User reviews

Another '60s pop flick that followed in the wake of the Beatle's "Hard Day's Night".

Shot on location in Liverpool. Entertaining enough in its own way. Looks like it contains some genuine concert footage and there are a number of guest appearances by some of the big name "Merseybeat" stars of the era. Lots of toe tappers throughout and, of course, there's that wonderful theme song.

Marsden and Co. handled comedy with a certain breezy efficiency as did the Fab Four and the Monkees which is more than you can say for today's tedious collection of mumbling, rude and generally unlikable pop and rock stars.

Rarely shows up on television these days but worth watching out for.

Which is sad as this is enjoyable film but as for why it'll be stuck in archive hell?

Two words simply will cover it Jimmy Saville and I can't see a way to edit him out so sadly it'll be tucked away.

The film is otherwise a breezy romp with some cracking tunes while it's debt to A hard days night is obvious Gerry and the boys carry the fim with charm and humour.

It can be found and if you can get past Saville there's a lot to enjoy.

I'm watching this film as I write this!

Every now and again in the cinema the audience as one feels a moment of magic and this for me was one of them. I saw 'Ferry Cross The Mersey' at its world premiere at the Odeon in Glasgow on 20th December 1964. (Held there because Gerry was featuring in a week long gig called Gerry's Christmas Cracker' the following week.) The showing was a sell-out. It was always going to be compared to 'Hard Day's Night', but this film has a rougher feel and captures the grittiness of a long lost Liverpool with its factories, Chinese restaurants and dance halls (complete with a real life fight that the cameras were around to catch). The music is more than pleasant and I played the soundtrack album during much of early 1965 (and bought it again on CD when it came out). The whole thing is carried along by Gerry's personality and although there is support from 'proper' actors like Mona Washbourne as his aunt, the wonderful George A Cooper as an undertaker lodger, Julie Samuel as the love of Gerry's life (although she comes second to his love of music) and that great character actor Thomas Patrick McKenna as the manager who knows the boys have something. From the opening chords of 'It's Gonna Be All Right' to a sweat show in the Cavern through to the iconic performance of a guitar carrying Gerry singing the title song on the ferry, through to the silent film comedy tribute and the band zooming around everywhere on scooters, this is a film that today's audiences would probably dismiss as naïve and unsophisticated – but at the end I came out of the cinema feeling happy and positive and not too many films do that.

It also has Cilla Black (with her husband to be Bobby Willis by her side) doing the rather dull 'Is It Love' which graced the b side of her #1 hit 'You're My World', and a guest appearance by Jimmy Savile will probably make sure it never gets a DVD release, but the real star turn is the city and the wonderful people of Liverpool.

Here's what I said about it in my book 'What We Watched In The 1960s (In The Cinema)' which covers just about every film released in the UK in the 1960s.

'Glasgow didn't get too many world premieres, but the Odeon had one on Sunday and "Ferry Cross The Mersey" starring Gerry And The Pacemakers even managed to get to Scotland some five weeks before Gerry's hometown of Liverpool. In fact business was so good on the Sunday opening, that there was standing room only, and although Gerry's last single 'It's Gonna Be Alright' had stalled outside the Top Ten, the title song was about to give him a big hit and something he would sing right through his very long career. The story (by 'Coronation Street' deviser Tony Warren) is about Gerry and his group trying to win a beat contest and much of the dialogue was improvised, but the songs were catchy and Gerry has an incredible personality, which helped carry the whole thing. "For Those Who Think Young" with it underlined the differences between Britain and America where all the teenagers were driving cars to school and having romantic flings on beaches all in colour. Good fun.'

Post script: I once met Gerry in the 1980s and he looked at me and said loudly 'I know you don't I?' in front of a load of people. He didn't – but it gave me another moment of magic.

Jim Doyle is the author of 'What We Watched In The 1960s (In The Cinema)', 'What We Watched In The 1970s (In The Cinema)" and 'What We Watched In The 1980s (In The Cinema And On Video)'

Some may view this film as inferior to A Hard Day's Night. But Ferry Cross The Mersey should be viewed as a companion piece to the Beatles classic.

