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.
