Help! (1965)

60s Bands on Film is a series examining the handful of films made in the 1960s starring popular musical acts of the time.

It was not long before The Beatles released a second film, following the unexpected smashing success of A Hard Day’s Night. 1965’s Help!, also directed by Richard Lester, enjoyed its premiere on July 29, 1965. Between their non-stop hit songs and the continued excitement generated by their first film and tours around the world, The Beatles were truly at the peak of their success and the top of their game when Help! premiered.

Even for The Beatles themselves, A Hard Day’s Night was a hard act to follow. Help! was not reviewed as positively or held in as high of esteem as its predecessor, but it was still a success. Many credit the musical sequences in the film with playing a large role in influencing the future development of music videos.

Help! does not follow the lives of The Beatles in the same way as A Hard Day’s Night. Instead, it creates a fictional narrative in which they, as themselves, play a role. In this scenario, The Beatles exist as a band, and the successful one they are in real life, but little mention is made of it throughout the film, leading to a different kind of Beatles film.

The Movie

Director Richard Lester wrote in 2007 that they “were determined not to produce an upmarket, colour version of A Hard Day’s Night… We chose, instead, to do a Pop Art fantasy within which we could play around with the state of Britain in 1965.” What the audience gets is a borderline spy thriller-spoof, following the group as a cult pursues Ringo, who is unwittingly wearing the ring that denotes him for sacrifice in the culture. The ring will not come off, leading the band on a series of hijinks where a pair of scientists, Scotland Yard, and a beautiful double agent all enter into the mix. It is a mad-cap ride and one that is genuinely hilarious.

In an essay enclosed with the movie, Martin Scorcese refers to the film as “proto-Monty Python,” which is the best way to explain the surrealist humor of this film. The Beatles films have an intellectual comedy that is really unique to them within this canon. They have a level of self-awareness that allows them to do this dry, smart comedy. They recognize that they are the most famous people in the world, so they have nothing to prove, meaning it is more laidback because they do not have to assert personalities. Everyone in the world already knows who they are. A lot of this comes from Richard Lester at the helm. He previously worked on The Goon Show with Peter Sellers, one of the main inspirations for Python, and he takes this surrealist approach to his Beatles films, helping to pioneer this distinctly intellectual, dry, British humor on film. The Beatles deserve a lot of credit for internationally setting the groundwork for Python four years later in what they do in these films.

The other aspect that defines the movies The Beatles made is the visual quality. Their films all look like art-house movies, and Richard Lester deserves far more acclaim and credit as a director than he often receives. There is no uninteresting shot in the film, from sweeping landscape shots when the boys are skiing to ornately structured shots of them just doing ordinary tasks. It is meant to be amusing and a showcase for the group’s talents, but Lester never once sacrifices the visual component of these movies because they are not films with some huge social statement or prestige. It is this commitment to every facet of production that makes these movies so great, Help! serving as an exceptional example. The acting, directing, writing- all of it is in peak form here.

Scorcese writes that “[e]veryone was experimenting around this time- Antonioni with Blow-Up, Truffaut with Fahrenheit 451, Fellini and Godard with every movie- and Help! was just as exciting. The color itself was funny- tamped down, pretty far from the psychedelic palette you’d expect, and it accentuated the comedy.” That is the greatest accomplishment of Help! It manages to be a relentlessly fun and sharply witty film, but all while providing a movie that is visually artful and expertly directed. Help! really is the full package, and as Scorcese suggests, Lester takes the opportunity to make this film in color and runs with it. Watching this film for the visuals alone is worth it, but add in a fast-paced plot with hilariously dry humor and great music, and it is a delightful ninety-two minutes.

The Music

Help! has some of my favorite music sequences of any musical film, let alone just Beatles films. The movie opens with a fairly standard performance of “Help!” with them on a stage. However, it plays on a projector as the cult members watch it to study the man who currently possesses the ring and will be the next sacrifice, adding some dimension and humor from the beginning.

