Disc 1 (96 minutes) -HELP! Theatrical Movie Digitally restored and newly created 5.1 soundtrack.
Disc 2 (57 minutes) - The Beatles in Help! 30 minute documentary about the making of the film with Richard Lester, the cast and crew. Includes exclusive behind the scenes footage of The Beatles on set. - A Missing Scene Featuring Wendy Richard - The Restoration of Help! An in depth look at the restoration process - Memories of Help! The cast and crew reminisce - Theatrical Trailers 2 US trailers and 1 Spanish trailer - 1965 US Radio Spots - Hidden in disc menus
Deluxe Package also includes: - a reproduction of Richard Lester s original annotated script - 8 lobby cards - poster - 60-page book with rarely seen photographs and production notes from the movie
After the worldwide success of A Hard Day's Night, the Beatles and director Richard Lester reunited for a follow-up film, Eight Arms to Hold You. Well, that wasn't the final title; a pleading Lennon-McCartney tune provided the catchier handle: Help! A loose semispoof of the globe-trotting James Bond pictures, Help! has always been considered a somewhat disorganized comedown from its predecessor; but it presents "the famous Beatles" even more clearly as the English cousins of the Marx Brothers. The plot has an Eastern religious cult declaring that the new ring on Ringo's finger is the key element in a human sacrifice; they will stop at nothing to obtain it. Meanwhile, a mad scientist (crazed Victor Spinetti, who also appeared in A Hard Day's Night and Magical Mystery Tour) believes that if he has the ring, he could--dare we say it?--rule the world. The songs, including "Ticket to Ride" and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," are filmed with gleeful ingenuity, in locations such as the Bahamas, an Austrian ski resort, and the Salisbury Plain. The relentless nonsense becomes nearly the equivalent of a swinging-'60s Alice in Wonderland: for instance, Paul shrinks to the size of a gum wrapper, John fishes a season ticket out of his soup, George wears a top hat on the ski slopes, the lads sing the "Ode to Joy" to a lion. Oh, and the film is dedicated to Elias Howe, "who in 1846 invented the sewing machine." Brilliant. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Outstanding reissue at all levels:
I hadn't seen the Beatles' Help! movie in a long, long time, let alone the 2007 premastered version. Well, I picked this up recently, and boy, am I glad I did. The 2007 reissue is a 2 DVD set. DVD 1 of "Help!" (95 min.) brings the original movie (released in 1965), and what a delight it is to see it again after all this years. It doesn't have the original charm and innocence of 1964's "A Hard Day's Night", but that is not a surprise as at that time the Beatles were battling the peak of Beatlemania.... more info
Wife and I loved it!:
Another Beatles classic. This is one of the first Beatles movies I watched with my wife, and it was a great gift for her. It came with cards, a poster, a decent 60-page book which included movie production notes, and a reproduction of the original script. My wife already owned this on VHS, but the DVD version was re-mastered and is of higher quality. Highly recommended!
A great Elvis movie:
A few quips, some jump cuts and a few arch scene transition titles do not offset my impression that here is an above average Elvis exploitation movie starring the Beatles. Somehow, I never saw this one until now. It's not remotely comparable to "A Hard Day's Night." The silly plot about an Indian death cult trying to recover one of Ringo's rings wears thin fast. Still, it's delightful to see the Fab Four in restored, glorious color. The songs are great, but are just gratuitously stuck in every 10 minutes... more info
Forty-seven years old and just now watching this .....:
I friend of mine loaned this to our family since my 14-year-old daughter (drummer in her own basement band) has really gotten into the Beatles in a big way lately. We sat down and watched it together -- what a hoot! It's definitely slap-stick humor with a thin story line tying the music together, which doesn't sound very positive, but it's funny. We are still referencing scenes in the movie to this day and we watched it about eight weeks ago. It was great to see the "younger" version of the group and... more info
![Help! [UK]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31JCXHRNYXL._SL75_.jpg)
