There's a comedic surge of insanity in the films that featured The Beatles. Help!, released in 1965, was The Beatles' second feature film following A Hard Day's Night, both of which were directed by Richard Lester. In these advanced times, however, fans are demanding of the best technological scrubbing and presentation of beloved older "classics" that can be had.
In 2007, HELP! was released as a restored DVD to fairly universal appreciation. But this is 2013, and a new kid on the block, Blu-ray, has supplanted DVD in almost every quarter. Last year Yellow Submarine and Magical Mystery Tour were restored to Blu-ray standards and Beatles fans everywhere were rightfully ecstatic.
This time it's HELP!'s turn. And so, on June 24 (UK) and June 25 (US), Universal will reissue the famed Beatles film in all of its restored glory in a special edition Blu-ray package. And the new release will contain plenty of goodies to make it a memorable one.
The BD will feature not only the digitally restored film with a 5.1 Surround Sound track, but will add in an hour's worth of bonus stuff. The cool features will include a 30-minute documentary about the making of the film ("The Beatles in HELP!"), a piece featuring memories of the cast and crew ("Memories of HELP!"), a deep look at the restoration process of this film ("The Restoration of HELP!"), an outtake scene ("A Missing Scene"), and the original theatrical trailers (two US, one Spanish), and radio promo spots (hidden in the menus). A booklet is included that will explore thoughts from the film's director, and an appreciation by Martin Scorsese.
As if you didn't know, HELP! includes seven Beatles songs (which means heard in 5.1 for surround fans). And, as if you didn't know, the songs are "HELP!", "You're Going to Lose That Girl," "You Got to Hide Your Love Away," "Ticket to Ride," "I Need You," "The Night Before" and "Another Girl."
There you go, Beatles fans. It's what you wanted!