The next musical sequence is the boys playing “You’re Going to Lose That Girl” in a studio. This is in my top few favorite musical sequences of all time. It is absolutely gorgeous, and every single frame of it is a masterpiece. It is simple in concept but so intriguing and entrancing in its visuals that you cannot help but devote your full attention to the sequence. Again, this movie is worth it for this sequence alone. Since I praised it so much, you can find a snippet here.

“You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” comes next, with the boys playing the song in their home, serenading the double agent Ahme, played by Eleanor Bron. It’s another sequence that is quite simple, especially when compared to the more high-energy ones from A Hard Day’s Night, but the intimacy of it is compelling in its own right. It again is shot in an exceptionally engaging way, and it feels as if you are sitting there with them, just enjoying the music in this moment.

The “Ticket to Ride” sequence is perhaps the most famous in the film and definitely one of the most known from the Beatles canon of movies. While running from the various groups chasing them, the group ends up at a ski resort, and this sequence is essentially just them gallivanting. It is more reminiscent of the high-octane moments from A Hard Day’s Night, again with some stunning nature shots. You can tell they are having a great time in this number especially, and it is infectious.

The “I Need You” and “The Night Before” sequence is a two-for-one. The Beatles play these two songs in a field surrounded by tanks and soldiers. At this point in the story, they have to record music, but there is almost nowhere safe for them to go, leaving this as a last resort. Again, it is simple but not without its own charms. The authenticity of the wind and the elements make these quite fun, and there is a lot of humor to the fact that they build this pseudo-recording studio in the middle of a field. Every musical sequence in this film is incredibly entertaining and engaging, even if they appear simpler on the surface than their counterparts in A Hard Day’s Night.

This film is also unique because a lot of the background music the audience hears in various scenes are instrumental versions and different arrangements of other Beatles hits, like “A Hard Day’s Night” and ”I’m Happy Just to Dance with You.” It is a lot of fun to listen for and try and pick up on these.

Verdict

Scorcese writes that Lester’s “pictures felt up to the minute, in the same way that Truffaut’s and Godard’s did, but they were lighter than air, playful.” Help! is a perfect example of this. I once made the joke to my brother that if you dubbed A Hard Day’s Night in Italian and put subtitles on the bottom, it could pass for a Fellini film. Help! capitalizes on the success of The Beatles and their first film to make a movie that is wilder in its plot but more subdued in its atmosphere, leading to a uniquely engaging piece of filmmaking. There is little reference made to the success of The Beatles in this film, rather they just feel like people, and the simpler musical sequences contribute to this feeling.

Given the acclaim of A Hard Day’s Night, it is hard to compare the two in any meaningful way. A Hard Day’s Night is, in most people’s minds, superior and I would tend to agree. However, Help! has its own merits. They are entirely engaging in different ways but both endure and remain entertaining because of the incomparable natural charm of its subjects and the masterful hand of Richard Lester behind the camera. Help! boasts some incredible cinematography and jaw-droppingly gorgeous visuals. More than that, it serves as a great time capsule of The Beatles at the height of their appeal.

It is hard to watch Help! and A Hard Day’s Night and not come away thinking that The Beatles were and remain in a league of their own. No other group (again with the potential exception in this study of The Monkees, but that is a complicated comparison to make) comes close to replicating the natural charm and unique appeal of The Beatles. Their films stand as a testament to that. Perhaps a modern listener may not immediately understand the mythos of The Beatles just from listening to some of their music. After all, they revolutionized music so much that the things they did, which were so ground-breaking then, feel commonplace now. However, watching one of their movies, Help! in particular, provides a much greater glimpse into what made them so special and keeps them so fresh to this day. They were not only great musicians; they had a level of self-awareness that allowed them to relentlessly make fun of themselves, pioneer the surrealist comedy movement on screen, and create films that were works of art time and time again. They really were all that, and Help! is a tremendous testament to that.