THE BEATLES "Help!" movie to be released on DVD

Me too!

Unfortunately, Let It Rot will likely always be in limbo, probably because of the way it portrays Ron Decline. Darn, I say.

 

Sure hope there is a real mono mix on reissue and not some futzed audio as we had on the autrocious A Hard Day's Night DVD fiasco.

 

It's a tribute to the greatness of AHDN that any other 'teen movie' from the Invasion era compares badly to it...including HELP!, which was intentionally different at the Fabs' insistence. It is a shame that, given this willingness to want to stretch and not repeat themselves, they turned out something that remains enjoyable in certain ways, but lacks the passion and cleverness AHDN was suffused with.

Of course, if one compares HELP! to SEASIDE SWINGERS or HOLD ON!, it looks good... But compared to AHDN, or even CATCH US IF YOU CAN, it not only feels dated, but awfully forced. Some the sets are ingenious(their pad was ergonomically useless but very appealing), the songs good, but it just doesn't add up to a lot, IMO, though I loved it as a kid.

 

Sounds like it really is ready to go....I'm looking forward to late October.

 

As they say, "the soundtrack is 90% of the experience..."

 

For those fearful of a fake, mono-derived 5.1 mix like that done on the Miramax DVD of "AHDN", it's very important to remember that Apple is involved in the "Help" DVD. They were not involved in the "AHDN" DVD. While we don't know anything for sure, I think it's highly likely that the 5.1 mixes on the new "Help" DVD will be true 5.1 mixes made from the multi-tracks, just like the "Anthology" and "Yellow Submarine" DVD's.

The Beatles had/have no ownership stake in "AHDN", thus Walter Shenson (his estate now) can do whatever they want with that film. Apparently, because the Beatles have no ownership stake in the film and no say, there was no apparent enthuasiasm from Apple to get involved in the "AHDN" DVD. Keep in mind, while EMI owns the recordings, multitracks, etc., EMI cannot do anything with the Beatles' recordings without Apple's consent. So getting true 5.1 mixes on the "AHDN" would have required the cooperation of both Apple and EMI. With Apple on board for the "Help" DVD, EMI is surely quite happy to help with 5.1 mixes, especially if EMI gets to release the DVD themselves!

I think the biggest question is whether they will also include the original mono mix as a second audio track. I sure hope so, especially since there will be plenty of room to include it if they're trying to stretch this whole set out to a 2-disc set. I'm also hoping that they don't crop the film to 16x9 (although, as with "AHDN", there still seems to be debate about what aspect ratio the films were shot in, versus what they were meant to be exhibited in, etc.).

 

At the beginning of that trailer when "Ahme" is talking you can hear some stereo reverb.

 

Which will be great IF the songs are true 5.1...but even then, that leaves the rest of the soundtrack--voices, sound effects, other stuff--that would probably be contrived into some kind of forced, unbalanced mix. Still seems likely any 5.1 mix will somehow be unsatisfactory. And the music would have to be very well balanced indeed to work in the 5.1 format.

Another thing: what about Ken Thorne's incidental score? on the VHS/LD/MPI DVD, only the Beatles' music is actually stereo--everything else is mono. What's more, a snippet part like "She's A Woman" was mono, too, probably because dubbing it in at the expense of the sound effects wasn't worth it.

Of course there's room for the original mono track, but will we hear it? If this package is done with the care put into YS, then everything will be fine. If not, well...

My experience with British cinema of the time--non-anamorphic, that is--suggests a ratio from 1.66:1 to 1.77:1 or thereabouts...not much over, and certainly not under. Of course, the actual camera image may have been fullframe for both, and since AHDN and HELP! have been seen fullframe for many years, any letterboxing will leave some viewers dissatisfied, since they think they're losing something(which they are, but only because the fullframe image they're used to wasn't the one they were supposed to see in the first place). And that's not even getting into the 'safe area' that deprives most TV viewers of some of the frame on all four sides....

 

Check www.thebeatles.com

 

"We're not goin' there... We just put it 'round we're going there."

 

Hey, that was you buzzin! You naughty boy!

 

"How do you feel?" "I used to use me hands..."

 

Been hanging around that temple again,'aven't you?
Yer worse than your sister,coming home all hours and all colors.....



This better be good.........

 

Amazon may have put up a release date, but there was never, ever an official announcement from Apple about a Let It Be DVD. Just speculation and unofficial information from a retailer.

This is an official Apple announcement about the Help! DVD. Apple doesn't keep these things quiet. When they release something, they let you know about it, big time. I think we're pretty much a "go" here.