The Gerry & The Pacemakers' film is to Liverpool as the Beatles' film is to London (or thereabouts). One is about a musical group trying to make it big while the other is about a group that has made it big. The two films together present a more accurate picture of the Mersey scene and its effect on popular culture.

While the Pacemaker's film isn't nearly as smart and the band members aren't nearly as engaging as the Beatles, there is plenty of heart and honesty to go around. Gerry and The Pacemakers don't try and be what they're not.

Ferry Cross The Mersey also features quality musical selections throughout and it's a joy to listen to. The other local groups that compete in the battle of the bands display the grit and energy of the Liverpool scene. It's exciting stuff.

This underrated film really captures the style & feel of the times and should be seen as a companion piece to A Hard Day's Night.

I love this movie. Gerry and the boys are adorable, the music is good, but the best part is a vintage look at Liverpool. Many scenes of the city, the famous Art College, the Cavern, and in the Big Contest scene, a real fight broke out and was caught on film. Fred Marsden (Gerry's brother and the drummer) is the funniest one, with silly looks and his fumbling about. Chad gets many lines, and he later said they had trouble filming the scenes on their Lambretta scooters because he kept falling off of his! Plus they fix him up like a certain dictator in art class. Poor Leslie Maguire, pianist, doesn't get as many lines. Look for incontinuities. Gerry's girlfriend's hairdo changes a few times in the art school scene. If it had been filmed in color it would have rated a 10!!

I first saw this film in early 1971 and from then on I was a fervent Gerry fan.The period is really well captured with the music and various shots of the city of Liverpool and the ferries.Many reviews have criticised the plot of the film but it is in my opinion an equal for A Hard Days Night.Not seen much these days and difficult to find on video or DVD but if you look in the right places you can obtain one.If you are into 60s music you will love the tunes in this film not only Gerrys such as Ferry Cross The Mersey,Think About Love,Its Gonna Be Alright but also The Fourmost and Cilla Black give good performances.Also Jimmy Saville as the concert compare in the finale brings back great memories of a great era of music. watch the film and enjoy!!!!!

Brian Epstein who managed The Beatles who certainly brought the Liverpool sound to the world had many other artists under his management. One of those was Gerry And The Pacemakers who were the Beatles without the pageboy haircuts. Gerry was Gerry Marsden the lead singer and this film would have been a breakout for them as much as A Hard Day's Night would have been for the Fab four.

Ferry Across The Mersey was produced by Epstein and it not only features Gerry And The Pacemakers but a whole range of artists familiar to those who treasure the Liverpool rock scene. As for the plot it's simply Gerry's girl friend Julie Samuel getting manager T.P. McKenna to listen to the group and of course he likes them. When the guys are ready for their big break their instruments are misplaced and we get a Mack Sennett like car chase scene to retrieve them.

In A Hard Day's Night Wilfrid Brambell played Paul McCartney's grandfather and in this film Mona Washbourne plays Gerry Marsden's aunt with the same comic relief.

A pleasant diversion and a must if you are a fan of the Liverpool music scene.

I haven't seen this film since its theatrical release in 1965, when it was shown (first) on the same movie bill with "Help!" I saw "A Hard Day's Night" in first release the previous year, and did not find "Ferry Across the Mersey" to be "a carbon copy" of The Beatles' film (as suggested by another reviewer).

Beatles fans were hungry for anything even peripherally related to them, and this look at *their* Liverpool couldn't have been more welcome. Like many other Beatles fans, I was fairly ambivalent about most other British groups, but I, too, became a fan of Gerry & the Pacemakers after seeing the film.

Especially with all the interest by subsequent generations in "the British invasion" and other phenomena of the 1960s music scene (and the nostalgic interest by those of us who lived it), I am surprised this film hasn't been released on video/DVD, and would certainly add my voice to those requesting it.

