Help! (1965)

Ringo Starr finds himself the human sacrifice target of a cult, and his fellow members of The Beatles must try to protect him from it.

Director:

Richard Lester

Writers:

Marc Behm (screenplay), Charles Wood (screenplay)

Stars:

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison

Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 3 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
The Beatles	...	The Beatles
Leo McKern	...	Clang
Eleanor Bron	...	Ahme
Victor Spinetti	...	Foot
Roy Kinnear	...	Algernon
John Bluthal	...	Bhuta
Patrick Cargill	...	Superintendent
Alfie Bass	...	Doorman
Warren Mitchell	...	Abdul
Peter Copley	...	Jeweller
Bruce Lacey	...	Lawnmower

Storyline

An Eastern cult discovers that the sacrificial ring is missing. Ringo, drummer of The Beatles band has it; sent by the girl (who's to be sacrificed) as a gift. Clang, Ahme, Bhuta and several cult members leave for London to retrieve the ring. After several failed attempts to steal the ring, they confront him in an Indian restaurant. Ringo learns that if he does not return the ring soon, he will become the next sacrifice. Ringo then discovers that the ring is stuck on his finger. Its a race against time; John, Paul, and George try to protect their friend while they're all being chased not only by Clang and his minions, but also by two mad scientists and the chief inspector of Scotland yard. Will Ringo be saved, or will he be sacrificed?

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Plot Keywords:

ring | mad scientist | human sacrifice | the beatles | drummer | 

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Taglines:

Stop Worrying! HELP! Is On The Way!

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Musical

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 August 1965 (USA)

Also Known As:

¡Socorro!

Filming Locations:

Ailsa Avenue, Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$1,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walter Shenson Films, Subafilms

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Mono Dolby Digital (re-release)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

There is also a second scene involving a gun, which takes place during the Beatles' visit to Buckingham Palace. This time, the gun fires; nobody is hit, but all four Beatles drop reflexively to the floor.

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Goofs

In the scene where Prof. Foot and Algernon are trying to get the ring off Ringo in their lab and Ahme comes in to rescue them, the door she enters is red. Then after she comes in, it is gray.

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Quotes

John: [finding a season ticket in his soup] What's this?
Ringo: A season ticket. What do you think it is?
John: Oh. I like a lot of seasoning in me soup.

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Crazy Credits

"I Need You" by George Harrison is the only song title credited in the end credits. As this is shown you can hear George say '"I Need You" by George Harrison'.

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Alternate Versions

When released on video for the first time in 1989, the film remained in mono but the songs were remixed into stereo, dubbed over with the recordings from the stereo album.

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Connections

Spoofed in Spice World (1997)

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Soundtracks

I Need You
(1965)
Written by George Harrison
Performed by The Beatles (uncredited)
Published by Capitol Records

User Reviews

A brief glimpse into the end of an era of "innocence"

Of all the various Beatles transformations out there, I have to admit that I liked them best from late 1964 to mid-1966. During this era, they morphed from the "innocent" fab four into the pre-mystical Beatles that came about in late 1965 with the advent of their wonderful "Rubber Soul" lp.

Yes, I loved these guys from this era of time. If you're old enough to have experienced the British Invasion, then you can show an appreciation of how the music once was: short and sweet. To put it simply, most pop music that came out of this era was short (around 2 minutes and 30 seconds) and sweet enough to reveal a new type of rock n' roll that never existed before the advent of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, Chad and Jeremy, the Dave Clark 5, etc, etc, etc.

It's too bad that this era didn't last long enough for us to enjoy. Before you knew it, it was gone like a morning mist. Even the American versions of garage rock, like Gary Lewis & the Playboys and the Turtles disappeared as discontent with the establishment and Vietnam sapped all of the collective innocence out of us.

It was an era of music that was, in essence, non-political; Beatles music, as well as other bands, were geared toward boy-girl love relationships and that was all. Barry McGuire then blew us out of the water with his "Eve of Destruction" around September, 1965. This, of course, caught the Beatles by surprise and they quickly changed their music from the typical "love songs" and became more creative in their talents by releasing "Day Tripper" with "We Can Work It Out" as a flip side.

"Help!" is a remnant of the final days of "innocence", when Vietnam was just entering the nightly news night after night after night and when the domestic disturbances on college campuses and ghettos was coming to a head.

This is what "Help!" represents to those who study this era. It was still a time when we could still help to avoid the problems that were beginning to plague American culture, society and politics. It still showed the Beatles as innocent and fun-loving mop tops that many people still prefer over their re-emergence as mystical, drug-experimenting replacements two years hence. I know that I still prefer them as innocent mop tops, but reality has shown that they were far from innocent even during their early days in Hamburg.

All that aside, this is still my favorite era of Beatledom.