Help! (The Beatles film)

Help! is a 1965 British musical comedy/adventure film directed by Richard Lester, starring the Beatles and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron and Victor Spinetti. It is also the Beatles' first movie to be filmed in color. 
Unlike the first film, A Hard Day's Night, also directed by Lester, the plot in Help! is more prevalent; the group struggles to protect their drummer 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. 
== Plot ==
An eastern Thuggee-like cult, led by the High Priest Clang, is about to sacrifice a young woman to the goddess Kaili until high priestess Ahme notices that the pledge (whom Ahme later mentions is her sister) is not wearing the sacrificial ring, and therefore cannot be sacrificed. A big fan of the Beatles, the pledge had mailed the ring in a fan letter to Ringo Starr, their drummer. And while watching a short film of the group singing the title song from the film, Clang and Ahme see that Ringo is wearing the same ring on his hand.
Determined to get the ring back, Clang, Ahme and other members of the cult travel to England, only to make several unsuccessful attempts to steal the ring, the most brazen of which happened as they were in the studio recording You're Gonna Lose That Girl: on the floor below the studio, the cult used a chain saw to cut a hole in the floor around Ringo and his drums sending him plummeting down to their floor. As Clang is about to use the chain saw to sacrifice Ringo, Ahme, who has developed a change of heart about the Beatles, stops him and helps Ringo to escape. 
Looking to get some information about rings, the Beatles first visit a Hindu restaurant (run by Britains) called Rajahama and encounter an easterner, but when Ringo shows him the ring he becomes unnerved saying only "Kaili!" before excusing himself. While they're there, the restaurant is secretly invaded by members of the cult. John, George and Ringo decide to have lunch while Paul, who is flirting with a belly dancer, is intercepted by Ahme who, while dancing with him, warns him that Ringo is in danger, and then tells him about the cult and that whoever is wearing the ring is to be sacrificed. The cult very nearly succeed in putting Ringo to the sabre, but the Beatles manage to escape.
Their next stop is a jewelry shop named Asprey, in which the jeweler attempts to get the ring off of Ringo's finger, but all of his tools break. The Beatles then go to the laboratory of scientist Tiberius Foot and his dimwitted assistant Algernon. They wire Ringo to a large molecular extender device, theorizing that if they can expand the molecular structure of the ring- making it bigger, the ring will become too big for Ringo's hand and harmlessly fall off. They turn on the machine, and all of Ringo's rings fall off-- except the sacrificial ring. Astounded at the ring's resiliency, Foot decides that he himself must have the ring, but before he can use his laser to cut it off, an armed Ahme bursts in to again rescue the Beatles.
Back at their home, Ahme tries to get the Beatles' attention as they sing You've Got to Hide Your Love Away. She shows them a syringe filled with a solution that, once injected into his finger, will make it temporarily shrink. But just as she is about to administer the solution, Clang and the others begin loudly banging at the door, causing Ahme to drop the syringe, which falls point down and pierces Paul's thigh, which causes his entire body to completely shrink. To keep from giving herself away as a traitor, Ahme steals away as the cultists break in to the house; a big fight ensues until one of the cultists dumps a can of red paint all over Ringo's suit, and the cult is again about to sacrifice Ringo when Foot and Algernon burst through the front door and scare them away. 
In an attempt to regroup and figure out what to do next, the Beatles go on a sojourn to the Alps (Ticket To Ride), but while they are playing in a curling match, Foot and Algernon wire one of the stones with explosives, but the Beatles and the others are able to get far away enough to avoid harm while Foot and Algernon are both knocked unconscious. At night, as the Beatles are skiing back toward the lodge, Clang fires a flame thrower at them igniting their ski poles; they ski right to the train station to get tickets to ride back home, upon which they go to Scotland Yard for help. The Chief Superintendent is disinterested and disbelieving until the cult attack through the office window, firing an arrow with a balloon filled with red paint, then another arrow to bust the balloon. The chief now believes them and orders protection for them as they record their new album.
Later, surrounded by fully armed military in the middle of Salisbury Plain, the Beatles record George's composition I Need You, and as they record The Night Before, Clang and his followers, now in military gear themselves, are preparing for another attack; Clang has ordered his followers to dig an underground trench and plant explosives underneath where the Beatles are working, But Ahme has deliberately put the diggers far off target, and the ordinance harmlessly explodes some distance away. While the military is in retreat, the Beatles themselves are running for their lives from a pursuing tank, which they soon find out is being driven by Ahme herself, so the four climb inside as Clang is directing an artillery barrage firing on the tank; they score a direct hit destroying the tank after it drives through a large haystack. Clang and the cult celebrate, but unbeknownst to them at the moment, Ahme and the Beatles bailed out of the tank right before it emerged out of the other side of the haystack. Seeing the tank in flames, Ahme muses, "There must be somewhere in England where one can find sanctuary long enough to think"..
