Without wishing to take anything away from Slade and Flame, it wasn’t the first British pop music film to offer a downbeat take on the entertainment industry (‘The Citizen Kane of rock movies’: glam rockers Slade and their bid for cinema greatness, 14 April). John Boorman’s 1965 film Catch Us If You Can presents the Dave Clark Five – lovably free of acting talent – as stunt men in the advertising industry escaping west with Barbara Ferris, the poster girl of a meat campaign.
Thinking that they are Mini-Moking their way to a new life of freedom and love in the mystical West Country – despite a bizarre encounter with some disillusioned beatniks on Salisbury Plain – they discover that the ruthless advertising executives have been using their elopement as a publicity stunt. We hear the band’s music, but never see them play, and neither do we get a happy ending. All this is captured by Manny Wynn’s sombre black and white photography.
Ironically, the chief advertising executive is played by the wonderful David de Keyser, who became the distinctive voice of advertising in the late 1960s and 70s. The legend goes that Pauline Kael’s affection for the film helped prompt Hollywood offers to Boorman, leading to the seminal Lee Marvin gangster flick Point Blank (1967), among others.
Sean Kaye-Smith
Bristol
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
