HELP! (FILM)

'''Help!''' is a 1965 film starring the The Beatles and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal and Roy Kinnear. The soundtrack was released as an album, also called ''Help!''.

Contents

Synopsis

Inspiration

Production

"Haze of marijuana"

Songs

Critical response

Novelisation

Release history

Trivia

External links

Multimedia

Synopsis

In the beginning, an eastern cult is about to sacrifice a woman to the goddess Kaili. Then they notice that she doesn't have the sacrificial ring on. It's revealed that Ringo Starr, drummer of the Beatles, has the ring, sent to him by the victim and her sister, who's also the high priestess (both of whom are fans of the Beatles), and it's stuck on his finger. Determined to retrieve the ring and sacrifice the woman, the great Swami, several cult members, and the high priestess leave for London. After several failed attempts to steal the ring without Ringo noticing, they confront him in an Indian restaurant. Ringo learns that if he doesn't return the ring soon, he will have to become the next sacrifice. Unfortunately, the ring is stuck and he can't take it off. The band is chased around London by members of the Indian cult of the Goddess Kaili, headed by McKern's and Bron's characters. In a desperate effort to dispose of the ring, the band resorts to the bumbling efforts of a mad scientist, played by Spinetti, and his assistant, played by Kinnear; when his equipment turns out to have no effect on the ring, the Spinetti character decides that he, too, must somehow acquire it. The band runs to the Swiss Alps and narrowly escapes a trap there, thanks to the help of the high priestess, who is secretly helping the Beatles, because her sister would have been dead if it wasn't for Ringo. To stay safe, they ask for protection from the Scotland Yard. They hide in Buckingham Palace until they are nearly captured by the scientist. From there, they run to the Bahamas, followed by the Scotland Yard officers, the scientist, and the cult members. After Ringo is nearly captured, the other Beatles pose as him in order to lure out the cult members to be arrested by the local Police. Despite their best efforts, Ringo is captured by the scientist, who intends on cutting off his finger to get the ring. The high priestess rescues Ringo by giving the scientist a shrinking solution in exchange (she intended on using the solution to shrink his finger to remove the ring). The two of them dive into the ocean to escape, but Ringo can't swim and they are both captured by the great Swami. In the end, when Ringo is about to be sacrificed, the ring suddenly comes off. Then he puts the ring on the leader of the cult, and a big attempt of sacrificing ''him'' starts.

Inspiration

The Beatles said the film was inspired by the Marx Brothers classic ''Duck Soup''; it was also directly satirical of the James Bond series of films. At the time of the original release of ''Help!'', its distributor, United Artists, also held the rights to the Bond series (now owned by UA sister studio MGM).

Production

According to interviews conducted with Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Starr for ''The Beatles Anthology'', director Richard Lester was given a larger budget for this film than he had for ''A Hard Day's Night'' thanks to the commercial success of the latter. Thus, this feature film was in colour and was shot on several exotic foreign locations.
''Help!'' was set in London, Salisbury Plain, the Austrian Alps, Providence Island in the Bahamas and Twickenham Film Studios. Ringo Starr commented in ''The Beatles Anthology'' that they were in the Bahamas for the hot weather scenes, and therefore had to wear light clothing even though it was rather cold.
The Beatles did not particularly enjoy the filming of the movie, nor were they particularly pleased with the end product. Lennon said in 1970 that they felt like extras in their own movie.

A contributing factor was exhaustion atrributable to their very busy schedule of writing, recording and touring. Afterwards they were hesitant to begin another film project, and indeed ''Help!'' was their last full-length scripted theatrical film. Their obligation for a third film to United Artists was met by the 1970 documentary film ''Let It Be''. The 1968 animated film ''Yellow Submarine'' did not meet contractual obligations because it did not star the Beatles themselves, and their only live appearance was featured for less than two minutes at the film's conclusion.

"Haze of marijuana"

The Beatles later said the film was shot in a "haze of marijuana". According to Ringo Starr's interviews in ''The Beatles Anthology'', during the Austrian Alps film shooting he and Paul ran off over the hill from the "curling" scene set to smoke a joint.
In the ''Beatles Anthology Director's Cut'', George Harrison admitted that they were smoking marijuana on the plane ride all the way to the Bahamas.
Paul McCartney also shared some of his memories of when they were filming ''Help!'':

Songs

The song titles that appear in the film are:

★ "Help!"

★ "You're Going to Lose That Girl"

★ "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"

★ "Ticket to Ride"

★ "The Night Before"

★ "I Need You"

★ "Another Girl"

★ "She's A Woman"

★ "A Hard Day's Night" (played by Indian band and as instrumentals)

Critical response

Critical opinion at the time of release was positive, but the film has not achieved a level of acclaim comparable to that for ''A Hard Day's Night''. The absurd comedic style and frenetic pacing were in some ways a forerunner of future British comedy, such as ''Monty Python's Flying Circus''. The film had a direct influence on the American television series ''The Monkees'', which was patterned very closely upon the film.

