"Help! is a rather enjoyable film, with impressive jet-setting, vivacious colour (see the wonderfully restored print released in 2007 on DVD) and deadpan mop-toppery.
The Beatles are even more at ease here than in the previous year's "A Hard Day's Night", and play off the great Leo McKern and the glorious Eleanor Bron to finely low-key comic effect. Bron and McKern play deliberately vague 'eastern' types; McKern with his absurd 'oriental' babble, and Bron decked in a befuddling array of costumes, from Indian fashions to pink leathers.
This film rattles along affably, with amusing escapades and odd little bits and pieces; it has the air of a more good-natured, absurdist Bond film. A fine cast, in fine locations (from Chiswick to the Salisbury Plains to the Alps to the Bahamas!), indulging in some surreal and yet down-to-earth knockabout. Much more fun than the frazzled "Magical Mystery Tour" 'film' and many other would-be-picaresque British comedies of this particular era.
Oh, and there's some bloody good music too.
The Beatles are even more at ease here than in the previous year's "A Hard Day's Night", and play off the great Leo McKern and the glorious Eleanor Bron to finely low-key comic effect. Bron and McKern play deliberately vague 'eastern' types; McKern with his absurd 'oriental' babble, and Bron decked in a befuddling array of costumes, from Indian fashions to pink leathers.
This film rattles along affably, with amusing escapades and odd little bits and pieces; it has the air of a more good-natured, absurdist Bond film. A fine cast, in fine locations (from Chiswick to the Salisbury Plains to the Alps to the Bahamas!), indulging in some surreal and yet down-to-earth knockabout. Much more fun than the frazzled "Magical Mystery Tour" 'film' and many other would-be-picaresque British comedies of this particular era.
Oh, and there's some bloody good music too.