Help! (1965)

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Help! (1965)

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Help! is a 1965 film directed by Richard Lester, starring The Beatles - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr - and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. The soundtrack was released as an album, also called Help!. The photojournalist Michael Peto was commissioned to take still photographs during the making of the film. They were recognised at the time for their candid and expressive quality. In 2004, more than 40 of his unpublished photographs of The Beatles were discovered during a digitisation project of his work. These were exhibited in 2007-2008 at the National Museums Liverpool.

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Help! (1965)

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Plot: An eastern cult (a parody of the Thuggee cult) is about to sacrifice a woman to the goddess 'Kali'. Just as she is about to be killed, the high priestess of the cult notices that she is not wearing the sacrificial ring. Ringo Starr, drummer of The Beatles, has it; sent to him by the victim - it is on his finger. Determined to retrieve the ring and sacrifice the woman, the great Swami Clang (McKern), the high priestess Ahme (Bron) and several cult members including Bhuta (Bluthal) leave for London. After several failed attempts to steal the ring, they confront him in an Indian restaurant. Ringo learns that if he does not return the ring soon, he will become the next sacrifice. Ringo then discovers that the ring is stuck on his finger.
Next, they seek a jeweller to remove it but the tools he uses all break on the ring. In a desperate effort to remove the ring, the band resorts to the bumbling efforts of a mad scientist, Foot (Spinetti) and his assistant Algernon (Kinnear). His laboratory is full of surplus British made equipment and Foot despises anything British. When his equipment turns out to have no effect on the ring, Foot decides that he, too, must have it. Before he can do anything else, Ahme comes in with a pink Walther P-38 pistol, rescues the group and they return home.

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Help! (1965)

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Ahme, now revealed as being on the group's side, tells the group that her sister's time has passed and she is now out of danger. Ringo is now the sacrifice victim. Ahme proposes to inject Ringo with a potion that is derived from the essence of certain orchids and would shrink his finger so the ring would come off. She tells Ringo to be brave and suggests, to the camera, that if he had been brave; "none of this would have been necessary".
Ringo lies nervously on the couch, waiting for the injection. But before Ahme can proceed, the gang starts to pound on the doors. Startled, Ahme drops the needle into Paul's leg and he shrinks instead. Cutting from "The Exciting Adventure of Paul on The Floor", the thugs break into the room and a fight ensues. Ahme flees. Ringo is doused with red paint (he has to be painted red in order for him to be sacrificed), thus ruining his best suit and causing him to cry and a swordsman approaches. Foot comes in, shoots a warning shot with his Webley and scares the man away. The gang retreats and Foot makes his attempt to take the ring. Paul unshrinks and John subsequently starts to swing a lamp at Foot who tries to shoot him, but his gun misfires. Blaming this on the fact that the gun is British made, Foot retreats. The boys are left to sort things out. The band flees to the Austrian Alps for refuge but both thugs and Foot follow in pursuit.

–from wikipedia

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Help! (1965)

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Help! (1965)

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Help! (1965)

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Help! (1965)

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Help! (1965)

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