Help! is a 1965 British musical comedy-adventure film directed by Richard Lester, starring the Beatles and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. The second film starring the Beatles, following Lester's A Hard Day's Night (1964), Help! sees the group struggle to protect Ringo Starr from a sinister eastern cult and a pair of mad scientists, all of whom are obsessed with obtaining a sacrificial ring sent to him by a fan. The soundtrack was released as the band's fifth studio album under the same name.
Help! had its Royal World Premiere at the London Pavilion Theatre in the West End of London on 29 July 1965 in the presence of Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon and the Earl of Snowdon. While not reviewed at the time with the same high level of admiration as their first film, Help! is now credited with influencing the development of music videos.
Plot An eastern cult (a parody of the Thuggee cult) is about to sacrifice a woman to their goddess, Kaili. They notice that she is not wearing the sacrificial ring. Instead, Ringo Starr, drummer of the Beatles, has the ring, sent to him by the intended victim, who is a fan of the band. Determined to retrieve the ring and sacrifice the girl, the chief priest, Clang, several cult members, and high priestess Ahme leave for London. After failed attempts to steal the ring without Ringo noticing, they confront him in an Indian restaurant. Ringo learns that he will be the next sacrifice if he does not give up the ring. However, the ring is stuck on his finger and he can't take it off.
The Beatles are chased around London by members of the cult. After a jeweler fails to cut the ring off, the band resorts to the bumbling efforts of Foot, a mad scientist and his assistant Algernon; when his equipment has no effect on the ring, Foot decides that he must somehow acquire it. Ahme comes to the Beatles' rescue and tries to shrink Ringo's finger to get the ring off with a temporary shrinking solution, but the cult and the scientists ambush the band's home, causing Ahme to drop the syringe in Paul, temporarily shrinking him instead.
Once Paul returns to his normal size, the band runs to the Austrian Alps and narrowly escapes a trap there, thanks to Ahme, who is secretly aiding them. To stay safe, they ask for protection from Scotland Yard, and a superintendent who is rather disdainful of their fame realizes their danger when the cult continues their efforts to paint Ringo red for the sacrifice by shooting paint-filled balloons into his office. He hides them in Buckingham Palace, where they narrowly avoid capture by the scientists. Later at a pub, Clang sets a trap for Ringo involving a trap door and a tiger. He is saved by the Superintendent recognizing that the tiger is a well-known escapee who can be calmed and captured by singing the "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony; he starts doing so, and gradually the whole of London joins in.
The Beatles then flee to the Bahamas, followed by the scientists, and the cult members. After Ringo is nearly captured, the local police have the other Beatles pose as him in order to ensnare the cult members. Despite their best efforts, however, the scientists catch Ringo and hide him aboard a boat where Foot intends to cut off Ringo's finger to get the ring. Ahme rescues Ringo by giving the scientists the shrinking solution in exchange. The two dive into the ocean to escape, but Ringo cannot swim, and they are both captured by the cult.
At the beach, Ringo is tied down and prepared for sacrifice, while Clang begins the ritual. When the other Beatles arrive, Ringo starts warning them of Clang's trap, just before he notices the ring has fallen off at last. He puts the ring on Clang's finger, and a comic fight ensues between the cult, the Beatles, the police and the scientists. Amidst the brawl, the ring gets tossed around from victim to victim until it finally ends up on Clang's right hand man Bhuta.
Cast
John Lennon as a fictionalised version of himself Paul McCartney as a fictionalised version of himself George Harrison as a fictionalised version of himself Ringo Starr as a fictionalised version of himself Eleanor Bron as Ahme Leo McKern as Clang John Bluthal as Bhuta Patrick Cargill as the Superintendent Victor Spinetti as Foot Roy Kinnear as Algernon Alfie Bass as Doorman Warren Mitchell as Abdul Peter Copley as Jeweller Bruce Lacey as Lawnmower Durra as Belly Dancer Mal Evans as Channel Swimmer (uncredited) Gretchen Franklin as Neighbour (uncredited) Dandy Nichols as Neighbour (uncredited) Jeremy Lloyd as Restaurant Patron (uncredited) John Louis Mansi as Priest/Thug Viviane Ventura as Girl on the sacrificial altar (uncredited)
Production According to interviews conducted with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo 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 overseas locations. It was also given a more extensive musical score than A Hard Day's Night, provided by a full orchestra, and included excerpts of well known classical music: Wagner's Lohengrin, Act III prelude, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, the "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and, during the end credits and with the Beatles' own comic vocalisations, Rossini's Barber of Seville overture, as well as orchestral arrangements of Beatles songs, among them "A Hard Day's Night" and "She's a Woman." The original title for the film – only changed to Help! very near to its release – was Eight Arms to Hold You.Matthews, Brian."Part 7," The Beatles Story (BBC, 1973). As such, Capitol Records' original pressings of the "Ticket to Ride" single have the subheading: From the United Artists release "Eight Arms to Hold You.""The Beatles U.S. Singles 1965-1966"|https://www.yokono.co.uk/collection/beatles/usa/single/usa_single_5407.html
Help! was shot in London, Salisbury Plain, the Austrian Alps, New Providence Island and Paradise Island in the Bahamas, and Twickenham Film Studios. Shooting commenced in the Bahamas on 23 February 1965. Starr commented in The Beatles Anthology that they were in the Bahamas to film the hot weather scenes, and therefore had to wear light clothing even though it was winter and the weather at the time was actually cool. Tony Bramwell, the assistant to Beatles manager Brian Epstein, stated in his book A Magical Mystery Tour that Epstein chose the Bahamas for tax reasons. According to The Beatles Anthology, during the restaurant sequence filmed in early April, Harrison began to discover Indian-style music, which would be a key element in future songs such as "Norwegian Wood". Filming finished on 14 April at Ailsa Avenue in Twickenham.
