Помогите! (Help!) – Фильм с The Beatles о приключениях и культе Кали

1965 British musical comedy adventure film starring the Beatles

Help! is a 1965 British musical comedy adventure film directed by Richard Lester, starring The Beatles and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. The second film starring the Beatles following Lester's A Hard Day's Night, Help! sees the group struggle to protect Ringo Starr from a sinister eastern cult and a pair of mad scientists, all of whom are obsessed with obtaining a sacrificial ring sent to him by a fan. The soundtrack was released as the band's fifth studio album under the same name. Help! had its Royal World Premiere at the London Pavilion Theatre in the West End of London on 29 July 1965 in the presence of Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon and the Earl of Snowdon. While not reviewed at the time with the same high level of admiration as their first film, Help! is now credited with influencing the development of music videos.

An eastern cult (a parody of the Thuggee cult) is about to sacrifice a woman to their goddess, Kali. They notice that she is not wearing the sacrificial ring. Instead, Ringo Starr, drummer of the Beatles, has the ring, sent to him by the intended victim, who is a fan of the band. Determined to retrieve the ring and sacrifice the girl, the chief priest, Clang, several cult members, and high priestess Ahme leave for London. After failed attempts to steal the ring without Ringo noticing, they confront him in an Indian restaurant. Ringo learns that he will be the next sacrifice if he does not give up the ring. However, the ring is stuck on his finger and he cannot take it off. The Beatles are chased around London by members of the cult. After a jeweller fails to cut the ring off, the band resorts to the bumbling efforts of Professor Foot, a mad scientist and his assistant Algernon; when his equipment has no effect on the ring, the scientist decides that he must somehow acquire it. Ahme comes to the Beatles' rescue and tries to shrink Ringo's finger to get the ring off with ease, but the cult and the scientists ambush the band's home, causing Ahme to drop the syringe in shock, shrinking Paul instead. The band runs to the Austrian Alps and narrowly escapes a trap there, thanks to Ahme, who is secretly aiding the Beatles. To stay safe, they ask for protection from Scotland Yard. They are hidden in Buckingham Palace, narrowly avoiding capture by the scientist. Later at a pub, Clang sets a trap for Ringo involving a trap door and a tiger. Then they flee to the Bahamas, followed by the police officers, the scientist, and the cult members. After Ringo is nearly captured, the police have the other Beatles pose as him in order to ensnare the cult members. Despite their best efforts, however, the scientist catches Ringo and hides him aboard a boat where he intends to cut off his finger to get the ring. Ahme rescues Ringo by giving the scientist a shrinking solution in exchange. The two of them dive into the ocean to escape, but Ringo cannot swim, and they are both captured by Clang and his followers. In the end, when Ringo is about to be sacrificed on the beach, the ring suddenly comes off. He puts the ring on Clang's finger, who is then chased by his own cult as the song "Help!" plays.

The Beatles said the film was inspired by the classic Marx Brothers film Duck Soup; it was also directly satirical of the James Bond series of films. At the time of the original release of Help!, its distributor, United Artists, also held the rights to the Bond series. The humour of the film is strongly influenced by the abstract humour of The Goon Show, in which the director had personal and direct experience in the conversion of the radio format to television, and personal working experience with Peter Sellers in particular. Beatles recording producer George Martin had also produced records for the Goon Show team. McCartney has always said that the Beatles' style of humour was taken from the Goon Show. Many of the film's concepts are derived from Goon Shows, such as the presence of wild animals, music, fourth wall breaking jokes and abstractions such as the closing statement that concludes the film.

Among the original working titles for the film were Beatles Phase II and Beatles Two, before Starr suggested Eight Arms to Hold You, which was announced as the official title in mid March 1965. The latter title was printed on the cover artwork of the single "Ticket to Ride" as from the upcoming film. Because of this, the phrase has been used as a title for an album by Veruca Salt and for songs by the Goonies and by the Brittles, a Beatles pastiche band. By mid April 1965, the press was already announcing the film would be retitled. In an interview, Starr said "We wanted to use Stop the World, We Want to Get On, but I believe that Brando's doing that," though it may have been said in sarcasm. The Beatles had also suggested High Heeled Knickers, a play on the title of Tommy Tucker's 1964 hit song "High Heeled Sneakers".

The photographer Michael Peto was commissioned in 1965 to take still photographs during the making of the film; these became known for their candid and expressive quality. During the digitisation of the Michael Peto Collection, which is held by Archive Services, University of Dundee, in 2002, 500 previously unpublished photographs of the Beatles taken during the making of Help! were reported to have been uncovered. Now These Days are Gone, a limited edition volume of Peto's photographs focusing on the Beatles images was produced in 2006 with deluxe editions of the book signed by Richard Lester. An exhibition of the photographs to mark the book's launch was held at Hoopers Gallery, Clerkenwell, in January 2006. Another exhibition of the photographs was held at the University of Dundee in 2007 as part of the university's 40th anniversary celebrations, with the exhibition then moving to the National Conservation Centre, Liverpool. In 2011, the photographs were exhibited in Dundee, as part of the Scottish Beatles Weekend, and at the Proud Gallery in Camden.