Beatles' Help! comes to DVD

One might think Yellow Submarine was the Beatles' only full-length cartoon, until one sees a shrunken Paul McCartney floundering around an ashtray in the Liverpudlian four's second feature film, Help!. Zanily directed by Richard Lester (A Hard Day's Night, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum), Help! presented the group as endearing caricatures of themselves, acted out in a giggling, pot-fueled haze (according to the Beatles Anthology). Live action though it was, the loony slapstick, sight gags and puns didn't even pretend to ground the James Bond parody in reality. For example, it concludes with a dedication to Elias Howe, "who in 1846 invented the sewing machine."

Priceless, right? Fortunately, it is infact a purchasable product. On October 30, The Beatles-founded Apple Corps Ltd will release the goofy 1965 film on a two-disc DVD that includes a 30 minute behind-the-scenes documentary. A simultaneously issued deluxe box set features a reproduction of Lester's annotated script, a poster and a 60-page book of photographs and production notes. Click here to view the most recent trailer, and look down below for an older one.

The film includes the songs "You're Going to Lose That Girl," "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," "Ticket to Ride," "I Need You," "The Night Before," "Another Girl," and, of course, "Help!"

Related links:
Beatles.com
Paste - Paul McCartney Walks the Fine Line Between Chaos and Creation
IMDB: Richard Lester