October 9, 2020 was John Lennon's 80th birthday.
To celebrate, here is the other Beatles movie directed by Richard Lester. Everyone knows A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, the black and white classic about a fictionalized day in the life of the Fab Four. This color sequel is less well-known and remembered, but is one of my personal favorites.
The boys play themselves in a fictional story (cribbed a bit from THE MOONSTONE) about an evil cult eager to possess a sacred jewel that just happens to be mounted in a ring stuck on Ringo's hand. The cult comes after Ringo hoping to retrieve the ring. They're willing to kill if necessary and so the Fab Four soon finds themselves running for their lives.
The difference between the two films is that AHDN is a Beatles movie directed by Richard Lester and Help! is a Richard Lester movie starring the Beatles. The first film was about the boys (albeit highly fictionalized versions of themselves) -- a fictional documentatry about their life on the road into which Lester injected touches of his trademark surreal humor and his enormously clever and energetic New Wave-inspired shooting and editing. In contrast, Help! is a lightweight narrative designed to showcase Lester's humor and filmmaking in which the boys play a part, although the movie's not really about them in any significant way (Lennon once cracked that in Help! they were guest stars in their own movie).
This movie is nowhere near the classic that AHDN is and it doesn't get replayed nearly as often, but it's a clever, light-hearted romp filled with great British humor, a lot of enjoyable silliness, a cast that includes Leo McKern, Victor Spinetti, Roy Kinnear, and the awesome Elenor Bron, and some great Beatles songs, including the title number, "You're Going to Lose That Girl" "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" "Ticket to Ride" "I Need You" "Another Girl" "She's a Woman" and "The Night Before."
Happy Birthday, John!
