Help! Comes to DVD - Widescreen At Last!

Yes, you can finally get Richard Lester's Help! without having to watch it cropped, or needing to own a laserdisc player. The title came out yesterday as a two-disc set, garnished with interviews and documentaries. Sadly, there's no commentary, but it's widescreen, and I'll bet the transfer is a big improvement from the last release! That's exciting, because I think it's a really sharp-looking movie.

I agree with most folks that A Hard Day's Night is a lot better, but Help! is still a lot of fun, even if the Beatles were starting to lose interest in the whole movie-making thing at the time. Directing four guys frequently stoned on pot can't be fun (not to mention having to come up with another story), but I think it turned out pretty well! You can pick it up at Amazon.com for $16.95 + shipping.

PS - After seeing it for the first time, I always wanted to live in the four-house-wide flat that the guys live in at the beginning. Sunken floors are super-cool!

UPDATE: There's a great breakdown of the differences between this DVD release and the previous one at whatgoeson.com. Thanks to Bob Scott for the tip!