Help! (1965)

Help! (1965), directed by Richard Lester.

Unaccountably Ringo has come into possession of a massive ring prized by a comical cult of thugee who must now paint him red and sacrifice him. Is this offensive to Hindus, more than Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)? Most of the ethnic humor is directed at the accents and mannerisms of colonial India. Perhaps offensive in its own way these days, but comedy isn't pretty.

Very silly, very slight. Inconsequential plot and the early music video song interludes are not integrated into the story. A Hard Day's Night (1964) by the same director had less plot but was more captivating.

On the plus side: Colorful Beatlemania! with many familiar faces of the era. Leo McKern is having a blast as the cult leader.

A few James Bond riffs are so obvious that the IMDB has "James Bond Theme (1962) (uncredited), Music by Monty Norman, Arrangement by John Barry". Like a Bond adventure we have locations in Austria and the Bahamas.

Steven Soderbergh's book Getting Away With It has a section on this in the Lester interviews:

• Lester was arguing with the lawyers over a title and finally said "If we just call it Help! does that violate anyone's rights?" The band went off for 25 minutes and came back with the title song.

• Soderbergh: "I'll make a bold statement here and say that Help! is, to me, the birth of what I consider to be modern color photography."

• Both agree that George Harrison was the best actor of the group.

Available on Blu-ray.