Novelisation

A novelisation entitled ''The Beatles in Help!'' was written by Al Hine and published by Dell in 1965.
A sequence featuring Frankie Howerd and Wendy Richard was filmed but left out of final editing owing to its length. However, the sequence was left in the film novelization.

Release history

Like ''A Hard Day's Night'', ''Help!'' was originally distributed theatrically by United Artists (UA handled distribution from 1965 to the end of 1980). In January 1981, rights to the movie reverted from UA to producer Walter Shenson, and the movie was withdrawn from circulation. ''Help!'' was released several times in different video formats by MPI Home Video and The Criterion Collection. On VHS, a version was released during February 1987 through MPI, along with a reissue of "A Hard Day's Night" the very same day, and was followed by a special-edition release on October 31, 1995. MPI also issued a CLV laserdisc in 1995 and two releases on DVD, the first as a single DVD release on November 12, 1997 and the second as part of "The Beatles DVD Collector's Set" on August 8, 2000.
LaserDisc releases include a Criterion CAV laserdisc and a Voyager CLV laserdisc in 1987, each of which had three pressings. The first pressings had no UPC code on the gatefold covers while the other two had the UPC code either as a sticker or printed directly on the jacket. While the CLV editions usually sell for around $40, the CAV editions can sell anywhere from $80 to over $100. Most consider the rare Criterion CAV release to be the definitive edition. The film's transfer on the CAV laserdiscs was done correctly so that each still frame is motionless and ultrasharp. The musical numbers, which are presented in stereo, perfectly demonstrate the laserdisc medium's superior, uncompressed audio fidelity capabilities. The supplemental section, which has never been available on any other home video release, contains the following:

★ original theatrical trailer (which includes deleted scenes)

★ silent footage of the film set and of the world premiere

★ still photos, some of which are introduced by text describing the production history of the film

★ posters

★ sheet music

★ record jackets

★ radio ads (on audio during the silent footage)

★ an open interview, originally designed for disc jockeys, that you can utilize to fake out friends and surprise family members by reading the prompts on the screen and pretending to talk to the Beatles.

As of July 2007, all home video versions of "Help!" have been removed from the market because of rights issues involving Apple Corps, now the full rights holders to the film. In June 2007, a version sub-titled in Korean became available on Amazon.com. The aforementioned rights issues have now been resolved as it has been announced by Apple Corps/EMI that a newly restored and remixed 5.1 version of the film will be released as a standard DVD and deluxe edition on October 29, 2007.[1]

Trivia

★ Although it is quite obvious that the Beatles were getting chased by an Indian cult, especially since Ringo was supposed to be sacrificed for Kaili, it was never explicitly mentioned. The script sidestepped over saying "India" by saying "Eastern" instead. For example, when George Harrison is speaking to a chef of an Indian restaurant, he asks "Does this Eastern flavor come expensive?" Also, when Ahme gives Prof. Foot the shrinking juice, Prof. Foot tries to read the label but he laments he can't because it is "written in Eastern".

★ Among the film's original working titles were ''Beatles Phase II'' and, as suggested by Walter Shenson, ''Eight Arms to Hold You''.

★ The "channel swimmer" who makes appearances during the curling scene and at the end of the film is Beatles road manager Mal Evans.

★ Despite the somewhat cartoonish allusions to Indian culture and religion in the film, the production of the film was arguably the spark that set off George Harrison's fascination with Indian music and religion. It was during the filming of this film, for instance, that he discovered the sitar, which he would later use in "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)".

★ The film was mockingly dedicated to Elias Howe “who, in 1846, invented the sewing machine."

★ When Capitol Records in America issued the single " Ticket to Ride " in the U.S. , the label incorrectly listed the song as from the film's early working title "Eight Arms To Hold You" .

★ The video for the band Travis' "Sing" includes the band seen on a black-and-white television. The sequence imitates the opening of The Beatles' performance in ''Help'', down to the choice of camera angles, and with suction-cup arrows replacing the darts.

★ A sequence with the Beatles practicing acting lessons, which featured actress Wendy Richard (Miss Brahms of ''Are You Being Served?''), was filmed but was cut from the final product.

★ The book that John pulls out of his secret compartment in his room is a copy of his book, ''A Spaniard in the Works''.

★ In the ending of the film, the song played over the credits is The Barber of Seville written by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini.

External links

★ ''Help!'' at Rotten Tomatoes

★ The Beatles

★

★ Beatles Laserdiscs

Multimedia

Complete Movie