Saturday, December 29, 2007
Not So Vanished in the Haze
Like a lot of folks this Christmas, I received a copy of the new reissue The Beatles' Help! under the tree. Help was made was at the end of their 2.0 era (Hamburg & Bar Band is version 1.0, Beatlemania is 2.0, Revolver/Rubber Soul 2.5, Peppers to White Album = 3.0, Yoko, egos, decline & fall is 4.0) and there was obviously wisps of fun and freedom in the air.
I know there are a lot of Hard Day's Night purists out there, but that film had a lot of the kitchen sink and less of the British New Wave in it. Help! for better, probably worse, was the template for the Monkees and the gawdawful Beatles cartoon show. and probably also the inspiration for a lot of the first era of MTV music videos.
My first encounters with Help! were when NBC would show it with the note that it was edited for television. How could this be? Years later at UA package screenings when they would run Hard Day's Night, Help!, Yellow Submarine, and (you really have to be in the right mood for it) Let It Be did I find the edit. It is one of Help!'s most inspired moments. It occurs a half hour into the film during a scene of exposition where Ahme, "I am not what I seem", connects as a cuddly puppy interest for dreamy Paul and when she still appears to be Clang's priestess/assistant. An Announcer and title come on explaining that it is "End of Part One. Intermission" followed by a shot of just a few seconds of the Beatles jumping around a meadow, Titles and narration again" End of Intermission. Part three" a slide stating there was part three which is a short shot of the dismissed sister of Ahme having the sacrificial red being scrubbed off of her while her very British Mum gives her hell about going to the temple and then fanfare, a slide and announcement for Part three and back to the film.
My brother and I were a bit ecstatic. It was something we had never seen in a film we had watched at least three times. But looking back now, I think what I liked about it was the blatant mucking around with form and expected notions of what was likely and expected. I still remember the first time I saw Duck Amuck, with Daffy being terrorized at the artist level by Bugs. And I am pretty sure it was before I was in first grade.
There were probably some folks from or who had ties with former British colonies that probably weren't too pleased with the broad humor of eastern cult of Kaili, but I for one think Leo McKern is damned funny as Swami Clang, the bumbling religious leader who seeks the ring on Ringo's finger. (one of the dumbest premises ever for a movie, okay, I'll agree with that) This is not high minded stuff. But I loved it when I was 12 and I like it now with very minor apologies.
Here, then, somewhat randomly, are a few notes of non-guilty guilty pleasures of the romp of 1965. You can come by the buffet for a cocktail and we'll review some more if you wish to go into further depth at Late Boomer Middle School...
- Clang and his followers throwing darts at the screen during the boys' rendition of the title song. (Yes, Beatle purists, we know it can be interpreted as Lennon's plea for Help..now go write your dissertation)
- "So natural and still the way they was before they was." I love this line by the two women on the street who insist to one another they should wave or "Wieeeve" as it comes out.
- I love the Beatle's pad with the four doors all going into the same The grass on the floor. Paul playing a pipe organ with comic books for music. That cool sunken bed of John's.
- There was also the montage of the five early attempts on Ringo's ring, each preceded with a big Sesame Street-like numeral: Magnet in the elevator, the post office box, The guillotine at the pay scale, the bathroom hair dryer. And finally some music "You're going to lose that Girl" absoultely gorgeous in a backlit and smoke filled studio. Plus Ringo on bongos! Until the Clang unit cuts through the studio floor to drop the drum kit to the lower story with Ringo included.
- Victor Spinetti and Roy Kinnear as the mad scientist Professor Foot and his lame assistant Algernon. One of my favorite lines is when Algernon has the headset on narrating his readying of an explosive curling stone. "I am moving my left leg. I am moving my right leg." Pure goofy fun! and later still when they blow the royal fuse with their relativity cadenzer from Harvard.
- Beatles skiing in the Alps for ! Surrounded by tanks and military Pure music video majick! Beatles doing kind of what they wanted to do. I see a parallel with these segments in Help! with the Red Hot Chili Peppers nearly thirty years later when Under the Bridge let them break rules with "Breaking the Rules" complete with Anthony and his Princess Lea hairstyle.
- The Beatles in Scotland Yard where he takes the call with Clang on the other side of the line telling them to "Gooooo tooo TheWindow"
- The Shameless use of classical music: 1812 in the battle sequence, singing Ode to Joy to the tiger and most of all, a pre-Revolution #9 nitrous party overdub as the boys and other wacky Help! types are replicated many times in the ring's facets while George keeps trying to hype his song "I Need You."
If you when you saw Help! the first times, you will probably know exactly what I am talking about in this post. There is an energy and a lack of complication to the world and entertainment and silliness is just okay alright and then some. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go check out the extras disk and read the essays in the book that will surely help me find ways to justify my joy.
posted by well-executed buffet at 5:11 PM
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