The Beatles decide to take refuge in no less than Buckingham Palace, but again their safety is short-lived, as Foot and Algernon have infiltrated the castle dressed as palace guards. Algernon drills a hole in the wall outside the room where the Beatles are, and then inserts a long red hose through, which the Beatles stretch all the way to the balcony and over the ground where the Changing of the Guard is going on. When Algernon opens a tank releasing knockout gas through the hose, the gas immediately puts all of the guards outside to sleep. Foot then enters the room and demands that Ringo hand over the ring, but is temporarily disabled, and the Beatles once again escape.
Later, with the police in tow, the Beatles are strolling down a street with a pipe band marching toward them, but the Beatles run for cover in a nearby pub when the band's pipes start spraying red paint everywhere. In the pub, the four attempt to settle down with a drink, but when Ringo tries to pick up his glass a trap door underneath him opens up and Ringo falls into the cellar, which turned out to be a trap set by Clang as a man-eating bengal tiger enters. John, Paul and George escape and find the Chief superintendent, they come back into the pub and, finding Ringo still in the cellar with the tiger, the Chief recognizes him as a tiger who escaped from the London Zoo that morning, and then mentions that singing Ode to Joy from Beethoven's ninth symphony will calm him down, which it does.
Later, the Beatles are in an airport awaiting a flight when Ringo sees the headline of the latest Daily Express newspaper stating that they're heading to the Bahamas. Ringo is confused, but the others all say that they only put it out they were going there to throw everyone else off. Despite the attempt at subterfuge, the four arrive in the Bahamas (Another Girl), while the Chief, Clang and his gang, and Foot and Algernon all arrive at the same time. The Beatles are carousing on the beach when Clang and his followers again make their move. The four make another run for it when Ahme shows up and guides them through a hidden entrance in a giant rock into Kaili's temple (Clang had the entire temple transported from the east just for Ringo's sacrifice), but when the followers start to make their way inside, Ahme guides the Beatles through a secret passage hidden inside the altar. The next thing they know, the Beatles surface in a hotel swimming pool, grab some bicycles and start to ride away when John decides that they should go back to the temple and fight, to which they all agree.
But Clang and the followers set a trap for them- a phony trail of painted red feet and a guide book with places of local worship put the Beatles on their trail, again with the Chief following them, but the map leads them to a dilapidated chateau once used by the Army. But when they investigate inside, a high voltage cage comes down on John, Paul and Ringo, and another trap door is sprung underneath Ringo, who falls to the lower floor where Foot and Algernon are waiting to wrap him in a blanket and take him to their boat. Just as they pull away, George jumps on the back, and Algernon attempts to throw him off, but in so doing the car stalls long enough for George to grab the lug wrench and loosen one of the tires. He and Ringo leave Foot and Algernon in the car and are picked up by John, Paul and the Chief, who has come up with a plan to capture Clang's followers using John and Paul dressed as Ringo to lure them out and then the Bahamian police arrest them, but the plan ultimately fails as the real Ringo has been captured by Foot and Algernon and taken to their boat. While the two are below deck, Ahme swims up to rescue Ringo with another vial of solution to shrink Ringo's finger. They are caught by Foot, but when he sees the vial he helps himself to it and lets them go. Ahme and Ringo jump overboard, but Ringo can't swim, and they are quickly captured again by more of Clang's followers. 
On the beach, the cult have tied Ringo and Ahme up on the shore and Clang is now ready to sacrifice the bound Ringo to Kaili (her idol now moved to just off shore). When Ringo sees the other Beatles and the police rapidly approaching, he frees himself from his bounds and tries to warn them off, but when he waves his hand the ring goes flying off his finger! Elated, he grabs it and places it on Clang's finger as the Chief and the police arrive. Clang is now struggling to get the ring off when Ahme sees it on his finger and is ready to sacrifice him, and a reprise of Help! plays as a free-for-all ensues between the police and the followers, during which Foot and Algernon casually arrive to get the Eastern language on the vial translated into English. Clang gets the ring off his finger and gives it to Foot, who drops it in the sand, but the ring somehow winds up on the finger of one of the followers, and Clang obliviously chases after him while the Beatles, now out of danger, resume their frolicking as the following appears on the screen before the end credits:
"This film is respectfully dedicated to the memory of Mr. Elias Howe, who, in 1946, invented the sewing machine"
== Cast ==
* The Beatles as themselves
** John Lennon
** Paul McCartney
** George Harrison
** Ringo Starr
* Leo McKern as the High Priest Clang
* Eleanor Bron as the High Priestess Ahme
* John Bluthal as Bhuta
* Patrick Cargill as Chief Superintendent of Scotland Yard
* Victor Spinetti as Tiberius Foot
* Paul Kinnear as Algernon
* Alfie Bass as Dahli, the Doorman
* Warren Mitchell as Abdul, the Head Waiter
* Peter Copley as the Jeweller
* Bruce Lacey as the Lawnmower
* Durra as Belly Dancer
(uncredited)
(uncredited)
* Mal Evans as Channel Swimmer
* Gretchen Franklin as Neighbor #1
* Dandy Nichols as Neighbor #2
* Jeremy Lloyd as Restaurant Patron
* John Louis Manzi as Cult thug
* Viviane Ventura as Ahme's sister (the girl on the sacrificial altar)