Beatles film restored with a little Help from experts

Nov 26 2007 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

A PAINSTAKINGLY restored new version of The Beatles’ film Help! was shown for the first time last night

The musical comedy was screened on BBC4 following a meticulous £700,000 clean up that removed more than 13m specks of dust and scratches from the frames of the original film and adjusted the fading colours.

The band’s company Apple Corps is now set to do the same for their later film Magical Mystery Tour.

An expert who worked on the restoration of Help! said the 11-month-long effort, split between teams in London and California, has rendered the film to look much the same as it did at the time of its premiere in 1965. Critics described it as having an “almost eerily fresh and contemporary look”.

Help! followed a loose James Bond spoof-style plot, which featured a cult chasing the band around the world in an attempt to retrieve a sacred ring stuck on Ringo’s finger.

The musical numbers in the film – particularly the clip for Ticket to Ride, shot in the Alps – are widely thought of as the birth of the modern-day pop video.

The band would reveal decades later how some of the film was shot under the influence of drink and drugs.

A Sunday newspaper reported yesterday that Ringo Starr had already seen the new version of the film and was impressed with the results.

“I really remember Help! with lots of joy. Our attitude was that we’re making our second movie and it’s in colour – wow!

“The film has been cleaned up and re-graded so the colour looks beautiful.”

Help! was the follow up from The Beatles’s first film, A Hard Day’s Night. It co-starred actors including Roy Kinnear and Eleanor Bron.

vickyanderson@dailypost.co.uk