In retrospect, it’s a shame that “Help!” wasn’t presented as a one-hour TV special rather than as a 92-minute feature film. In trying to one-up the lightning-in-a-bottle success of “A Hard Day’s Night,” director Richard Lester and his mop-topped stars reaffirmed the axiom that bigger is not always better by creating a large-scale romp that only occasionally percolates with hilarity but eventually wears out its welcome long before the closing credits.
The Beatles themselves were not initially happy with “Help!” – John Lennon sourly complained the group felt like extras in their own film. Indeed, the biggest laughs don’t go to the Beatles but to Leo McKern as the leader of an eastern cult trying to retrieve a sacrificial rite ring in the possession of Ringo Starr and Eleanor Bron as the mysterious cult member who appears to be working with and against the Beatles. Also getting the funniest bits are several supporting cast members including Victor Spinetti and Roy Kinnear as bumbling scientists, Patrick Cargill as a flustered law enforcement superintendent and Alfie Bass as the unlikely doorman of an Indian restaurant.
When the Beatles are front and center, the extravagant sight gags involving them – opening the doors to the four adjoining town homes, the men’s room hand drier that vacuums off their clothing, the ambush in a pub – is a tribute to Lester’s inventive direction and the Marc Behm-Charles Wood outrageous imagination rather than the Beatles’ comic skills.
But the screenplay ultimately worked against the endeavor, with endless variations of the attempt to regain the ring on Ringo’s finger – it becomes tiresome and predictable after a half hour and a bore after a full hour. (Try to imagine a seven-minute Road Runner-Wile E. Coyote cartoon stretched into a feature length film and you’ll understand why “Help!” floundered.) Prolonged on-location sequences at Salisbury Plain and in the Bahamas only added to the cumbersome weight by adding a travelogue feel to the proceedings – it also made the viewer nostalgic for the low-budget hijinks of “A Hard Day’s Night” which achieved more humor and charm in everyday working-class locations.
Of course, the music is the main selling point and “Help!” shines brightest with the Beatles being the Beatles, either in straightforward performances of the title song and “You’re Going to Lose That Girl” or in the playful shenanigans across the snowy Austrian Alps with “She’s Got a Ticket to Ride.” But when they weren’t singing, the Beatles were reportedly stoned during much of the production – this would explain the lack of freshness and enthusiasm compared to their first film.
In fairness, the Beatles had almost no input in the film’s story or direction, which made them push off other film projects presented to them including the anarchic “Up Against It” penned by controversial playwright Joe Orton. In comparison to “Help!”, the Beatles’ self-directed “Magical Mystery Tour” was closer to their genuine personalities and sense of humor, even if it was sloppily made and rather self-indulgent at times. And at one hour in length, “Magical Mystery Tour” satisfied viewers’ needs in a compact running time, whereas “Help!” drove many viewers to checking their wristwatches while wondering when the film would be over.