The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit is an 83-minute black-and-white documentary by acclaimed directing brothers Albert and David Maysles that captures the group's trip to the U.S. in February 1964. It includes plenty of songs as performed on The Ed Sullivan Show, of course, as well as footage of the band riding the train or sitting in their hotel room watching television coverage of themselves. A subsequent performance in Washington, D.C., suffers from grainier footage and spotty microphones, but still captures the frenzy of the fans.

You Can't Do That!: The Making of "A Hard Day's Night" is an hourlong documentary that traces the creation of the historic 1964 film. Hosted by Phil Collins, who appeared in the original among a crowd of screaming teenagers, the film features extensive clips and interviews with those involved with the movie (though George Harrison is the only Beatle whose voice is heard). A highlight is "You Can't Do That," a performance that was cut from the original film. Obviously, a perfect DVD set would include A Hard Day's Night itself, but rights issues have kept it out of circulation. --David Horiuchi

Description
The Beatles DVD Collector's Set includes:

Help!
Nominated for two British Academy Awards, this 1965 theatrical feature takes the Beatles on a worldwide comedy adventure. After a magical ring gets stuck on Ringo's finger, a group of oriental mystics and a mad scientist stop at nothing to try to get it back. Special features include a fully restored print from the film's original negative, a digitally remastered soundtrack, 15 minutes of bonus footage, Spanish and French audio tracks, and English, Spanish, and French subtitles. Songs include "Help!", "You're Gonna Lose That Girl," and "Ticket to Ride."
Color, approx. 90 minutes, Dolby Digital

Magical Mystery Tour
A musical film fantasy that follows the Beatles on a psychedelic bus tour along the English countryside. It made its British debut on Christmas day 1967. Special DVD features include a fully restored print, a digitally remastered soundtrack, bonus newsreels, a history of the project, and English, Spanish, and French subtitles. Songs include "Magical Mystery Tour," "I Am the Walrus," and "Fool on the Hill."
Color, approx. 54 minutes, Dolby Digital

The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit
An historic, musical ride back in time as the Beatles come to America for the first time on February 7, 1964 and appear on the Ed Sullivan Show. Special features include 13 Beatles performances, a fully restored print, a digitally remastered soundtrack, a Beatles chronology, discography, and other statistics, and English, Spanish, and French subtitles. Songs include "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," "Till There Was You," and "Twist and Shout."
Black and white, approx. 83 minutes, Dolby Digital

You Can't Do That: The Making of "A Hard Day's Night"
The extraordinary evolution of the Academy Award-nominated film that convinced the world that the Beatles could be as influential and memorable as the music they sang. Hosted by Phil Collins. Special features include cast profiles, A Hard Day's Night trivia quiz, biography and discography for Phil Collins, and English, Spanish, and French subtitles.
Color and black and white, approx. 65 minutes, Dolby Digital

As for the individual titles,
Help is an excellent movie. The big buget sequel to A Hard Day's
Night.

Magical Mystery Tour is really, really sad. When it was
released origially for TV in Britian it was supposed to air twice but
after poor ratings was not rerun. It was only run on American TV once
in black and white. The one good thing about Magical Mystery Tour is
that it was digitally restored from the original film stock and the
soundtrack was remastered in digital stereo. I had a copy of Magical
Mystery Tour released in the 80's by Media Home Entertainment, and it
was pretty much bootleg quality.

The First U.S. Visit is an
excellent documentary. It begins with the Beatles landing at JFK
airport for their fist U.S. Tour. Then they are off for their first
appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. It has footage from their first
live concert in America in Washington D.C. It then follows them on
the historic train ride to Miami for their second appearance on the Ed
Sullivan Show. One of the best sequences is on the train when John
and Paul are very tired of mugging for the cameras but George is going
crazy. Little did they know at the time that they would be under the
microscope from then on!!

The making of Hard Day's Night is just ok.
Like someone else said, "less Phil Collins, more
info..."

I need to see Let It Be on DVD and the making of Let
It Be. Let It be is over two weeks of informal jamming boiled down to
about an hour and a half.

Bottom line is buy this release if you
don't have any of the titles in it. It makes a fair starter
collection of Beatle DVDs.



Another gripe; and where is 'Compleat Beatles?'   August 8, 2000
Christopher Molanphy (Brooklyn, NY USA)
32 out of 33 found this review helpful

Add mine to the list of Beatlemaniacs underwhlemed by the selections in this set. (Consider my rating an average of five stars for the films and one star for this box itself.)

Like pbfey, despite my fanaticism, I see no need to own 'MMT' on disc until somebody cleans up the video further and makes a "What the heck were they thinking?" making-of featurette to go with it. (Cue Ringo: "Yeah, it sooked, but Brian was gone, and we were all so wasted...") I already have 'AHDN' on DVD (thanks to eBay), as well as 'Help!' And when 'AHDN' is finally back in print, folding in the 'You Can't Do That!' making-of would be the egalitarian thing to do.

I hope you're right about the 'Anthology' coming to DVD by early '01, pbfey, but you know what I'm really hankering for? The modest 1982 MGM documentary 'The Compleat Beatles.' This PBS pledge-drive staple is, at two hours, the tightest, most all-around entertaining Fabs documentary ever -- a much easier watch than the essential but bloated 'Anthology.' (Many a rainy day at home has been rejuvenated by my umpteenth watching of 'Compleat.') It's now completely out of print, even on VHS, so I must continue to rely on my mossy tape copy. Crazy as this sounds, I'd take a DVD of that little flick over almost anything else Beatles-related at this point. But I suspect it's not an MGM or an MPI priority, so I'm not holding my breath.


A must-have for any Beatle fan   May 30, 2001
J. Gibson (United States)
24 out of 24 found this review helpful

I became a Beatle fan thanks to my mother. She had told me for years how good the movie "Help!" was. Finally, she found the DVD and bought it.

I was an instant fan!

Help!, one of the DVD's included in this set is a thoroughly delightful movie with a fantastic soundtrack. Anyone with a love for British comedy will also love this movie.

Also included with this set is Magical Mystery Tour, You Can't Do That!: The Making of A Hard Day's Night and The Beatles: The First US Visit. All three, combined with Help!, are well worth the cost of this four DVD set.

MPI Video who held the rights to the Beatles DVD's stopped selling them as of January 1, 2001. That is such a sad thing because there is so much entertainment contained in this set and in all Beatles movies.

I highly recommend searching for this title through online auctions or other avenues.

You will not be disappointed with The Ultimate Collection!!


Still Missing   August 3, 2000
R. McDaniel (Memphis, TN USA)
19 out of 19 found this review helpful

Speaking as someone who already owns three of these titles on DVD, this box set makes no sense at all. "A Hard Day's Night" would be the only reason to buy it, and it's missing. Surely it will be available again, as will "Let It Be" I hope, so I will wait till they assemble ALL the Beatles movies before buying a set of them.