The Fab Four’s first and biggest movie hit comes to 4K Ultra HD! The Beatles brought something new and exciting to 1964 and the world embraced it. This United Artists release was a major event in the first wave of Beatlemania, setting the standard for Swinging London cool; thanks to Richard Lester’s flip approach and the Beatles’ positive energy little in the movie has dated. George Martin’s input for the musical end of things didn’t hurt either. The movie itself never gets old: new generations still respond with enthusiasm. It always looked super on home video, so what does the format boost add to the mix?
A Hard Day’s Night 4K
4K Ultra-hd + Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 711
1964 / B&w / 1:75 widescreen / 87 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 18, 2022 / 39.95
Starring: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr,
Wilfrid Brambell, Norman Rossington, John Junkin, Victor Spinetti,...
A Hard Day’s Night 4K
4K Ultra-hd + Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 711
1964 / B&w / 1:75 widescreen / 87 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 18, 2022 / 39.95
Starring: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr,
Wilfrid Brambell, Norman Rossington, John Junkin, Victor Spinetti,...
- 1/18/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s The Beatles on TV Special Collector’s Edition, available for order online now at BeatlesonTV.com and for purchase on newsstands nationwide. The Fab Four’s energy was never higher than on their three beloved films. Ahead of the release of Disney+’s docuseries The Beatles: Get Back, we’re reflecting on the musical group’s trips to the big screen. A Hard Day’s Night (1964) (Credit: The Everett Collection) Directed By Richard Lester, Written By Alun Owen Starring: The Beatles, Wilfrid Brambell, Norman Rossington, John Junkin, and Victor Spinetti The Setup: With the first wave of Beatlemania hitting its crest, the Fab Four look for a respite as they prep for a big television appearance. The Plot: Taking a day-in-the-life approach with Marx Brothers–level anarchy, the movie breathlessly captures the moment the Liverpool lads became generational idols. It’s...
- 11/2/2021
- TV Insider
The BFI’s Missing Believed Wiped returns to BFI Southbank this December to present British television rediscoveries, not seen by audiences for decades, most since their original transmission dates…. The bespoke line-up of TV gems feature some of the countries most-loved television celebrities and iconic characters including Alf Garnett in Till Death Us Do Part: Sex Before Marriage, Cilla Black in her eponymous BBC show featuring Dudley Moore , Jimmy Edwards in Whack-o!, a rare interview with Peter Davison about playing Doctor Who, an appearance by future Doctor Who Patrick Troughton from ITV’s early police drama, No Hiding Place plus a significant screen debut from a young Pete Postlethwaite.
However for Nerdly readers, one of the real highlights of this edition of Missing Believed Wiped is the uncovering of TV horror Late Night Horror: The Corpse Can’t Play. Originally broadcast on 3 May, 1968 on BBC2 this is the only...
However for Nerdly readers, one of the real highlights of this edition of Missing Believed Wiped is the uncovering of TV horror Late Night Horror: The Corpse Can’t Play. Originally broadcast on 3 May, 1968 on BBC2 this is the only...
- 12/11/2017
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
Chicago – If you are lucky enough to have the 50th Anniversary edition of “A Hard Day’s Night” playing in your area, drop everything and go see it, especially if you’ve never seen it before. The Beatles – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – are ageless and timeless in a new print restoration and sound remastering of their 1964 debut film.
Rating: 5.0/5.0
There is no way to describe the luck and timing of the music phenomenon called “The Beatles.” They were four guys in a rock band, but they virtually influenced everything the 1960s had to offer, due to the perfect moment they entered the arena and fired their creativity into the mass production era of record albums and baby boomers. Their first film was a coming together of the right screenwriter (Alan Owun) and the perfect director (Richard Lester), who captured a zeitgeist as it was happening...
Rating: 5.0/5.0
There is no way to describe the luck and timing of the music phenomenon called “The Beatles.” They were four guys in a rock band, but they virtually influenced everything the 1960s had to offer, due to the perfect moment they entered the arena and fired their creativity into the mass production era of record albums and baby boomers. Their first film was a coming together of the right screenwriter (Alan Owun) and the perfect director (Richard Lester), who captured a zeitgeist as it was happening...
- 7/5/2014
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
The year is 1964 and Beatlemania is in full swing. The biggest band on the planet are about to make their big screen debut. The film is A Hard Day’s Night, a seminal piece of filmmaking that shows The Beatles as they’ve never been seen before.
To celebrate its 50th Anniversary the film will be presented in a new 4k digital restoration approved by director Richard Lester, with three audio options - a monoaural soundtrack in addition to newly created stereo and 5.1 surround mixes supervised by sound producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell at Abbey Road Studios. The film will be in cinemas, on-demand and available to download from 4 July, followed by a special edition Blu-ray and two-disc DVD release on 21 July 2014, courtesy of Second Sight Films.
