Help! [1965]

Richard Lester's follow-up to A Hard Day's Night is an attempt to turn the Beatles into Liverpool's answer to the Goons, with a flimsy plot [somewhat embarassing in the light of the Fab Four's later embrace of Eastern religio] about Kali-worshipping cultists, led by a boot-polished Leo McKern, out to sacrifice Ringo to the Indian goddess of Death. With Eleanor Bron as a High Priestess in amazing pink outfits and British lunacy from Victor Spinetti, Patrick Cargill and Roy Kinnear, plus seven hit songs, this is intermittently wonderful if sometimes bewilderin, with the screen's first terror-by-chainsaw sequence and quite a few charmingly thrown-away one-liners.
KIM NEWMAN

First Published In: Empire [issue unknown]

Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com