Alfie Bass

By the surviving Beatles' & director Richard Lester's own admission in the "Beatles Anthology": The reason the Fab Four's 2nd film gave them few lines is because The Boys were stoned on pot thru most of the filming and either couldn't or wouldn't learn lines, so Lester just sort of wound them up & let them go, and made the film "around" them.

someone slipped some pepper (so to speak) up the hound's nose on this one. 1) The search doesn't even bring up the movie title, even if you include the exclamation point - on a film that gets 3 bones. 2) As a curiosity, this film might deserve a bone and a half, but no more. The Beatles (rightly) hated it: they have few lines, seem like puppets in a silly plot that takes center screen, and appear to be mostly going through the motions. The film tries to capture the wackiness of "What's New Pussycat?" but falls short, despite good production values. Where "Hard Day's Night" is charming and funny, however thin, "Help!" has less to offer Beatles fans than "Magical Mystery Tour" - and that says a lot.