In this the first and last Gerry & the Pacemakers film you get the impression that Cilla Black is the biggest star of the day when Gerry informs his aunt he's reading her biog.So why is she at a talent contest-and singing a ballad as well when its supposed to be a Big Beat Contest. The trouble is the scriptwriters sometimes don't use logic or throw in contradictions. The music was the main thing though so it worked as a series of cameos. Being shot on location in Liverpool was a good idea It also seemed rather pointless to turn the run to the airport into a silent film from the 20s.Which is why this review loses 2 stars

"Ferry Cross the Mersey" will be screened tonight in the Packard Theater at the Library of Congress Packard Campus Audiovisual Conservation Center in Culpeper, VA. Also screening is the short "Rhythm 'n" Greens" featuring the Shadows. The screening is free, but reservations are advised. Call (540) 827-1079, x79994, or (202) 707-9994. This is the second film in a Rock and Roll series that also includes "Let The Good Times Roll" on Saturday, 9/19 at 2:00 pm, and "The Big TNT Show" on Saturday, 9/19 at 7:30 pm. The theater is located at 19053 Mount Pony Road, Culpeper, VA. More details:

http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2009/09-161.html

In the wake of the recent death of the Pacemakers' lead singer Gerry Marsden, I've been listening lately to some of the recordings of the group and decided to look in on this, their debut and indeed only feature.

Released in the considerable slipstream of the Beatles' hugely successful "A Hard Day's Night", in truth, the Pacemakers' popularity, like that of many other Merseybeat bands of the time, was already on the wane as the Liverpool sound was overtaken by tougher, more R 'n' B / blues / rock-based sounds from other parts of the country of the likes of the Animals, Rolling Stones and Kinks, to name but three and indeed by mid 1965, they had already enjoyed what would turn out to be their final top 20 hit either here or in the States.

Made on a low budget in black and white, the film is short in duration and even then is considerably padded out to extend its running time. This is manifest in the obvious insertion of a local song contest, featuring two other local acts, who both get a song to sing, the Fourmost and Cilla Black as well as a mini-set by the Pacemakers themselves to finish.

The plot, what there is of it, makes much of lead singer Gerry Marsden's cheeky face and sunny disposition. He's given a pretty young girlfriend, daughter of a rich, out-of-town businessman with all the trappings of financial success (country house with butler, fancy car with chauffeur etc) presumably to contrast with our kid's working class background, staying as he is in his aunt's flat and zipping down to art college on his little motorbike. But of course Gerry's real talent lies in music so that any chance he gets, he hooks up with his three band mates to make music wherever they happen to roll up, be it on a coffee break at the local toilet-manufacturing factory where one of them works, a nearby record shop when they're buying some new instruments or even at the big fancy house of Julie Samuel's monied father. These appearances are usually accompanied by a group of screaming, adoring young fans, mostly teenage.

It's all very light and undemanding, the group attempting the comedic naturalism in their speaking part of their more famous city rivals but ultimately falling short and being reduced to unfunny slapstick, saying "fab" and "gear" whenever they can and generally mugging at the camera. The plentiful original songs are brief, bright and energetic but ultimately lightweight apart from the excellent change-of-pace title song which has deservedly worn well down the years. While it was welcome also to see the local sites of Liverpool at the time, including a rare glimpse of the vaunted Cavern, it was likewise unpleasant to clap eyes on the disgraced disc-jockey Jimmy Savile compering the closing talent competition.

The film can't escape its cheap, rushed cash-in feel but it's impossible to dislike. I understand it often went out originally as the second feature on a double-bill with that other film mentioned above and it does pale considerably on all levels in comparison, but it's still probably better than the bland music-related films the likes of Cliff Richard and even Elvis were churning out at the same time.

This must have been made very soon after the smash success of the Beatles film "A hard day's night", and it is virtually a carbon copy. In the mid-Sixties most of the beat groups (especially those managed by Brian Epstein) were prodded into making films, of varying quality.

This one starts off very well, with some documentary footage of Liverpool and its people, emphasising the poverty of the place, then followed by what looks like genuine footage taken inside the legendary Cavern club, with the band performing in the darkness and heat.

Unfortunately, when the film decides that it wants to tell a STORY, things slide rapidly downhill. It all becomes silly and unfunny, though I've got to say that the actress playing Gerry's blonde girlfriend is an absolute knockout - whatever happened to her ??? A highlight is seeing the band on the famous ferry, performing their best-known song, and it really takes you (well, it took ME) to Liverpool in the Sixties, giving a poignant reminder that for just a few years, the 'pool really did seem like the happiest place in Britain.

I wonder why this film has never officially resurfaced? Legal hassles resulting from the breaking-up of Brian Epstein's business empire?