The Beatles followed up their debut film A HARD DAY'S NIGHT with this fanciful spy spoof. When Ringo adds a new ring to his collection he's unaware of how important and dangerous this piece of jewelry is. On one hand a religious cult considers it a sacred object and the wearer must become a sacrifice to their gods. On the other hand the ring has magical abilities that hold the key to supreme power. Soon the boys from Liverpool are engaged in a slapstick and madcap chase round the world as a crazed scientist a pack of crooks and several religious fanatics set out to capture the band. Watch for the English Channel swimmer who seems to be perpetually lost and appears in nearly every location. Includes Beatles' hits including "Help!" "Ticket To Ride" "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" and many more.System Requirements:Running Time: 153 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/SHOWBIZ Rating: G UPC: 5099951034795 Manufacturer No: C9DW-10347

The Beatles followed up their debut film, A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, with this fanciful spy spoof. When Ringo adds a new ring to his collection, he's unaware of how important and dangerous this piece of jewelry is. On one hand, a religious cult considers it a sacred object and the wearer must become a sacrifice to their gods. On the other hand, the ring has magical abilities that hold the key to

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This was the first Beatles film I saw. From the first minutes of the film I was hooked! I became an instant Beatle fan.

A religious cult is after Ringo because he is in possession of thier sacrificial ring. There are several failed attempts to obtain the ring: stealing it at night as he sleeps, grabbing it when he posts a letter, the elevator scene, getting the ring at a restaurant and even sawing around his drum set so he will fall through to the basement as the Beatles record "You're Gonna Lose That Girl". Despite these failures, Clang (Leo McKern), the cult leader, is more determined than ever to get the ring from Ringo!

Ahme (wonderfully played by Eleanor Braun), a priestess of the cult is secretly working with the Beatles to keep them out of harms way.

Added to the mix are two bumbling scientists Professor Foot and Algernon (Victor Spinetti and Roy Kinnear respectively), and a Scotland Yard superintendent played by Patrick Cargill. To Cargill everything is "famous" (the famous Ringo, famous Beatles, famous plan).

John, Paul, George and Ringo are all charming as ever. The settings run from England, to the ski slopes of Austria to the Bahamas.

There are so many funny things in this movie that you can't just watch it one time and catch them all.

The soundtrack to this movie is awesome: "Help!", "The Night Before", "I Need You", "Another Girl", "You're Gonna Lose That Girl", "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", "She's A Woman" and "Ticket To Ride".

It's such a shame that MPI is no longer producing this movie. I truly hope another distributor will be able to gain the rights so it will once again be available.

It is well worth the trouble of hunting a copy of this movie down because everything about it is timeless.

24 of 26 found the following review helpful:

Goofy fun, great music-- SO WHERE IS THE DVD?May 14, 2001
By David S. Michaels "Flavius Crispus"
My three daughters (ages 11, 7, and 5) are suddenly in the full thrall of Beatlemania, something I thought I'd gotten over 20 years ago. Lo and behold, they totally re-infected me at age 44! We can't seem to get "1", "Revolver", "Abbey Road" and "Rubber Soul" out of rotation on our CD player. My kids and I also watch the DVDs of "Yellow Submarine" and "Magical Mystery Tour" (which shows how truly hard core we are) every few days.

Anyway, I went in search of DVDs of "Hard Day's Night" and "Help" and found out THEY ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE. It seems they have been TAKEN OFF THE MARKET just as the Fabs were hitting Number 1 again across the land! Same goes for VHS tapes and DVDs of the "Beatles Anthology" and "Compleat Beatles" documentaries, all listed as "out of print and no longer available."

HELLO-- Who's reponsible for this FIASCO? Someone ought to be fired immediately for this, since there's no telling how much money is being lost minute-by-minute. The Beatles are once again the HOTTEST BAND IN THE WORLD, and their best movie work is suddenly UNAVAILABLE? The stupidity of this marketing move is almost inconceivable.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to find a tired, worn-out VHS tape of "Help" on the bottom shelf of the local video store and brought it home. The kids, of course, FLIPPED and I found myself once again amazed at what truly natural, charismatic performers the Fabs were.

Although rock critics have always liked "Hard Day's Night" more, I must admit "Help" has always been my favorite Beatles movie. Viewing it again after 20-odd years, I'm amazed at its innocent charm and how well some of the sight gags hold up. It's a sheer pleasure to watch all the proto-music videos in it, particularly the fabulous "Ticket To Ride" sequence (my youngest still screams "The SKI SONG! YIPPEEE!" whenever the opening chords come over the stereo). The Mad Scientist character reminded my girls of "The Brain." Some of the casually tossed-off lines have amazing staying power. "A feindish thingee!" "You've got a plan, haven't you inspector?" "Not a bit like Cagney!" "Ah, you see? British! If I had a Luger..." "So these are the famous Beatles / So this is the famous Scotland Yard" "Lovely boys! Just the same as they was before they was" etc.

The spirit of both "Help" and "Hard Day's Night" is definitely "cheeky," as opposed to the "snotty" and cynical attitude adopted by today's teen-oriented music stars (don't believe me? Compare the excruciating "Jose and the Pussycats" to any Beatles flick and tell me we haven't gone BACKWARDS in 30-odd years in terms of music, talent and attitude). That's the only bad part of watching or listening to the Beatles in this day and age: It reminds you that pop/rock music is long into its decadent phase, with the themes so daringly explored by the Beatles and others so long ago simply being hashed, rehashed, sampled, computerized, and spat out by today's soulless performers.

Anyway, I would happily buy a "Help" and "Hard Day's Night" DVD IF THEY WERE AVAILABLE! How long is this agony to last?

25 of 29 found the following review helpful:

The question of aspect ratios, neither U.S. version is correct.Nov 06, 2007
By Paul J. Mular
The issue of aspect ratios will always be a problem with films produced between 1955 & 1990. Unless they were produced in a real "widescreen" format such as Cinemascope, VistaVision, or other trademarked names, the movie is best seen in full frame 1:33-1 format.

The Beatles Films A HARD DAY'S NIGHT & HELP were shot in a British theatrical format which is inbetween 1:33-1 and 1:85-1. About 1:66-1, which means both U.S. screen formats will cut something off of the picture.

I compared the old "Full Frame" 1:33-1 release of HELP to this new "Anamorphic" 1:85-1 release. I must first say that all of the long shots benefit from the added picture to the sides on the widescreen version, and they feel better this way. However the widescreen version tends to cut off the tops of peoples heads in the close-ups and the full frame version looks better.

Overall the film looks superior in this newly re-mastered widescreen DVD, with the color correction & scratch removal. The sound has been improved also (even though Laserdiscs have better sound reproduction).

The old Criterion 2-disc Laserdisc does contain some bonus material that is not on this 2-disc DVD release. But there is also much new bonus material on this release that was not on the old 2-disc Laserdisc release.
I will keep both versions. Hopefully someday someone will release the film in it's original 1:66-1 aspect ratio and give us the full picture!

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