Hi-Def “Help!”: Beatles Film Coming to Blu-Ray

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TPE-VRXaQw]

The Beatles’ second feature film, 1965’s Help!, is making its Blu-Ray debut this June.

Reuniting with A Hard Day’s Night director Richard Lester with a bigger budget (for one, they shot in color), Help! finds The Fab Four in yet another set of wacky predicaments – this time, Ringo can’t seem to get a ring unstuck from his finger, and an evil cult want said ring for their own purposes. Silly stuff, for sure – and, at perhaps the most grueling heights of Beatlemania, not as fun a shoot for the band as A Hard Day’s Night – but a captivating chapter in the band’s catalogue.

The accompanying album remains one of the most drastically different in the band’s catalogue on both sides of the Atlantic. In the U.K. (now the standard version of the album, remixed by George Martin for its 1987 CD release), it featured chart-topping singles in “Ticket to Ride” and the title track as well as instant classics “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” “You’re Going to Lose That Girl,” “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” – all of which featured in the film – and “Yesterday” (a U.S. No. 1 hit). The U.S. version, released on the United Artists label, was a much more standard soundtrack album, featuring some non-Beatles orchestral passages arranged by Ken Thorne.

First officially released on DVD in 2007, this single-disc Blu-Ray ports over all of that two-disc set’s material into a new HD set. Features included are:

  • A 5.1 surround sound mix for the film
  • The Beatles in Help! – a 30-minute documentary about the making of the film with Richard Lester, the cast and crew, including exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of The Beatles on-set.
  • A Missing Scene – a film outtake, featuring Wendy Richard
  • The Restoration of Help! – an in-depth look at the restoration process
  • Memories of Help! – the cast and crew reminisce
  • 1965 Theatrical Trailers – two original U.S. trailers and one original Spanish trailer
  • 1965 U.S. Radio Spots (hidden in disc menus)

Help! arrives on Blu-Ray June 24 around the world and a day later in America. Pre-order links will be added as they are available.

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Mike Duquette
Mike Duquette

Mike Duquette (Founder) was fascinated with catalog music ever since he was a teenager. A 2009 graduate of Seton Hall University with a B.A. in journalism, Mike paired his profession with his passion through The Second Disc, one of the first sites to focus on all reissue labels great and small. His passion for reissues turned into a career, having written at and worked for all three major catalogue music labels and contributing to Allmusic, Billboard, Discogs, City Pages and Ultimate Classic Rock. He's penned liner notes for Verve, Chess, Mondo and Soul Music Records.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Mike lives in Astoria, Queens with his wife, a cat named Ravioli, twin daughters and a large yet tasteful collection of music.

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3 thoughts on “Hi-Def “Help!”: Beatles Film Coming to Blu-Ray”

  1. Please note that the featurette “A Missing Scene” merely talks about a missing scene. While nearly a dozen unused scenes were filmed for “Help”, United Artists threw away the footage. George Harrison once contacted UA, and they confirmed this.

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