classicsoncall This is the kind of film that was hip back in the day, but along with the prior Beatles flick "A Hard Day's Night" and the Monkees' "Head", this picture is almost embarrassing today, if not downright tedious. I think one can be a Beatles fan and realize the whole attempt here was pretty silly, grown men running around and mugging the camera in a story line that might have appealed to a teenager during the Fab Four's heyday. I have to say though, the plot would have been right up a horror film director's alley, say in the 1940's, calling for the recovery of a dreaded, sacred, sacrificial ring of the fearful Kaili. I could see Lon Chaney or Bela Lugosi involved with something like that.Ringo Starr pretty much takes center stage here as the bearer of the Kaili ring, and he's about to become a human sacrifice unless the ring finds it's way back to the High Priest Clang (Leo McKern). John and Paul have almost as much screen time as their drummer, with George taking a noticeable back seat in terms of on screen participation. The best thing about the picture as most viewers acknowledge is the song list offered from the Beatles album of the same name. If you're a Beatles fan you can sing along, although I can't remember the last time I might have heard 'Another Girl', so that was a neat addition to the film as part of the catalog.At one point in the story, someone acknowledges the singers, it might have been Clang, by saying "So this is the famous Beatles, eh?" My best advice if you're brand new on the scene and just getting around to the music of the Sixties and the Beatles legacy, don't get turned off by this early movie effort. If faced with the choice of watching "A Hard Day's Night" or listening to their music, I'd say go with the album.

Anaïs Comagnac The release of the film dates back to 1965. The film is based on the famous singers, The Beatles. However, it is not a true story about their life but, this is a comedy full of British humor . It was a school project ; we went to see this movie during the British Film Festival . It is a week when British movies are presented to the public . Besides, the film director Richard Lester , was in France , in order to make a conference about his movie .The plot focuses on Ringo. Indeed, he is wearing a deadly ring, a sacrificial ring to be exact , which belongs to an Eastern Cult. Nevertheless, the plot is not that enthralling. The gags and the music are the only reasons for watching the movie. The plot is not really interesting as a result the movie is a funny but nonsense. Also, it is pretty much repetitive and to be honest, I slept for about 10 minutes during the movie .However, soundtrack makes the movie valuable . The fans of The Beatls will no doubt be thrilled with that . When all is said and done, I will only recommend this film for the sound effect and the acting , otherwise it is not worth seeing it .

garylcamp Hard Days Night (HDN) was quite good, Help was awful. If I had watched the directors comment I would have been even more disappointed. He was right on in analysis but execution failed. It was not that funny, had stupid instead of rye humor, really dumb story line. I cant understand why HDN was so good and this so bad. It was bad in 1966 when I saw it and bad in 2015 when I watched it again. I knew it was bad but just watched HDN again and gave it a chance. Mistake.It is the story line and dialog that was bad, not the cast (support actors were fair, Beatles were Beatles). Directing was OK given the poor script but I just don't understand why it was approved by Beatles and director, who normally have better taste.It was silly rather than clever. I thought there was more plausible plot in HDN. And more cohesive and connected continuity too. Help was just a collection of silly scenes not much connected together except for returning to the the stupid plot-line occasionally.

stevequaltrough A Hard Day's Night and Yellow Submarine often appear in lists of the best rock films of all time, Help less so despite it including 3 of John Lennon's best songs. This may be because the plot resembles not Monty Python but a Goon Show episode. This breakthrough show of the 50s and very early 60s often featured a nemesis called the Red Bladder played by Ray Ellington as well as other Indian characters voiced famously by Peter Sellers in Spike Milligan's surreal story lines in which Milligan also acted. They were often set in far flung corners of the British Empire and mercilessly lampooned the British, It was a fore runner of Monty Python and its spin off Ripping Yarns. Readers may be interested in the Goon Show episode called the Last British Banana Tree where our "heros" are sent to protect the last bananas. Not only do the bananas get blown up, so do the Goons to the catchphrase "You've deaded me". Richard Lester was heavily involved with this comedy partnership and it is my contention he has referred to this "default position" when organising Beatles film two. The Goons had 20 minutes comedy interrupted by two musical interludes per half hour. Then it stopped. Help! goes on its manic way for an entire feature pausing only to have musical interludes featuring the Beatles. But the problem is this. When we tuned into the Goons we expected the show to be dominated by comedy, when I went to the Gaumont, Liverpool in 1965 we expected to hear Beatles music and so came out of the cinema theatre feeling unsettled and shortchanged. Maybe this intention to slightly unsettle was deliberate on Lester's part. It seemed asif it could be that in Britain that the writing was on the wall for the Beatles as Merseybeat and the Cavern were on the wane in the popularity stakesat this point in time. Could this be that this is why there is no victorious ending to the film. It ends with a dust up on a beach (or should that be sand up)to the title song. The Beatles survive but that is about it. As Lester has just played "Help" as the film descends into Goon like fiasco, he can hardly repeat the same song for the end credits so he resorts to a shot of the ring with the Beatles imitating the Goons (I kid you not) before THE END title shows. .We could have had another Lennon and McCartney song or John singing "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" that is o the flip side of the UK "Help" album. But instead we have something not Beatles related.We get a snatch of classical music. At no time do we see anyone enjoying the Beatles music. Leo McKearn says it is "shocking" and throws darts at a cinema screen with the Beatles tearing through the opening song "Help!". This is despite the music being fabulous. Later the Beatles perform in a recording studio or in a series of remote locations such as Salisbury Plain, icy Scandanavia or on a deserted Caribbean beach. Never to an audience.The Beatles were still a performing band at this stage and only a short while later played Shea Stadium so why not play out with a shot of the Beatles in concert? Granting that the public would have been in danger from the Eastern Cult (according to the plot line)before this we could at least have had a "live" performance as a climax as in Hard Day's Night, Let It Be or even Magical Mystery Tour, even if it was with the titles superimposed across it. Maybe the symbolism of the end with its camera perspective being viewed through the faces of the red ring-jewel is to hint to us that we have been watching the Beatles through "a prism". Rather than the intimacy of "A Hard Day's Night" we have been kept at a distance from the Fab Four. The first feature felt as if we were "with the Beatles". This keeps us at an arm's length from them. Nevertheless what we are left with is a fun,melodic feature, its colourful sheen and frantic plot lines stopping us from realising that. Beatles music apart, there is nothing of much substance going on here. Best viewed by Beatles fans as "the one in colour". It has some great innovations that would be used in music videos such as "Ticket to ride etc" and as a Beatles fan I wouldn't be without it,but... Magical Mystery Tour (or should it be "a Day Out in the Life of the Beatles") is more authentically Beatles and has about the same ratio of music in a much shorter film. It continues the great video experiment pioneered by Lester.