UP AGAINST IT: A SCREENPLAY FOR THE BEATLES by Joe Orton

And now for something completely different: a screenplay written for the Beatles by Joe Orton in the months before Halliwell's silver hammer came down upon his head. (Was that 1969 song from Abbey Road inspired by Orton's 1967 murder? Given his connection to the Beatles and the fact that he met McCartney, who wrote the song, it's quite possible.)

Up Against It is one of those posthumous publications that should probably have remained in manuscript. It doesn't really add anything to Orton's tragically small oeuvre. A later rewrite of a screenplay originally written for the Beatles (and judged too risky and risque by their management), it has some passages of sharp dialogue and a few laugh-out-loud funny moments, but not enough of either. The satire, while often as absurd as Monty Python, seems much more dated, and the entire script reads like a rather mediocre early Python movie. This is very minor Orton, to be read only by completists. The rest of us should stick to the plays, which are wonderful, the delightful diaries, and John Lahr's deliciously titled biography, Prick Up Your Ears.