There is supposed to be yet another video release coming of the Beatles movie, A Hard Day’s Night. That’s good, because the DVD is excessively cropped for widescreen format, it pushes the contrast too hard and, for the songs, the sound is terrible compared to the 1987 release on the defunct LaserDisc format. Here’s the comparison.
Prue Bury with Pattie Boyd on the AHDN LD…
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…and on the Miramax AHDN DVD.
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Here’s something you may not know. The scene in the baggage car wasn’t filmed on the train. Prue Bury told me…
All the singing on the train was shot in the studio,with someone shaking a carriage about!!
According to Mark Lewisohn in “The Complete Beatles Chronicles”…
Wednesday, March 11, 1964:
On this day, working from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm, the group filmed on a set resembling a train guard’s van, where they played cards and also mimed to ‘I Should Have Known Better’, later edited into the film’s train sequences.
Here is “I Should Have Known Better” as presented on LD…
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… and on DVD.
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Addendum: It seems the “new” AHDN DVD is only on Blu-Ray, and only in Canada, and it’s the same questionable video transfer from the Miramax DVD. But the sound is supposedly greatly improved.
I suppose the best all-around video version of “A Hard Day’s Night” is the original DVD release, which explains why it’s going for a premium on Amazon Marketplace.
Wow! the DVD!!! very good quality.
I love this movie 🙂 Prue is so lovely
You should have put this comment on the post about the late Lucy O’Donnell. The header was the only thing I could find quickly at hand that sort of represents the sky with diamonds. It’s an accidental shot of the Boston skyline at night from Memorial Drive in Cambridge, the 4th of July, 2008.
http://www.dograt.com/2008/07/05/lights-in-the-sky-tv-in-the-mirror/
Wait a minute … what IS that masthead? Headlights? Hmm … must be leading up to something.
Just the scene in the luggage car with the boys in the cage was a movie set. All of the other train scenes were filmed the week before that, on an actual British Rail train that had been hired by Walter Shenson.
” Excuse me, madam… ” hahaha I love this scene!! 🙂
And it was filmed on the studio, with someone shaking a carriage! I didn’t know that… well, it’s the magic of the screen! 🙂
Hmm, it’s tempting to think of getting that same bob Prue has for my next haircut! Ah, I’m too old. It is cute, though. Love that screen save you have of Ringo. Yes, it’s much crisper in the second version. HINT: I hope I’m getting something Beatles-related for Christmas; I’ll take ANYTHING! Even a Denro cast-off! 😉