“A Hard Day’s Night,” which finally arrives on a US Blu-ray via the Criterion Collection just in time for its 50th anniversary, still really rocks. My history with this film goes back to when I was 14 — I saw it on the original run on the old Ditmars Theatre in Astoria, Queens.
I reviewed Miramax’s reissue in 2000, but I don’t remember it ever looking as good as in this new 4K digital restoration co-sponsored by Janus Films, which is also putting it back in theaters nationwide on Friday (at Film Forum in New York).
Still the greatest and most entertaining rock movie ever, it’s an extremely canny piece of filmmaking: Director Richard Lester, an expatriate living in England, had the good sense not to following the sorry example of Elvis Presley’s movies and try to turn the Beatles into actors.
Though almost entirely scripted — the screenplay was Oscar-nominated — it plays like an improvised semi-documentary about a musical group that was already taking the world by storm.
This is an utter delight from beginning (the famous opening shot of John, Paul, George and Ringo being chased down a stream by screaming fans) to end (a chaotic live TV performance where their music is all but drowned out by ecstatic audience members, including a 14-year-old Phil Collins).
The boys themselves are utterly charming as they cope with superstardom. “Are you a Mod or a rocker?” Ringo is asked at a press conference. “I’m a mocker,” he replies.
Eventually they flee Paul’s trouble-making grandfather (the terrific Wilfred Brambell), their harried handlers (Norman Rossington and John Junkin) and their crazed director (Victor Spinetti) for the movie’s most immortal sequence.
That, of course, is their romp through a field as “Can’t Buy Me Love” plays on the soundtrack. Besides that and the title song, there’s “I Should Have Known Better,” “I Wanna Be Your Man,” “All My Loving” and “She Loves You,” among others.
The stacked extras include a new pier combining 1964 interviews with behind-the-scenes footage and a new piece on Lester’s methods, Lester’s Oscar-nominated 1960 short “The Running Jumping and Standing Still Film” and a cornucopia of archival material.
The Criterion Collection (full disclosure: they paid me to write an essay for their release of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” earlier this year) has also provided a splendid Blu-ray upgrade for one of John Wayne’s best Westerns, Howard Hawks’ “Red River” (1948) co-starring Montgomery Clift.
This great release actually includes a pair of 2K restorations — the extended version that was on MGM’s previous (mediocre) DVD release as well as the superior theatrical cut approved by Hawks.
Copious extras include new interviews with Molly Haskell and Peter Bogdanovich, as well as archival interviews with Hawks; the film’s editor, Christian Nyby; and author Borden Chase, as well as a reprint of Chase’s novel upon which the film was based.
There are also stunning new Blu-ray upgrades for a couple of titles issued previously by Criterion: Billy Wilder’s scalding journalism drama “Ace in the Hole” with Kirk Douglas and Jan Sterling, newly revealed in Clint Eastwood’s “Jersey Boys” as inspiring Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe to write the Four Seasons classic “Big Girls Don’t Cry”; and Douglas Sirk’s “All That Heaven Allows” (1955) starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson, which was deconstructed as Todd Haynes’ brilliant “Far From Heaven” (2002), which cries out for a Criterion release of its own.
All of these were issued in DVD/Blu-ray combo packs — a controversial format that Criterion announced will be replaced by separate DVD and Blu-ray releases beginning with its September releases, which include Jack Clayton’s “The Innocents” (1961), Roman Polanski’s “Macbeth” (1971), David Lynch’s “Eraserhead” (1977), R.W. Fassbender’s “Al: Fear Eats the Soul” (1974), a remake of “All That Heaven Allows”; and the DVD/Blu-ray debuts of the French classic “Sundays and Cybele” (1962).
Kudos to the TCM Vault Collection, which has quietly issued a much-improved remastered Blu-ray/DVD combo pack of Orson Welles’ “Lady in Shanghai” (1947), which now includes a new multi-part interview with the network’s new noir guru, Eddie Mueller.
I understand the TCM Shop will provide exchanges for the disappointing earlier version from earlier this year.
Fritz Lang’s musical melodrama “You and Me” (1938) with George Raft and Sylvia Sidney (plus music by Kurt Weill) will finally make its DVD debut as the Vault Collections’ “Dark Crimes: Film Noir Thrillers Vol. 2.” William Castle’s “Undertow” (1949) and “Hollywood Story” (1951) are also included, so we’ll forgive a double-dip of Lang’s “Ministry of Fear” (1944), which was issued last year by Criterion. There are intros by Mueller as well as Ben Maniewicz.
A trio of Frank Borzage titles will be making their DVD and Blu-ray debuts in August from Olive Films: “I’ve Always Loved You” (1946), a romantic musical drama in Technicolor with Catherine McLeod; the long-unseen “Magnificent Doll” (1947) starring Ginger Rogers and Burgess Meredith as Dolly and James Madson; and the uber-obscure “That’s My Man” (1947) with Don Ameche, which is said to be restored to its original 99-minute running time after being theatrically released at 60 minutes.
Olive is also offering a Blu-ray upgrade for Jack Arnold’s “High School Confidential” (1958) with Russ Tamblyn, Mamie Van Doren and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Kino Classics announced a second wave of Blu-ray debuts licensed from MGM for August: Stanley Kramer’s “On the Beach” (1959) with Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire; William Wyler’s “The Children’s Hour” (1961) with Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine and James Garner; Melville Shavelson’s “Cast a Giant Shadow” (1966) starring Kirk Douglas; and John Huston’s “The Unforgiven” (1960) with Burt Lancaster, Hepburn and Audie Murphy.
On Oct. 14, Warner Home Video will reissue on DVD a pair of Samuel Goldwyn classics that have been out of print for a while: Wyler’s “The Westerner” (1940) starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan; and David Butler’s “The Princess and the Pirate” (1944) with Bob Hope, Virginia Mayo and Brennan.
WHV will also be introducing the first five entries in a new line of “Diamond Luxe Edition” Blu-rays in ultra-slim packaging on Sept. 30. “Gremlins” will get a 30th-anniversary two-disc edition with all new features in high definition; there is also some new high-def material on a 15th-anniversary reissue of “The Green Mile” and the 20th-anniversary reissue of Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers.”
The other two are the 30th-anniversary Blu-ray of Paramount’s “Forrest Gump,” which ports over material from the previous DVD, and “Ben Hur,” which repackages the two Blu-ray and one DVD discs from the bulky 50th-anniversary gift set in honor of the film’s 55th anniversary.
The Sony Pictures Choice Collection MOD program continues to mine the Columbia vaults with these obscurities out on July 15: “Alibi for Murder” (1936) with William Gargan and Margeurite Churchill; “Canal Zone” (1942) with Chester Morris and Harriet Hillard (Nelson); and “The Stork Pays Off” (1941) with “Slapsie” Maxie Rosenbloom and Victor Jory.