Movies - Help!

Home > Listing Index > Movies > Help! (film)

	Movies - Help!

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

Plot

Among the film's original working titles were "Beatles Phase II" and what would have been Walter Shenson's suggested title, "Eight Arms to Hold You". The plot of the movie revolves around a sacrificial ring which Ringo cannot take off. The band is chased around London by members of the Indian cult of the Goddess Kali, headed by McKern and Bron. In a desperate effort to dispose of the ring, the band resorts to the bumbling efforts of mad scientist Spinetti and assistant Kinnear; when his equipment turns out to have no effect on the ring, Spinetti decides he too must somehow acquire it.

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 Duck Soup (now owned by EMKA, Ltd./NBC Universal) and the Bond series (now owned by UA sister studio MGM).

A novelisation, entitled The Beatles in Help!, was written by Al Hine and published by Dell in 1965.

Film settings

"Help!" was set in London, Salisbury Plain, The Swiss Alps, and The Bahamas. Ringo commented in "The Beatles Anthology" that they were in The Bahamas for the hot weather scenes and it was rather cold.

Songs in "Help!"

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
{Song in underground scene: She's A Woman}.
Another Hard Day's Night (played by Indian band)

Additional information

According to interviews conducted with Paul, George, and Ringo for "The Beatles Anthology" the producer, Richard Lester, had more money to spend due to the success of "A Hard Day's Night". Thus, this feature film was in color.

According to Ringo's interviews in "The Beatles Anthology" during the Swiss Alps film shooting he and John ran off over the hill from the "Curling" scene set to smoke a joint. Also Paul called them "Herbal Jazz Cigarettes".

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Help! (film) ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Help! (film); it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay