Stuart Sutcliffe: The Lost Beatle

In addition to John, Paul, George, and Ringo, we've had the Fired Beatle (Pete Best), the Temporary Beatle (Jimmy Nicol, who toured with the group for about a week when Ringo fell ill), the Fifth Beatle (any number of candidates)…and the Lost Beatle. That last would be Stuart Sutcliffe, who played bass with the not-yet-Fabs in their earliest days in Liverpool and Hamburg and whose brief life is the subject of this unexpectedly absorbing documentary. Sutcliffe didn't want to be a master musician (and wasn't); rather, his real talent lay in his art, touted by a critic as the best Late Abstract Expressionist work of his generation (displayed in a bonus gallery on the disc). His two-year stretch with the Beatles was, we're told, "incidental," although this documentary wouldn't exist (and interest in Sutcliffe at all would have been consigned to a small, stuffy corner of the art world) if he hadn't been in the world's greatest band. In any case, Sutcliffe's story is compelling, told here by people who were there and intimately involved, including Sutcliffe's great love Astrid Kirchherr, the German photographer who influenced his (and in turn the Beatles') look and style (other interviewees, such as rocker Tony Sheridan—whom the Beatles once backed—and first manager Allan Williams, could recite their oft-told tales in their sleep). Meanwhile, Stu's sister Pauline has made a cottage industry out of her brother's life, writing three books and making the highly debatable accusation (refuted here) that a beating from John Lennon led to Stuart's brain hemorrhage and eventual death in 1962, at age 21. We don't hear a lot that's new, except from Kirchherr, and there's no film of Sutcliffe, and of course no Beatles music at all, only lame versions of early rock 'n' roll tunes they covered. Still, the producers make up for it with excellent writing, narration, photo collages, and moving excerpts from Sutcliffe's journals and letters read aloud. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (S. Graham)