Trivia for
Let It Be (1970) More at IMDbPro »

• The film - shot in 16mm - was originally intended to end up as a television program. When it was decided to use the material to produce a theatrical release, the end result (via blowup from 16mm to 35mm) matted the top and bottom of the frame, resulting in awkward picture compositions and obscuring picture information. Many shots were even repositioned (up or down) so that heads etc. would not be totally obscured. The later home video release in the early 1980's was a pan-and-scan of this matted version that cut of the sides resulting in the viewer only seeing the center of the filmed frame!
  
  
• The original title was "The Beatles Get Back" but since the group had released the "Get Back" single in the previous year, the movie and soundtrack album titles were re-named. During the rooftop concert, the Beatles were disappointed that the London police asked them to stop - they were hoping that they would be arrested and drug off to jail for disturbing the peace! Paul McCartney said that it would have been a "great ending for the movie".
  
  
• Digitally re-mastered by Apple Corps in 1992 form the original 16mm negative for a planned video re-release, however this was canceled at the last minute. In 1997 a UK company, "VCI", announced plans to issue this remastered version again in England, which would have been the first time the film had appeared on video in the UK. However it was again withdrawn at the eleventh hour. Clips of the re-mastered footage, as well as several outtakes, can be seen in _"Beatles Anthology, The" (1995) (mini)_.
  
  
• Filming began at England's Twickenham Studios the first week of January 1969; a rehearsal area was set up on a soundstage, and the band was expected to arrive at around 8am to meet the shooting schedule. After several days freezing on the barely-heated, cavernous set, and hating the early-morning hours, the location was changed to the Beatles' own "new recording studio", set up in the basement at Apple. The Beatles arrived there in the second week to discover a largely empty room, featuring none of the technical innovations promised them, or even normal studio features, such as a patch-bay or an intercom system. Recording equipment had to be rented, cables run under the door, and the building's central heating (also located in the basement) had to be shut off while they worked. (Studio designer Alexis, aka "Magic Alex", promptly disappeared, from the Beatles' circle of assistants.) The new location proved as cramped as the first location had been overlarge, with band, recording crew, camera crew, Yoko Ono, Linda McCartney, and others all together in the same room.
  
  
• The decision to release "Let It Be" was largely a financial one; Apple's accountants assured the band that, with so much money spent on the project, they couldn't afford to simply bury the results, much as the Beatles wanted to. A movie release would recoup the expenses more effectively than the planned television special... so it was turned into a movie.
  
  
• Both Beatles producer George Martin and independent producer 'Glyn Johns (I)' prepared mixes of the soundtrack album, neither of which satisfied everyone. Martin effectively quit working with the band, when criticisms started turning personal, but returned to make "Abbey Road" after the Beatles promised to work with him "like in the old days", with Martin calling the shots in the studio. A second remix by Johns was also rejected, and with Martin unwilling to work any further on "Let It Be", Phil Spector was hired to complete the soundtrack.
  
  
• The first cut, which was supervised by Michael Lindsay-Hogg and the Beatles themselves, ran for 210 minutes. However a second version was edited in the absence of 'John Lennon' and Yoko Ono. This new cut (with a considerable amount of "John and Yoko" footage cut out) became the 81 minute release that made the cinemas.
  
  
• 'John Lennon' believed the film's director, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, deliberately avoided including shots of him and 'Yoko Ono' in favor of more shots of Paul McCartney. Ringo Starr also complained that most of the "clowning" he performed at the director's behest was never used.
  
  
• Following the argument with Paul McCartney seen in the movie, George Harrison went home and wrote the song "Wah-Wah", which he recorded for his first solo album two years later.
  
  
• Paul McCartney hated Spector's changes to his songs from the movie, and tried to have "The Long and Winding Road" replaced with an earlier version before release. John Lennon disliked the original performances, and was satisfied with Spector's touch-ups: "When I heard it, I didn't puke."
  
  
• According to Rolling Stone magazine, it was suggested to band that they perform live in an ancient coliseum somewhere in Rome, among the ruins. John and Paul liked the idea, but a third Beatle refused to leave the country at the time. They therefore had to settle for the rooftop.
  
  
• The last of five theatrical movies that feature The Beatles.
  
  

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