 

Since "She's A Woman" was supposed to be coming through a portable transistor radio on-screen, it made sense that it was monophonic, although you may be right that it wasn't stereo simply because of the sound effects!

Here's a framing comparison between the original DVD and the preview of the new DVD. If the preview is matted exactly how the DVD is going to be matted, then we lose a bit on the top and bottom and gain on the sides. Judging from the scenes in the preview the matting seems perfectly acceptable, unlike the Miramax "A Hard Day's Night" DVD:

 

I notice the song "Help" is in stereo on the new DVD preview, and not a remix of the differently overdubbed version that was used on the original mono print. That version of "Help" is probably only available in mono. I wonder if this new DVD will use redone foley effects, or the sound effects heard on the original print? The final scene on the beach had sounds over the music on the original print but not on the redone stereo version.

 

Thank goodness!

Since I lost mine recently this is great news!

"You've been messing with me in me kip!"


Evan

 

When I listened to that trailer, I was immediately struck by the reverb on the temple scene, but I also noticed that when George says "I didn't encourage that wink" you can hear John close the car door in the right channel only, while George is talking. I'm intently curious if they found some sound elements for separate dialogue, music and effects here.

As for the framing, the captures from the MPI DVD are pretty consistent with the AHDN and MMT discs they did - zoomed in for some unknown reason - so it doesn't surprise me there's more picture on the sides that we didn't see before. Interestingly enough, the old Criterion laserdisc of "Help!" was only slightly off from the MPI DVD framing-wise, so it's disappointing to think they hadn't properly transferred the film back then, either.

Anyway, this announcement of a new "Help!" DVD is really exciting! I am looking forward to the deluxe set with a reproduction of the script.

 

Two things noticed here:
http://www.thebeatles.com/help/

The poster at the top left of the page still has the logo from poster vendor MovieGoods clearly visible, indicating they "borrowed" the image from their site.

The line "DVD Coming October 29th" is followed by an asterisk... with no indication what the asterisk is for.

 

They must have, the car door sound is identical to the mono version. This should be worth waiting for!

 

I have the MPI, I will still buy this

 

It says "October 29th", but it doesn't show the year. Perhaps the asterisk indicates that they haven't quite figured that part out yet

 

Just a guess: The asterisk could have something to do with the fact that October 29th is the UK release date (a Monday), while it will be October 30th (Tuesday) in the US. Perhaps they put in the asterisk but forgot to mention that it referred to the fact that Oct. 29 is not the worldwise release date.

What I'm trying to figure out now is where and how plentiful they will be stocking this super-deluxe edition of the movie with lobby cards, etc. I have a feeling it may not be stocked much at brick and mortar stores, but I like to get these things on release date and not order online and wait extra days. I guess I'll have to wait and see what this deluxe set looks like and what its price will be and see if that helps me guess whether it will be stocked in-store at very may places. I'm wondering if the lobby card reproductions will be the entire set, and if they will be full-size. I would guess probably, but I hope so. I've always wanted to get lobby cards for all of the movies, but the originals are just too expensive and hard to track down. I got the "Yellow Submarine" lobby card reproduction set back in 1999 and recently had them all framed, and it looks really neat. I wish they would do lobby card reproductions for "AHDN", "Help", and "Let It Be" as well, not to mention full-size reproductions of the big main movie posters. I have that for YS as well.

 

The cropping issue seems to me somewhat similar to AHDN, in that we may be getting something closer to how it was/should be exhibited. But man, that's a lot of top and bottom information being lopped off, even if we were never meant to see it. I'm all for showing it in its originally-intended aspect ratio, but it would be nice if perhaps they could also include an uncropped, full-frame version as well. But I'll keep my MPI DVD for that reason, if nothing else.

I think, much like other cropping examples, it never becomes fully clear if the 16x9 cropping is exactly right. Sometimes certain things get cut off that seem like they were meant to be in the picture. For instance, was the framing for the opening B&W segment of the Beatles performing really meant to just barely cut their feet off at the bottom? Of course, that particular performance clip may be a totally different ballgame, as that was filmed and also aired as a promotional film clip (which was included on some Anthology-era EPK's in excellent quality (aka the infamous "dartless" film)). That would be a neat bonus clip for them to include on this new DVD edition of the film, that sort of bonus inclusion would be a good indicator of how thorough they are being with this new release.

 

I can't resist joining the silliness.


.....(clears throat).....


"And I am a dead-eye shot shooting!"