December 27, 2013 -- Just when you thought there couldn't be any more documentaries about the Beatles, here is one from a true insider who had managed to stay out of the spotlight for 50 years. There are no big revelations in this film, just a different perspective on the band and its management.

Freda Kelly had been a fan of the Beatles from their early days playing at the Cavern in Liverpool and she later took over the Beatles fan club. Soon after Brian Epstein took over management of the Beatles in 1962, he hired Freda, then 17 years old, to work for him and the Beatles as a secretary. Freda believed in the Beatles, as did Epstein, but nobody knew what a worldwide phenonmenon the group would become.

Freda never cashed in on her access to the Beatles. She worked for the Beatles for 11 years. She still works as a secretery more than 50 years later. The film shows Freda at her desk, typing, and driving home from work. Her car is the last car in the parking lot. She is also seen climbing into her attic to retrieve a small stash of souvenirs from her old job with the Beatles. A big stash of this kind of memorabilia could have been sold to collectors for a lot of money.

Freda comes across as a hard-working, straight-shooting, fiercely loyal woman who is still a fan of the Beatles all these years later. She protected the Beatles from people that she felt had hurt the group by lying about them. A couple of examples of this from the film are a printed story that Freda was going to marry one of the Beatles, and, of course, the story about Paul McCartney being dead more than 40 years ago, when he is still very much alive.

Freda would have the Beatles sign autographs for fans in the early days. There were also numerous requests for Beatles hair, Beatles clothing, etc. One of the more unusual requests that Freda fulfilled was a fan's wish for a pillowcase used by a member of the Beatles. The fan sent in the pillowcase, Freda had it put on a pillow used by one of the Beatles and later collected it and sent it back to the fan.

This kind of thing seems to be above and beyond the call of duty, but Freda explains that since she is a fan of the Beatles herself, she knows how the fans feel about the band and so she did what she could for them. Freda had the kind of job that a lot of Beatles fans would kill for. She had access to the Beatles and their families. She was friends with them.

The extent of this friendship is demonstrated in the story of what happened when the Beatles moved their operation from Liverpool to London. Freda's father did not want her to move to London, so she resigned from her job. Epstein and the Beatles worked it out so she could keep her job. Freda took over Epstein's office in Liverpool and made occasional trips to London. This arrangement was worked out between Epstein and Freda's father.

Freda left her job for good only after the Beatles officially split up. She wrote the newsletter article announcing the breakup of the world's most popular band. Even after that, she kept answering some of the fan mail that came in. But Freda was just as happy to be out of the public eye, wanting nothing more than to be a housewife.

So why did she agree to appear in this film? Freda says it is because of her granddaughter. She wants to leave a record of what she did when she was young, long ago, that she had a dream job, an exciting, challenging job, and she was a part of the Beatles family. At one point, she is asked by an interviewer if she ever dated any of the Beatles. She smiled and said, “That's private.” That is Good Ol' Freda. No inside scoop, no dishing of dirt from Freda. She is loyal to the end.

There is a lot of music on the soundtrack of the movie, most of it Beatles music, but some from other artists as well. There is a very nice personal message from Ringo Starr to Freda's grandchildren as the credits roll, affirming her status as a friend to the Beatles. The movie was partly financed ($58,000) through the Kickstarter crowd-sourcing web site. This film rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2013 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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