Beatles film "Help!" set for DVD release

LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - The Beatles' second feature film,"Help!" -- once described by John Lennon as "crap" -- will come out on DVD in October, representatives for the Fab Four said on Tuesday.

The zany 1965 follow-up to "A Hard Day's Night" revolved around a gang's efforts to prise a sacred ring from Ringo Starr's finger in order for a human sacrifice to proceed.

In the ensuing mayhem, the lads find themselves on the run in such exotic locales as the Austrian Alps and the Bahamas, with a motley crew of religious cult members, a mad scientist and the London police in hot pursuit.

The film featured such new tunes as "Ticket to Ride," "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" and the title track.

It was a commercial success, but critics were not as impressed as they had been the year before with "A Hard Day's Night."

Lennon later described the film as "a drag" and "crap," explaining that everyone was on pot and stoned at the time. The group quietly abandoned plans to make a third live-action feature.

The DVD, set for release on October 30 in the United States and a day earlier internationally via Apple Corps. and EMI Music, comes in a two-disc package.

The first disc features the original film digitally restored with a newly created 5.1 soundtrack; the second boasts an hour of extra features, including a 30-minute making-of documentary, a missing scene, and some theatrical trailers.

A spokeswoman for Apple Corps., the Beatles' holding company, said the film previously was issued in 2000 on DVD, and briefly on laserdisc. It also came out on VHS in 1987 and 1995.