 |
 |
| HELP! |
|
|
 |
|
| Side
1
Help!
|
Side
2
Another
Girl
|
| The
Beatles' second move
Help! was filmed from February 23 to May 11,
1965 and released in London July 29. Originally titled Eight Arms To
Hold You, the action/adventure spoof centers around Ringo who gets
a sacrificial ring (owned by an odd sect named the Kaili) stuck on his
finger. The Beatles are chased around the world by the Kaili who want to
kill Ringo while Foot and Algernon, a pair of mad scientists, try to steal
the ring for themselves.
Unlike A Hard Day's Night, Help! was filmed in color. George commented, "In color ... Yeah, wow, see? They had more money for that one!" Help! contained all the film's tracks mixed with Ken Thorne's musical scores from the film. A short "James Bond" theme precedes the title song. Photographer Robert Freeman wrote, "For the design of the album cover I had the Beatles signaling in semaphore the word HELP." Well ... not exactly. George signals an "N" or maybe and "R", John a "U", Paul a "J", and Ringo a "D" or "V". It's been suggested some of the images are reversed and out of order. If so, Paul signals an "H" and Ringo an "L". Closer to HELP but George's "N" or "R" and John's "U" remained unchanged. It has been suggested that Capitol intentionally arranged the lineup so Paul points to the Capitol logo. |
 |
| Liner
notes:
"HELP!" Guess where the Beatles are now? Bermuda!!
Austria!! And What are they doing there?
Why are the high priests of the temple Goddess of Kali interested in the Beatles? Why
is Ringo being pursued to the ends of the earth by a gang of Eastern thugs?
What
do they want of him - they aren't fans.
Two
leading scientists hope to rule the world.
Paul
is threatened by a beetle.
An
Eastern beauty saves the boys' lives time and time again.
A
channel swimmer ends up in an Alpine lake and Buckingham Palace has a busy
day.
When
Scotland Yard arrives in the sunny Bahamas after unsuccessful maneuvers
on Salisbury Plain they find four Ringos but only one George, one Paul,
and one John.
When
the power crazy scientists arrive in the Alps the boys miraculously escape
their deadly weapons.
Will
John live to sleep in his pit again?
Will
Paul ever get back to his electric organ?
Will
George be re-united with his ticker-tape machine?
And
Ringo - will he ever play the drums again?
(Just in case you haven't seen the movie yet we don't want to spoil the story for you but we will tell you that Ringo is the cause of it all) AND NOW... HEAR RINGO, JOHN, GEORGE AND PAUL SING ALL THEIR SENSATIONAL "HELP!" SONGS IN THIS VERY SPECIAL MOVIE SOUNDTRACK SOUVENIR ALBUM! "HELP!" It's an established fact. Whatever the Beatles do, they do it big. Take their latest film epic, "Help!" With a title like that you'd expect the fun to be fast, frantic and totally unpredictable. It is. What's more, you can be sure that John, Paul, George and Ringo have staged one of the wildest comedy chases ever - from the sunny shores of Nassau to the snowy alps of Austria and back again. The plot for the film-making of this full color saga reads like a success story itself. Men-behind-the-scenes, producer Walter Shenson and director Richard Lester, are the same team who made the fabulous first Beatles film, "A Hard Day's Night." That film, in the Beatles do-it-big tradition, went on to become as popular with adult audiences as with the younger set and won Academy Award nominations in two categories. Locations play a vital role in every film and "Help!" is no exception. After shooting sessions in the chill of February London, a chartered jet deposited Beatles, cast, crew, luggage, and their special co-star the 40-ft. tall, ten-armed Goddess of Kaili, in the sweltering 90-degree heat of Nassau. In the midst of filming, autographing and swimming, Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the film's sensational music score featuring seven new numbers in all. No sooner had the Bahama silver-white sands proved irresistible than the Beatles, cast, crew, luggage and co-star found themselves journeying to Austria's famous skiing paradise, Obertauern. Although Ringo is the only experienced skier in the group, they all took to the slopes for semi-Olympic style capers. Winding up the shooting schedule were four days on England's Salisbury Plain for a bit of military maneuvering, with the cooperation of the British War Office which supplied troops and tanks for the occasion. "As you can see, 'Help!' is essentially a good time picture," comments producer Shenson. "We traveled from calypso to yodel with a lot of scenery and yeah-yeah thrown in besides. The boys sincerely hope that what they've done will be fun for everyone." No need to worry. Wherever they are, that's where the fun is. |