The ski scenes were shot at Obertauern, a small village in Austria. One reason this location was chosen was that the stars of the film were less likely to be recognised there than at one of the larger resorts with many British tourists. The Beatles were in Obertauern for about two weeks in March 1965 along with a film crew of around 60 people. Locals served as ski stunt doubles for the Beatles, who stayed at the hotel "Edelweiss". Most of the crew were based in the hotel Marieta, where one night the Beatles gave an impromptu concert on the occasion of a director's assistant's birthday. This was the only time they ever performed in Austria.
The Beatles did not particularly enjoy filming Help!, nor were they pleased with the end product. In 1970, John Lennon said they felt like extras in their own film:
Ten years later Lennon was more charitable:
A contributing factor was exhaustion attributable to their busy schedule of writing, recording and touring. Afterwards they were hesitant to begin another film project, and Help! was their last full-length scripted theatrical film. The Beatles saw the 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine (in which their characters were voiced by actors, and they themselves made only a token appearance) as a favourable way to complete their commitment to United Artists for a third film. Many fans have assumed that the cartoon did not satisfy the contract, but their cameo appearance at the end was included so as to satisfy the terms of the contract requiring their personal appearances in three films. The Beatles' next film Let It Be (1970) was not connected to the original three-picture deal.
Inspiration The Beatles said the film was inspired by the classic Marx Brothers film 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.
The humour of the film is strongly influenced by the abstract humour of The Goon Show, in which the director had personal and direct experience in the conversion of the radio format to television, and personal working experience with Peter Sellers in particular. Beatles recording producer George Martin had also produced records for the Goon Show team. McCartney has always said that the Beatles' style of humour was taken from the Goon Show. Many of the film's concepts are derived from Goon Shows, such as the presence of wild animals, music, fourth wall-breaking jokes and abstractions such as the closing statement that concludes the film.
Working title
Among the original working titles for the film were Beatles Phase II and Beatles Two, before Starr suggested Eight Arms to Hold You, which was announced as the official title in mid-March 1965. The latter title was printed on the cover artwork of the single "Ticket to Ride" as from the upcoming film. Because of this, the phrase has been used as a title for an album by Veruca Salt, and for songs by Goon Squad for the Goonies movie, and by the Brittles, a Beatles-pastiche band.
By mid-April 1965, the press was already announcing the film would be retitled. In an interview, Starr said "We wanted to use Stop the World, We Want to Get On, but I believe that Brando's doing that," though it may have been said in sarcasm. Producer Walter Shenson also suggested the title The Day the Clowns Collapsed. Help! was settled on as the film's title later in April, after neither Lennon nor McCartney were able to compose a good title song from its previous name. Lennon then wrote the song "Help!" that same night. The official title was announced on 14 April. Aside from Eight Arms to Hold You, this title won over suggestions from Harrison (Who's Been Sleeping in My Porridge) and United Artists producer Walter Shenson (The Day the Clowns Collapsed). The Beatles had also suggested High-Heeled Knickers, a play on the title of Tommy Tucker's 1964 hit song "High-Heeled Sneakers".
Michael Peto photographs The photographer Michael Peto was commissioned in 1965 to take still photographs during the making of the film; these became known for their candid and expressive quality. During the digitisation of the Michael Peto Collection, which was held by Archive Services, University of Dundee, in 2002, 500 previously unpublished photographs of the Beatles taken during the making of Help! were reported to have been uncovered.- - - Now These Days are Gone, a limited edition volume of Peto's photographs focusing on the Beatles images was produced in 2006 with deluxe editions of the book signed by Richard Lester. An exhibition of the photographs to mark the book's launch was held at Hoopers Gallery, Clerkenwell, in January 2006.- Another exhibition of the photographs was held at the University of Dundee in 2007 as part of the university's 40th anniversary celebrations, with the exhibition then moving to the National Conservation Centre, Liverpool.- In 2011, the photographs were exhibited in Dundee, as part of the Scottish Beatles Weekend, and at the Proud Gallery in Camden.-
Songs