The Beatles with Tony Sheridan

The Beatles had already weathered their first crucible in Hamburg, playing long hours in raucous, funky clubs on the Reeperbahn, when they returned to the German city in the spring of 1961 and made their first studio recordings, with the English singer Tony Sheridan getting top billing (the band was sometimes listed as “the Beat Brothers”). The results, a typically candid John Lennon said later, were “terrible.” So why would anyone be interested in this lengthy documentary covering the period? Because it's the Beatles? Not really. No Beatle had anything to do with it--not even then-drummer Pete Best. None of the Fabs are interviewed (many others are, including original manager Allan Williams), and there's no film footage from the period, so we're left with montages of black-and-white photos, many of them good (especially those by Astrid Kirchherr, girlfriend of fifth Beatle Stu Sutcliffe) but also quite familiar by now. And the music? Lennon sings lead on “Ain't She Sweet,” but the rest of the time it's Sheridan, doing a shameless Elvis imitation on a dreary repertoire ranging from covers of “What'd I Say” and “Ruby Baby” to hoary standards such as “My Bonnie” and “When the Saints Go Marching In,” all of them played (competently, if without much verve) in the British “beat” style common at the time. Presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo sound, this well-produced and handsomely packaged DVD is likely to be of minimal interest to all but hopeless Beatlemaniacs. Optional. Aud: P. (S. Graham)