Beatles Film Review - “Help!”
A year after the release of their first film “A Hard Day’s Night“, The Beatles put out a second feature entitled “Help!” on 29 July 1965. Like its predecessor, “Help!” was directed by Richard Lester and co-starred Victor Spinetti. The style and themes draw on The Marx Brothers’ movie “Duck Soup” and James Bond flicks.
The plot, or excuse for the film, has an “eastern cult” chasing Ringo Starr, who has somehow come into possession of a sacred sacrificial ring. Spinetti plays a mad scientist who is also after the ring which, try as he might, Ringo can not remove. The film had a much larger budget than “A Hard Day’s Night”, so it was shot it colour and in far-flung locations including the Alps and the Bahamas. Another difference from “A Hard Day’s Night” was that this time around the band had much less creative control.
“The movie was out of our control. With A Hard Day’s Night, we had a lot of input, and it was semi-realistic. But with Help!, Dick Lester didn’t tell us what it was all about. I realize, looking back, how advanced it was. It was a precursor for the Batman ‘Pow! Wow!’ on TV — that kind of stuff. But he never explained it to us. Partly, maybe, because we hadn’t spent a lot of time together between A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, and partly because we were smoking marijuana for breakfast during that period. Nobody could communicate with us, it was all glazed eyes and giggling all the time. In our own world. It’s like doing nothing most of the time, but still having to rise at 7AM, so we became bored.” - John Lennon
I found the “plot” rediculous and I’m not much of a fan of “Batman Pow! Wow!” type theatrics, but I very much enjoyed the song sequences and the classic Beatles dry humour (”How do you feel?” “I used to use my hands.”) The war scenes were moving, the scenery was stunning, and I felt that Victor Spinetti was put to much better use here than in “A Hard Day’s Night.”
What’s your take on the film? Share your thoughts with a comment.
Tags: Beatles, blog, film, Help!, James-Bond, John-Lennon, Marx-Brothers, movie, Richard-Lester, Ringo-Starr, Victor-Spinetti
Beatles, blog, film, Help!, James Bond, John Lennon, Marx Brothers, movie, Richard Lester, Ringo Starr, Victor SpinettiRelated Stories
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