A Hard Day’s Night will have an Extended Run at BFI Southbank...
The year is 1964 and Beatlemania is in full swing. The biggest band on the planet are about to make their big screen debut. The film is A Hard Day’s Night, a seminal piece of filmmaking that shows The Beatles as they’ve never been seen before.
To celebrate its 50th Anniversary the film will be presented in a new 4k digital restoration approved by director Richard Lester, with three audio options - a monoaural soundtrack in addition to newly created stereo and 5.1 surround mixes supervised by sound producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell at Abbey Road Studios. The film will be in cinemas, on-demand and available to download from 4 July, followed by a special edition Blu-ray and two-disc DVD release on 21 July 2014, courtesy of Second Sight Films.
A Hard Day’s Night will have an Extended Run at BFI Southbank...
- 7/2/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
By Mark Cerulli
After a meticulous 4K restoration by none other than the Criterion Collection, the Beatles’ first film, A Hard Days Night, was unveiled at La’s Raleigh Studios. Yes, the image was crisp and clean, not a smudge or scratch in sight. (No surprise there as the film’s director Richard Lester personally approved the restoration.) And yes, the music sounded glorious in a new 5.1 mix. In fact, George Harrison’s iconic opening riff on the title track just about knocked this Cinema Retro scribe off his seat! But what was really special about this whimsical film was watching it through the prism of fifty years. From frame 1, we know how we lost both John Lennon and George Harrison. We are living with climate change, al-Qaeda, overpopulation and deforestation, so this movie is a welcome relief, capturing a simpler time in a quainter London which was then still...
After a meticulous 4K restoration by none other than the Criterion Collection, the Beatles’ first film, A Hard Days Night, was unveiled at La’s Raleigh Studios. Yes, the image was crisp and clean, not a smudge or scratch in sight. (No surprise there as the film’s director Richard Lester personally approved the restoration.) And yes, the music sounded glorious in a new 5.1 mix. In fact, George Harrison’s iconic opening riff on the title track just about knocked this Cinema Retro scribe off his seat! But what was really special about this whimsical film was watching it through the prism of fifty years. From frame 1, we know how we lost both John Lennon and George Harrison. We are living with climate change, al-Qaeda, overpopulation and deforestation, so this movie is a welcome relief, capturing a simpler time in a quainter London which was then still...
- 7/1/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Let’s be honest, who doesn’t have a deep seeded love for the fab four? How could anyone resist those Liverpool lovelies, with their matching suits, Rickenbackers, mop tops and an ever growing catalogue of unbelievable hooks? It’s possible that before 1964, anyone outside of Britain might not have heard of The Beatles, but after A Hard Day’s Night took international cinemas by storm, there was no denying it – the British invasion had begun, and John, Paul, George and Ringo were the faces of this new pop movement, a new set of idols for teens to fawn over and an absolute force of creatively catchy songwriting. Helping craft and simultaneously critique their cheeky rock star image, Richard Lester’s monumental faux day-in-the-life documentary of the band became a comedic musical masterpiece that set the blueprint for music videos decades before Video Killed the Radio Star set us off into the abyss of MTV.
- 6/30/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Script for fourth episode of 1955 show catalogued along with those for and by the likes of Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers
When Tony Hancock failed to turn up for three episodes of his radio show in 1955, producers simply replaced him with Harry Secombe as if nothing had happened. The fourth episode followed Hancock and Sid James as they travelled to Swansea to thank him – where they found him singing down a coalmine.
The recorded episode was wiped and continues to be lost, but the script – along with a host of others – has now emerged. They have been catalogued by the actor turned rare books dealer, Neil Pearson.
It is a true treasure trove, featuring scripts by and for comedy stars such as Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Frankie Howerd and Kenneth Williams. "It is a rather extraordinary and rather moving collection of material that reminds us of how we used to...
When Tony Hancock failed to turn up for three episodes of his radio show in 1955, producers simply replaced him with Harry Secombe as if nothing had happened. The fourth episode followed Hancock and Sid James as they travelled to Swansea to thank him – where they found him singing down a coalmine.
The recorded episode was wiped and continues to be lost, but the script – along with a host of others – has now emerged. They have been catalogued by the actor turned rare books dealer, Neil Pearson.
It is a true treasure trove, featuring scripts by and for comedy stars such as Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Frankie Howerd and Kenneth Williams. "It is a rather extraordinary and rather moving collection of material that reminds us of how we used to...
- 12/3/2012
- by Mark Brown
- The Guardian - Film News
Miramax rereleases "A Hard Day's Night" -- with a restored picture and soundtrack -- in New York and Los Angeles today. This review originally appeared in The Hollywood Reporter on July 21, 1964.
