Last night I dropped by Music World before heading to Vero’s to pick up the new (old) Beatles film – Help! Before they jacked up the price. Music World takes no time with their announcement that they are shutting down; there were signs all over the place saying “STORE CLOSING!” and here’s the scoop from the Palmer:
– The Music World stores will be shutting down by the second week in January
– 20% off all white ticket items (white tickets are the ones not on sale).
– 10% off all blue/orange ticket items (which are the ones on sale).
So I saved $2 on my Beatles film which isn’t too shabby. It isn’t anything to thank the heavens for, but that’s money in my pocket.
After munching on some lovely fajitas courtesy of the lovely Vero, we settled in to watch Help! I have only heard the album/soundtrack and have never seen The Beatles in film before (other than the first 10 minutes of Yellow Submarine…but does that really count? I don’t think so!) so I was excited to see what they had to offer.
It was a hilarious tale with some spy/action/deadpan humour mixed into one! I have only seen a few films from the 60s but I love the carefree nature of them. This film is absurd! But that’s the fun of it! You can see they are having fun in this film.
Turns out that some Eastern cult is about to sacrifice a woman but discover she isn’t wearing the sacrificial ring. We find out that our favourite drummer Ringo has acquired it and so begins the hunt for the ring. There are many factions after the ring as some realize there must be some power inherent with it as it cannot easily come off of Ringo’s finger (believe me, they try!). They film is also interwoven with The Beatles performing seven tracks from their Help! Album which are a treat as they are integrated into the film (like when they are performing in Austria after escaping there to get away from their hunters).
I read on Wikipedia that they had discovered their love for marijuana during this period and had it every morning before shooting began and the director (Richard Lester) said it was impossible to get them to do much after lunch. While he said it was frustrating, everyone had a great time doing the film at the time.
I can say that I’ll watch this film again as it reminded me of the absurd films that Monty Python are famous for. Perhaps this was what the sixties were about in film-land – just having a good time with a mediocre plot.
Highly recommend for a good laugh and a piece of history.
iplaying: All Your Love – John Mayall & The BluesBreakers (Crossroads Disc 1)