The Beatles - Help!

As the trailer insists, “Stop worrying, Help! is on its way!”

Disliked by the critics at the time, The Beatles’ second film, 1965’s Help!, was generally seen as being inferior to A Hard Day’s Night. The movie’s standing was sadly devalued further when John Lennon weighed into the debate by saying, “We were ashamed of the film.” His despondency concerning the movie and the major players they were acting alongside (Victor Spinetti, Roy Kinnear, Leo McKern and Eleanor Bron, to name but a few) was confirmed further when he dejectedly remarked, “We were extras in our own film.” Such was his and the other Beatles’ resentment towards movie-making that they quietly abandoned plans to make a third live-action feature. So, 42 years on, has Help! become one of those truly awful 60s pop movies producing cringes of embarrassment? Well, the answer is a resounding “No!” This writer has always felt that Help! is a truly wonderful slice of light-hearted, escapist cinema entertainment, and a highly colourful, action-packed vehicle which perfectly captured The Beatles looking exceptionally cool, fashionable and untouchable as they sat at the top of the popular music tree. For the uninitiated, Help!’s zany storyline follows John, Paul, George and Ringo as they become involved in a gang’s plot to prise a sacred ring from Ringo’s finger in order for a human sacrifice to proceed. The trouble is, he can’t remove it, and so in the ensuing mayhem, he and his bandmates are chased from London to such exotic locations as the Austrian Alps and the Bahamas by religious cult members, two mad scientists and the London police of Scotland Yard. Released at a time when James Bond movies were doing exceptionally great business at the box office, there was no surprise that Help!’s storyline leant heavily towards the mad scientist trying to take over the world. Released via Apple Corps Ltd and EMI Music, Help! will be available as a standard 2-DVD edition and as a much pricier deluxe box set, with a reproduction of director Richard Lester’s original annotated script, eight lobby cards, a poster and a 60-page book with rarely seen photos and production notes. Disc One boasts a quite superb digitally restored version of the film plus a new 5.1 audio soundtrack; you’ll be hard pushed to find a copy as good as this. The remaster has clearly worked; the colours are right and the images pin-sharp. The 60-minutes’ worth of extras on the second disc include a 30-minute documentary about the making of the movie (featuring rarely-seen home movies and newsreels, plus interviews with cast and crew), a featurette on the film’s restoration, three theatrical trailers (two from the US, one from Spain), and vintage, humorous radio advertisements (secreted in the disc menu). Also, in a four-minute section, former EastEnders actress Wendy Richard recalls shooting her unused sequence in Help!. Contrary to rumours leading up to this DVD release, sadly we don’t actually see any of the filmed outtakes. Instead we get newly-shot interviews with Wendy and director Richard Lester, alongside stills of the unused scene. In truth (and obviously not touched upon in this DVD), while Help! was being edited, some of The Beatles’ discarded footage was being smuggled out of the studio by one of the film’s workers and given to his young, Beatle-mad daughter. Of course, being Beatles-obsessives, we’ve always sung the praises of A Hard Day’s Night, but have also felt that Help! had been unfairly overshadowed by its predecessor, and needed to step out of its shadow and be regarded as a classic in its own right. Thankfully, the time is now.

Apple Corps Ltd/EMI Music | 5095209

Reviewed by Keith Badman
<< Back to Issue 343