PS - VERY happy to see the inclusion of the "making of" which was previously only available as a separate release and long out-of-print like all the other films!
Help! is one of my favorite movies, so I'm buying the deluxe box set.
I'm hoping it's 1.66:1 (the trailer makes it seem like it is) and anamorphic, and including the mono track. Too bad The Running Jumping Standing Still Film isn't included. Still, the documentaries plus the deluxe set's extras make this awesome. I'm eager to read the script since only AHDN is available in print form.
While MPI's DVD is good, it really didn't take advantage of how great the restoration looked (and sounded).
Me too. The original soundtrack always had a different version of the song "Help!"... it is what you might call the "single version", where the words go "AND now these days are gone..." (instead of "BUT now..."). None of the home video editions thus far have retained the orginal soundtrack that I am aware of.
The trailer appears to be 1.78:1, and I expect the DVD to be (wrongly) framed as such. I wish Criterion had done their original LD at 1.66:1 since their policy was to issue correct OAR's.
I got screwed by selling my old, original MPI disc of A HARD DAY'S NIGHT when the newest edition was announced. I won't make the same mistake with HELP! and will be making sure I have it ready in case the new disc is overmatted.
Not the best quality, but I overlaid the DVD trailer over the MPI DVD image (from Google Video):
The new DVD has quite a lot of image on the sides that the MPI cropped off. Just looking at the two frames, it looks a lot like they're framing it correctly for 1.66:1 (per STMPE guidelines). I think MPI's AHDN cropped about the same amount off the sides, too. Both films were shown at 1.75:1 in 1964/1965, anyways.
Cover art is also shown here. Looks super sweet! I'm looking forward to the deluxe edition with bonus script reproduction.
Also, the trailer on the website is in stereo, and it sounds like a fresh remix of "Help!" I also noted that in the shot where George is saying "I didn't encourage that wink," John closes the car door and you hear it only on the right channel. It seems they must have some isolated sound elements to work with.
I've heard now that the incidental music for the film was discovered on 3-tack 35mm mag, so that will be able to be presented in 5.1 as well. They also found a "textless" version of the closing credits.
I can't wait for this and the box set looks amazing!!
I am willing to bet that we won't see the original sound mix though, which is incredibly frustrating. Too bad a studio like Criterion can't control every film property out there...