In their first feature, "A Hard Day's Night", the Beatles display a flair for knockabout comedy and slapstick when they're not beating out some dozen of their tunes, including six new ones. The film is mad, mad and crazy, shrewdly designed for the teenage and calculated also to attract the curious and the oldsters who enjoy this sort of thing.
The shrieking, screaming teenage reaction was evident at a packed invitational afternoon screening at an upper Broadway theater. The mere appearance of a Beatle set off a chain reaction of screeching. When this mingled with the screams of pursuing teenagers on the screen, the result was pandemonium.
The Liverpool string quartet collectively achieves stardom in their maiden cinematic effort, and the film may be expected to be the first in a series.
Produced by Walter Shenson, directed by Richard Lester and written by Alun Owen, the team that delivered "The Mouse on the Moon", the film purports to chronicle 36 hours in the life of the moptops, hours that are normal because they're hectic. The riot starts as they take off for their next engagement, continues with their arrival in the provincial city and rehearsal and staging of a TV show. Always there are mobs of young girls in hot pursuit.
The script cleverly makes use of the Beatles' individual personalities, and while Norman Rossington as the harassed manager, Wilfrid Brambell (of TV's "Steptoe & Son") as a fictional grandfather and Victor Spinetti as a neurotic director have their moments in counter-plot, it's the Beatles' show all the way. Ringo Starr in a solo sequence displays potential as a mime.
While imaginative and often offbeat, the photography is lacking by top standards in on-the-spot location shooting, and editing is not as fluent as it might be in integrating the fast-moving scenes. The sound at times doesn't help American audiences to understand the quaint dialect and slang expressions.
But only the experts and the finicky will cavil at these deficiencies. There's a host of young American females waiting for this picture like the world is waiting for the sunrise.
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT
United Artists
Producer: Walter Shenson
Director: Richard Lester
Screenwriter: Alun Owen
Director of photography: Gilbert Taylor
Art director: Ray Simm
Music director: George Martin
Songs by: John Lennon, Paul McCartney
Sound: H.L. Bird, Stephen Dalby
Editor: John Jympson
Associate producer: Dennis O'Dell
Assistant director: John D. Merriman
Cast: The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr), Wilfrid Brambell, Norman Rossington, Victor Spinetti, John Junkin, Deryck Guyler, Anna Quayle.
Running time -- 85 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
In their first feature, "A Hard Day's Night", the Beatles display a flair for knockabout comedy and slapstick when they're not beating out some dozen of their tunes, including six new ones. The film is mad, mad and crazy, shrewdly designed for the teenage and calculated also to attract the curious and the oldsters who enjoy this sort of thing.
The shrieking, screaming teenage reaction was evident at a packed invitational afternoon screening at an upper Broadway theater. The mere appearance of a Beatle set off a chain reaction of screeching. When this mingled with the screams of pursuing teenagers on the screen, the result was pandemonium.
The Liverpool string quartet collectively achieves stardom in their maiden cinematic effort, and the film may be expected to be the first in a series.
Produced by Walter Shenson, directed by Richard Lester and written by Alun Owen, the team that delivered "The Mouse on the Moon", the film purports to chronicle 36 hours in the life of the moptops, hours that are normal because they're hectic. The riot starts as they take off for their next engagement, continues with their arrival in the provincial city and rehearsal and staging of a TV show. Always there are mobs of young girls in hot pursuit.
The script cleverly makes use of the Beatles' individual personalities, and while Norman Rossington as the harassed manager, Wilfrid Brambell (of TV's "Steptoe & Son") as a fictional grandfather and Victor Spinetti as a neurotic director have their moments in counter-plot, it's the Beatles' show all the way. Ringo Starr in a solo sequence displays potential as a mime.
While imaginative and often offbeat, the photography is lacking by top standards in on-the-spot location shooting, and editing is not as fluent as it might be in integrating the fast-moving scenes. The sound at times doesn't help American audiences to understand the quaint dialect and slang expressions.
But only the experts and the finicky will cavil at these deficiencies. There's a host of young American females waiting for this picture like the world is waiting for the sunrise.
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT
United Artists
Producer: Walter Shenson
Director: Richard Lester
Screenwriter: Alun Owen
Director of photography: Gilbert Taylor
Art director: Ray Simm
Music director: George Martin
Songs by: John Lennon, Paul McCartney
Sound: H.L. Bird, Stephen Dalby
Editor: John Jympson
Associate producer: Dennis O'Dell
Assistant director: John D. Merriman
Cast: The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr), Wilfrid Brambell, Norman Rossington, Victor Spinetti, John Junkin, Deryck Guyler, Anna Quayle.
Running time -- 85 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
- 12/1/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.