A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Comedy, Music • 1h 27m
Director: Richard Lester
Cast: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Wilfrid Brambell, Norman Rossington, John Junkin, Victor Spinetti, Anna Quayle, Deryck Guyler, Richard Vernon, Edward Malin, Lionel Blair, Robin Ray, Alison Seebohm, David Janson, Bridget Armstrong, Roger Avon, Bruce Beeby, Isla Blair, John Bluthal, Pattie Boyd, Andre Charisse, Sheila Fearn, Rosemarie Frankland, Bob Godfrey, Kenneth Haigh, Susan Hampshire, Victor Harrington, Julian Holloway, Clare Kelly, David Langton, Jeremy Lloyd, Derek Nimmo, Margaret Nolan, Jim Brady, Charlotte Rampling, Gordon Rollings, Edina Ronay, Marianne Stone, Michael Trubshawe, Noel Trevarthen, Neil Wilson, Phil Collins
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 4 months ago
Criterion 4K Blu-ray second pressing from March 2022 as first pressing has shots in one scene placed in wrong order
UHD tiers
second pressing from March 2022
Overview
Capturing John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in their electrifying element, 'A Hard Day's Night' is a wildly irreverent journey through this pastiche of a day in the life of The Beatles during 1964. The band have to use all their guile and wit to avoid the pursuing fans and press to reach their scheduled television performance, in spite of Paul's troublemaking grandfather and Ringo's arrest.
Director: Richard Lester
Sources: DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
> Kino Lorber, see DVDBeaver comparisons http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-ray_reviews_70/the_knack_and_how_to_get_it_blu-ray.htm
The pitch of the StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray English audio is too high, as of 5/16/23 unclear if replacements will be offered
Directors: Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie
4K encode is low-pass filtered and noticeably so, which was unfortunately par for the course with Criterion 4Ks until sometime in 2024, and the encode is still less than ideal even despite that. Still better than the Criterion and Lionsgate Blu-Ray discs for the Dolby Vision grading alone.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Eureka UK is considering doing a 4K https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24363810&postcount=264
Wonderful underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion, but NexSpec encode has clipped highlights with the occasional blockiness. The Criterion Blu-Ray, sourced from their 4K remaster, ironically makes for a more consistent and overall pleasing experience.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab) · blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)
StudioCanal 4K
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Video format: HD Streaming
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
While it's included on both Criterion The Palm Beach Story extras and Arrow's Sullivan's Travels' extras, Criterion uses a different source and is vastly superior, see caps
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Criterion Box Set
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray worse than Blu-ray with poor encoding (review)
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
2012 Criterion Blu-ray is the most accurate
4K Blu-ray unrecommended because of controversial colours, no HDR, minimal resolution uptick, and DNR master
The 4K Blu-ray 5.1 adds additional foley and effects.
Director: Charlie Chaplin
1928 version: Image Entertainment DVD
Sources: DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab) · caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
1969 version: Criterion Blu-ray > UK Artificial Eye Blu-ray, see DVDBeaver caps.
Japan Kadokawa Blu-ray is the same as AE BD and inferior to Criterion too
More Comedy on Blu-ray
Director: Preston Sturges
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
No information on French Elephant Films Blu-ray
Director: Jamie Babbit
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray is a disaster. The compression on the base layer is horrid, and the oversized 18 Mbps FEL barely helps.
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray includes original matrixed Dolby Stereo mix, albeit lossy, and a 5.1 surround upmix. The stereo track on previous BD and DVD releases is also lossy and sounds about the same.
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Gaumont Blu-ray but no English subtitles: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Deux-sous-de-violettes-Blu-ray/288976/
Director: René Clair
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Frank Oz
Theatrical Cut: Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray
Director's Cut: Warner Bros Blu-ray
The 4K Blu-ray has both a poor Dolby Atmos remix and the original theatrical Dolby Stereo mix in its best fidelity but only for the Theatrical Cut.
The Blu-ray has a 5.1 remix for the Director's Cut that, while inferior to the original theatrical Dolby Stereo mix, is still far superior to the Dolby Atmos remix on the 4K Blu-ray, and is the best option for the Director's Cut.
Only the DVD has the isolated score.
Director: Rob Reiner
Arrow 4K Blu-ray releasing December 14 2026
Director: Chris Columbus
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Disney 4K Blu-ray has encoding issues with bitrates dipping into 40mbps, and Kaleidescape has better encoding than Disney see caps
Old Fox Blu-ray master is stretched and sharpened
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