The Rutles - All You Need Is Cash (1978)

Charts the adventures of the prefab four, possibly the most famous band of all time.

Directors:

Eric Idle, Gary Weis

Writer:

Eric Idle (conceived and written by)

Stars:

Eric Idle, John Halsey, Ricky Fataar

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Eric Idle	...	Dirk McQuickly / The Narrator / S.J. Krammerhead
John Halsey	...	Barry Wom
Ricky Fataar	...	Stig O'Hara (as Rikki Fataar)
Neil Innes	...	Ron Nasty
Michael Palin	...	Eric Manchester
George Harrison	...	The Interviewer
Bianca Jagger	...	Martini
John Belushi	...	Ron Decline
Dan Aykroyd	...	Brian Thigh
Gilda Radner	...	Mrs. Emily Pules
Bill Murray	...	Bill Murray the K.
Gwen Taylor	...	Mrs. Iris Mountbatten / Chastity
Ronnie Wood	...	A Hells Angel (as Ron Wood)
Terence Bayler	...	Leggy Mountbatten
Henry Woolf	...	Arthur Sultan

Storyline

Rutland Weekend Television takes a look at the Pre-fab Four: Dirk, Barry, Stig and Nasty; better known as the Rutles. This documentary follows their career from their early days in Liverpool and Hamburg's infamous Rat-Keller, to their amazing worldwide success. A parody of Beatlemania and the many serious documentaries made about the Beatles.

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Plot Keywords:

parody | mockumentary | imaginary band | spoof | the beatles | 

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Taglines:

Eric Idle's classic spoof of The Beatles

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Genres:

Comedy | Music

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

The Official Rutles Home Page The Rutles

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 March 1978 (USA)

Also Known As:

All You Need Is Cash

Filming Locations:

Abbey Road Studios, Abbey Road, St. John's Wood, London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$200,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Above Average Production, Broadway Video, Rutle

Technical Specs

Runtime:

76 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

All The Beatles members, and Apple Corps, consented to use of the Shea Stadium concert footage, along with other real footage cut in with Rutle footage.

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Goofs

As the Rutles get off the Bognor Express train, a cameraman with a 1970s movie camera is seen following the Rutles out. This recognized as a mistake by Eric Idle on the DVD Director's commentary, where Idle also identifies the cameraman as Gary Weis (co-director and chief cinematographer).

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Quotes

Dirk McQuickly: What Ron and I will do is probably to write some songs y'know, and sell them to people... uh... we tried to write some for the uh, The Rolling Stones, and they're probably gonna buy them.
Mick Jagger: The one for that was Dirk really, he was the real huckster for the songs, I think. Y'know, always wantin' to sell us songs, y'know. They came down... they came down and we were trying to rehearse, and they said "you wanna song?, said "yeah" cause we were really open for songs, cause we didn't write our own. ...

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Alternate Versions

The region 1 DVD contains an alternate edit from all previously released video releases.

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Connections

Spoofs What's Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A. (1964)

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Soundtracks

Baby Let Me Be
(uncredited)
Written and Produced by Neil Innes
Performed by Neil Innes, Ollie Halsall, Ricky Fataar and John Halsey

User Reviews

Man, this is mean!

Although parodies never actually rise to the level of their victim they may be lethally funny at least. Some days ago when I was watching the Beatles Anthology, I suddenly started to remember scenes from this movie and I noticed that was laughing to myself. This only indicates how 'The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash' works other way around too.

Although the Rutles is a very funny comedy itself it does require that you know both Beatles and Monty Python relatively well. Otherwise you might lose something very essential. On the other hand 'The Rutles' can be watched many times again and again without losing a bit of its fascination and there aren't quite many films that can compete with that quality - and even less comedies! For a comedy there is a noteworthy section of famous persons presented as the supporting cast. When making 'The Rutles' Eric Idle was at the top of his fame and he received really good support for this film which is one of those ultra rare examples on how to create Pythonesque comedy and do it even better than the Monties.