Where to Stream the Best, and the Most Ridiculous, of the Beatles on Film

In celebration of its 50th anniversary, a newly restored 4K version of the animated Beatles film “Yellow Submarine” has returned to theaters in select cities this week (with 5.1 surround sound for extra psychedelic effect). And while the film was famously born out of a contractual obligation, some distance shows that it is one of the better examples of the Beatles on film (even if John, Paul, George and Ringo are not actually in the film until the last few minutes — more on that later.)

If you cannot catch it in theaters (see the official Yellow Submarine website for information on screenings and tickets), we have provided details on where to stream it from home. But why stop there? The Fab Four’s other major film appearances are streaming, too, along with a few interesting cinematic vehicles for their music that came after they split. Read on to learn where to find them, ranked in order from best to most ridiculous — with the understanding that ridiculous is not necessarily a bad thing.

This is lightning in a bottle: the Beatles and Beatlemania at their apogee, with all the requisite screaming, racing and mop-top clowning. With the barest of scripts (the Beatles prepare for a television performance and deal with Paul’s troublemaker grandfather), director Richard Lester had a springboard to essentially create the art of the music video. Some numbers (“If I Fell,” “She Loves You”) are the lads “playing live,” while others are stylish, exuberant bursts of kinetic energy (“Can’t Buy Me Love” being the most groundbreaking). There are quality zings (“Turn left at Greenland,” John Lennon says when asked, “How did you find America?”), eye-rolls at the commodification of counterculture, Keystone Kops-like gags and Ringo Starr’s oddly touching lonely walk by a canal. Elvis Presley had been pumping out shoddy movies for years at this point. “A Hard Day’s Night” could have been a cash grab, but it ended up being one of the best movies of the 1960s.

“Let It Be,” Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s fly-on-the-wall documentary of the Beatles’ last days is a considerable downer and has been somewhat locked in the vault. But it is significant not only as a record of the Beatles’ process, but as an end-of-an-era time capsule. The first two-thirds document the band as it works through and records new songs in the studio. The finale is the famous “concert on the roof” at Apple Records, the last time the Beatles ever performed live. It is undeniably fascinating to see Paul introduce “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” as a series of chord changes and to watch his bandmates get it. But it is heartbreaking to watch these guys be jerks to one another. Paul is demanding, George Harrison is frustrated and John can be flip. Yoko Ono sits wordlessly at his side at all times. Billy Preston enters the mix and things loosen up. Then they climb the roof and tear into “Don’t Let Me Down” and “Get Back” and prove that these guys literally and figuratively ended on top.

As the Beatles’ catalog hit Las Vegas in Cirque du Soleil’s “Love,” director Julie Taymor put together a different Beatles jukebox musical. Taking 34 songs (and just enough dialogue to tell a story) “Across the Universe” is an anodyne salute to the 1960s that is visually bold but leaden with story clichés. A make-believe New York mixes MacDougal Street clubs, campus protests and a bus ride with Bono, who plays a Ken Kesey-ish Doctor Robert. The film is loaded with Easter eggs for hard-core Beatles fans, and while some of the “they are about to break into song” moments are a little cringeworthy, the new orchestrations (especially when Dana Fuchs, as Sexy Sadie, sings lead) are quite good. While it is hardly the best entry in the Beatles-on-film canon, it does keep the toes tapping.

Lightning does not strike the same place twice. Same director, same witty, camera-ready group as those in “A Hard Day’s Night.” But although the color film and mod production design look terrific, “Help!” regrettably gives our foursome too much of a plot. Ringo (the best, or at least most sympathetic, actor in “A Hard Day’s Night”) is wearing a new ring sent to him by a fan. Little does he know that it belongs to an “Eastern cult” and that the wearer is to be disemboweled in a religious sacrifice. Thus begins a great number of silly chase scenes, some better than others. Paul gets shrunk to Ant-Man size, pub-goers must sing a Bengal tiger to sleep and, in a nod to the James Bond films, we end up on Alpine slopes and Bahamian beaches. Unfortunately, “Help!” is awash in cringeworthy Orientalism, more than can be laughed off as merely the Music Hall-style comedy of its day. But Lester is still in top form during the playful, snowbound “Ticket to Ride” number and “I Need You,” in which the Beatles play in a field surrounded by armed soldiers.

Maligned at the time, this hourlong film, made for British television, was shot with no script and no single person at the wheel. Inspired by Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters, the Beatles and some character actors go on a wacky caravan adventure manipulated by a group of wizards (also played by the Beatles.) Some moments are sublime, as when a spaced-out John shovels spaghetti on Ringo’s Aunt’s plate as she worries that she will never be able to eat it in time. There is also a lot of dull hopping and racing and mumbling — whereas Beatle ad-libs were witty before, now everyone just sounds stoned out of his mind. But the musical sequences do not disappoint. “Magical Mystery Tour” visualized Lennon’s surreal anthem “I Am the Walrus” and was the debut for McCartney’s gorgeous “The Fool on the Hill” and Harrison’s psychedelic banger “Blue Jay Way.” We also see one of the few Beatles instrumentals, “Flying,” during which the English countryside is shot through far-out colored filters.

Much as children were scandalized that the Monkees did not (at first) play their own instruments, this kid-friendly intro-to-rock cartoon held a similar secret: Those are not the Beatles doing the voices. But some great impersonators nailed the Liverpudlian patter and, thanks to animation’s scripted nature, “John, Paul, George and Ringo” have sharper tongues than in any of their previous on-screen appearances. Outrageous puns and playful put-downs fly at supersonic speed in what’s essentially a series of creative animation set pieces. The mystical Pepperland is under assault from the Blue Meanies, and an aging sailor sets off in his yellow submarine (based on a pre-existing song with Ringo singing lead) to get help. The “Beatles” answer the call, and after much difficulty, they unfreeze Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and save the day. It culminates in the most acid-soaked sequence ever sold to children, a celebration of pulsing lights and dancing forms set to “It’s All Too Much.” The real Beatles appear in live action at the end to lead the audience in “All Together Now.”

The Who’s film of the rock opera “Tommy” was a huge success in 1975, but the idea of taking classic ‘60s albums and turning them into movies quickly died with this ill-conceived flop. Producer Robert Stigwood, hot off “Saturday Night Fever,” cast Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees to play the in-universe band of the title and concocted a half-baked plot mixing Americana conventions, “Doctor Faustus,” poorly rendered robotics and George Burns singing “Fixing a Hole.” This is one of the great “how did this get made?” movies and that keeps it extremely watchable. It is wall-to-wall Beatles songs, with the only spoken dialogue being Burns’ narration. Frampton and the Bee Gees’ harmonies on “I Want You/She’s So Heavy” with the R&B group Stargard (as Lucy and the Diamonds) is such a mishmash of styles it demands to be seen. (George Martin, often called the Fifth Beatle, did all the orchestrations, so it is far from slapdash.) Other guests include Earth, Wind & Fire, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Steve Martin, Donald Pleasence and Carel Struycken, also known as the Giant from “Twin Peaks.”