, who were pretty big in the 1960s although compared to the Beatles and Rolling Stones they're largely forgotten today. He and the rest of the band don't really play a band in this movie (Dave Clark plays a character named Steve, although the other band members play characters with their real-life names), but a bunch of stuntmen who live in a converted church; the opening scenes show the men goofing around London of the 1960s. After they get ready for the day, they go off to their current job, which is shooting a commercial for an ad campaign with the slogan "Meat for Go!"

The current campaign has a girl named Dinah (Barbara Ferris) in a butcher shop playing the part of some masked criminal. Part of the ad requires Dinah and her male companion to get away from the butcher shop, driving off in a Jaguar; Steve plays the stuntman who drives the car since the first bit drives them out of the market hall. Dinah has done enough of this that she's getting tired of it, especially being under contract for two more years. So this time, when Steve starts to drive off and decides he's not going to go back to the meat market after the director yells "cut", Dinah is willing to go along with it.

The two young people have a bit of fun in London in what seems like a lot of not-quite guerrilla footage; at least, most of the bystanders look like extras who aren't expecting a film crew. Eventually, the two head toward Devon in the southwest of England. Dinah is looking at getting away from the whole celebrity lifestyle, and thinking of buying a place out that way to be able to live in some privacy. Steve also knows some people out that way, so he's perfectly willing to drive Dinah there. As you can guess, they develop a bond along the way.

But, of course, they're driving a car that's not Steve's to drive. Zissell, who is in charge of the ad campaign, comes up with the brilliant idea of using all of this as a publicity stunt. The police, for their part, are not far behind, since Steve is technically breaking the law. And Steve's friends also come along to Devon, trying to help Steve and Dinah escape.

Having a Wild Weekend is an interesting movie more for its look at England in the mid-1960s and the way at least some people might have liked the country to be. As far as the story and acting go, however, it's not terribly good. Apparently, Dave Clark was trying to build himself into an actor as well as a singer, but he doesn't have the chops to do it. (That lack of charisma may also be why the Dave Clark Five didn't have the staying power other acts did.) So the movie winds up being more of an oddball failure than anything else.