The Beatles: Help!

by Sarah Hadley

On the last day of Christmas, I saw on DVD: four Beatles goofing, three big locations, two discs a-brimming, and a ruby for the goddess Kalili. 

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“The past is a foreign country,” said author L.P. Hartley, opening his 1952 novel The Go-Between. “They do things differently there.” He was talking, as so many great writers do, about love, but he might as well have been talking about youth. Youth is a strange, intangible substance, interwoven with but separated from the rest of our lives. No one knows where it ends or how it goes, and no one’s experience of youth is quite the same as anyone else’s. It is merely a label, a mnemonic for a period of time when we feel like anything is possible.

The interesting thing about our shared concept of youth is that it doesn’t stretch back so far. The definition of the teenager was invented in the 1950s, but although the conflict of the generation gap still exists there’s not much in common between the teens of then and now. No, youth as it stands today finds its roots in the height of the 1960s: everyone loved and everyone lived just that bit more intensely. Youth found its calling not in anger, but in humor, in protest and creativity and expression. Those concepts have been watered down over time, of course - today’s teens and twenty-somethings are more entitled than impassioned - but there’s something there, some little spark of irreverence, that has remained constant in youth culture from the mid-’60s through our present time.

I don’t think there’s a single better example of this phenomenon than the Beatles. They didn’t invent what we call the 1960s, true, but they certainly ushered it on in with sitars, drugs, long hair and disposable income to spare. Much of that lifestyle, admittedly, is foreign to us now - with the advent of globalization and easy communication, the far East will never seem so exotic again - but there’s still a free, easy charm to their personalities, and a universal quality to their music and philosophy, that ensures the Beatles are almost outside of a specific, constrained period of time. Maybe it’s because they never had a reunion tour. Maybe it’s because they never changed their tune, never quite gave up the basic tenets of peace, love, and understanding. Really, it doesn’t matter: the Beatles are still with us, even after all these years.

Help! is a startlingly good representation of the Beatles’ dual nature as both timeless icons and complete products of their time. At once both clever and outrageously dated, Help! is a sort of travelogue to an exaggerated world that no longer exists and probably never did. There are unspecified “Eastern cultists” out to kill Ringo - usually in completely implausible ways - because a fan sent him a cursed ruby in a letter. The Fab Four, undeterred, frolic their way through London, the Bahamas, and the Alps, demented grins on their faces as they trade gags with a handful of classic British comedians, goof around in their crazy, color-coded flat, and sing seven numbers from their latest album. The colors are bright, the music is good, and everybody’s clearly having a really fantastic time. Is it the drugs? Well, probably. And the Eastern stereotypes are pretty terrible to behold, although villains Leo McKern and Eleanor Bron both manage to sell the material in an outrageous, “Look how fun my job is!” way. But who cares? It’s not great cinema and it wasn’t ever meant to be. Help! comes close to being youth personified as a film: an exciting, freewheeling, and totally barking mad adventure with your best friends, where anything really is possible.

Help! is presented as a lush 2-disc DVD set by Capitol Records and the Beatles’ own Apple Corps. This is such a lovely set: a digipak, with both discs housed on one side of the ‘book,’ with the other holding a 16-page booklet containing an introduction by Richard Lester, an appreciation by Martin Scorsese, and film and DVD production credits, all illustrated with publicity photographs. At a point when most distributors are foregoing even the most basic insert, this is great packaging, and will only wet your appetite for the film.

And oh! What a transfer. I first saw Help! in its original, 1997 DVD release, and comparing the two pictures is like the reddest apples versus the orangest of oranges. This is a beautiful, anamorphic 1.75:1 transfer, ever so slightly windowboxed and clearly the product of a lot of hard restoration work. Colors are bright and vivid, veering slightly toward blue tones, with a pleasing amount of detail: take a look at John’s green corduroy coat and hat during the “I Need You“/”The Night Before” sequence, or Paul’s disguise at the airport. There are occasional flutters on the left-hand side of the image - probably damage that could not be further corrected - and a definite softness to long shots that is almost certainly indicative of the original film stock. (This is all pretty much in keeping with British films of the 1960s and early ‘70s; see, for instance, From Russia with Love or The Italian Job.) Overall, this is a very fine, film-like presentation. Couldn’t fault it if I tried.

Similarly, it’s hard to fault the audio tracks, though here I plead a lack of technology. I don’t have the equipment to try the DTS track, but the PCM stereo track is crisp and clear, with especially nice definition during the seven songs (which are quite a bit louder than the rest of the film!). Optional English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French subtitles are included.

And here we come to the special features. Disc 1 doesn’t include any listed extras, but if you explore the main menu with your remote you will find four highlighted figures amongst the Beatles photographs. Each highlighted figure, when selected, leads to an easter egg: a “U.S. Radio Spot” from 1965, advertising the release of the film. Another two of these radio spots can be found on Disc 2, again via a hunt of the main menu.

Moving on to the listed features, disc 2 starts with “The Beatles in Help!” (30 mins.), documenting the production and reception of the film. The Beatles themselves only appear in publicity interviews from the film’s release and silent behind-the-scenes footage, so the story is largely carried by comments from director Richard Lester, ably supported by actor Eleanor Bron, director of photography David Watkin, hair and make-up designer Betty Glasow, costume designer Julie Harris, Beatles manager Neil Aspinall, stunt doubles Peter Cheevers and Chris Diggins, and music video director Steve Barron. This is a great piece, more than making up for the lack of commentary (in fact, something concise like this is probably better); you’ll likely not only take away an understanding of Help!’s production, but an increased appreciation of the film itself. 

“Memories of Help!” (06 mins.) seems to be outtakes from the documentary, featuring extended interviews with many of the participants, as well as an anecdote from actor Victor Spinetti, who sadly doesn’t appear in the longer feature. Rounding out the documentary material, “The Restoration of Help!” (11 mins.) carefully follows the restoration process in great detail, interviewing many of the people involved.

“A Missing Scene” (04 mins.) is a curious little extra that ends up exactly what it claims to be: a missing scene, or rather the discussion of a missing scene, since it’s still missing! Director Richard Lester describes the sequence which would have found the Beatles alongside British comic Frankie Howerd. Archive paperwork and publicity photos accompany his comments, as well as those of actress Wendy Richard (Are You Being Served?, Eastenders), who also featured in the scene. The scene is unlikely to ever be found, having been cut before the film’s release, but it’s nice to see the almost-meeting of two British favorites acknowledged here.

Rounding out the extras are “2 U.S. Theatrical Trailers” (3 mins.), which is a bit of a cheat, since there’s only one full trailer (cropped to 4:3), followed by an advertisement for “tickets to the special gala premiere performances” of the film. Finally, “Spanish Theatrical Trailer” is the same as the American trailer, but presented in full 1.75:1 widescreen, featuring Spanish intertitles and cut to a shorter 76-second length.

It should be noted that all of the features on Disc 2 can be played individually or together, through a “Play All” selection. Also, every single feature - even the trailers - has been given optional subtitles in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. Good job, Apple! (No, not you, Steve.)

Help! is a time capsule to that country we call the past, restored with loving care and given star-studded treatment beyond what it may even deserve. The film lacks the raw ingenuity of A Hard Day’s Night, the otherworldly fascination of Yellow Submarine, or even the unbridled insanity of Magical Mystery Tour. It’s just the Beatles being silly, playing music and visiting exotic locations. Maybe it’s not art, then - but it’s sure a heck of a lot of fun. This 2-disc set is an essential purchase for any fan of the Beatles and the world they represented; get it, enjoy it, and let yourself be young.