The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit is an 81-minute documentary chronicling Beatlemania following The Beatles’ arrival in February 1964. Released on VHS in 1991 and DVD in 2003, this is a re-edited version of Albert and David Maysles’ 1964 16mm documentary, What’s Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A. While both films run the same length, the biggest difference is that this film adds all 22 minutes from their performances on The Ed Sullivan Show and about another ten minutes from their Washington Coliseum concert. What the Maysles brothers did at the time with their fly-on-the-wall cinematography style set the standard for rock-and-roll documentaries.

The beauty of watching The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit is that it features ten performances from their three appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. This is in addition to the concert in Washington, DC, which has been beautifully restored and remastered in the 2024 documentary. It might feel like there’s a larger focus on the music but that’s just the editing.

When we’re not watching them on performing on stage, the Maysles brothers are intimately following them. Most of the time, they are in their hotel room. But when they aren’t there, they are at nightclubs, photo sessions, press conferences, limos, and trains. Following their first performance on The Ed Sullivan Show, they hit up the Peppermint Lounge. There’s a small focus on the fans hanging outside The Plaza Hotel in New York City–a few manage to sneak inside in hopes of meeting them and of course, it goes wrong real quickly. Close to the halfway point, they start making their way to Washington, DC. After DC, it’s off to Miami Beach for another appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. They later return to New York City for their final February 1964 appearance on the show.

I’ve been wanting to revisit this documentary for a while now, well before the release of Beatles ’64. Until this year, I only owned the film on VHS. Now that I own the film on DVD, I’m finally getting around to doing a rewatch. Unfortunately, it is not available anywhere on streaming. Maybe Apple is working on a newer restoration and audio remix now that the other documentary is on Disney+. My initial plan was to compare this with the newer documentary on the February 1964 visit. However, watching back-to-back is not going to happen. Not before the end of the year, anyway. One key difference is that this is completely dependent on verité footage. You won’t find any talking heads making an appearance.

As mentioned earlier, their TV appearances are just 22 minutes and the Washington, DC concert adds about another ten minutes. I must say that the footage is gorgeous in Beatles ’64 because of the work done by Park Road Post and Giles Martin. Listen, I appreciate Beatles ’64 for what it has to offer but I think both films should be able to co-exist. That’s why I’m hoping this one gets a new restoration and audio mix. I know from talking to both David Tedeschi and Margaret Bodde that Apple had been working on the 1964 footage for quite some time. The technological advances means that Beatles ’64 blows The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit out of the water on this front. This isn’t to take anything away from the work put into the 2003 DVD release but they were working with the technology of the time.

The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit is essential viewing for fans of The Beatles but the film could really benefit from a new restoration and audio mix with the newer 21st century technology.

DIRECTORS: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Kathy Dougherty, Susan Froemke
FEATURING: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Brian Epstein, Mal Evans, Ed Sullivan, Murray the K

Apple Films released The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit on November 13, 1991. Grade: 5/5

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