Help! - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Help! or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Help!

[kenzi]

While meeting with the Scotland Yard Superintendent about protection for Sir Ringo Starr, John Lennon asks him how the investigation of the "Great Train Robbery" was going. While this might seem like some type of throw away line, he is talking about a real event. On August 8, 1963, thieves successfully robbed the London Mail Train which was hauling over £2 million worth of money. At the time this movie was made, Scotland Yard had yet to fully identify the men behind what was considered to be the biggest heist in history and had not yet fully recovered the money. (It's been said that the thieves weren't expecting such a huge haul and began throwing money away because they couldn't travel with it.) The robbery would go unsolved until 1968 when the mastermind, Bruce Richard Reynolds, was finally caught.

[veronica]

The pub scene and the scene in the Bahamas at "The Temple" were both shot on the same set. The trapdoor is used in both scenes.

[tom]

During the filming of the bicycle scene, a Hindu devotee approached all four Beatles with copies of a book about reincarnation, sparking the interest in Hinduism George Harrison would carry the rest of his life.

[kenzi]

Theatrical movie debut of Eleanor Bron (Ahme).

[tammy]

In the deleted scene with Frankie Howerd and Wendy Richard, Frankie's character is "Sam Ahab", spelled backwards it's "Bahamas", where The Beatles eventually wind up.

[fred]

The Beatles' producer George Martin joined the Beatles in the Alps for a skiing vacation while they filmed there, but hardly got to enjoy it; he broke his ankle the first day. Also, while Martin had provided the instrumental soundtrack for A Hard Day's Night (1964), he and director Richard Lester hadn't gotten along, and Lester chose Ken Thorne for this movie's instrumental score. In Martin's own words, "I was included out."

[bernard]

There's a moment in the "Ticket to Ride" sequence where The Beatles are skiing in the Austrian Alps, and appear to ski right underneath musical notation for the song itself. In the 2007 documentary that accompanied the DVD release, director Richard Lester stated that the decision to add musical notes came from the fact that the lads were skiing under some unsightly "telegraph wires". Since he couldn't remove the wires digitally (this was the pre-CGI era, after all), he figured they'd make an ideal musical staff instead.

[charlie]

A scene cut from the movie, one of the five attempts to kill Sir Ringo Starr, involved his making a pay phone call, and a botched sacrifice attempt within the phone booth.

[jamie]

In the final "I'm going to miss the sacrifice" scene where Clang's (Leo McKern's) men, The Beatles, Ahme (Eleanor Bron), and the good Police of the Bahamas are on the beach where they are rolling around in the sand fighting, a strange shot of a pair of very feminine legs and skin covered with sand is inserted for a flash of a second.

[cameron]

Director Richard Lester said that at the store Aspreys in Bond Street, John Lennon spent £8,000 during a two-minute break.

[melinda]

Three premieres were held for this movie.

[steve]

Judy Cornwell says in her memoirs she was asked to appear in this project but had to pass because she was pregnant.

[chris]

Throughout filming, Sir Paul McCartney drove director Richard Lester to distraction by constantly playing the melody of a new song he was working on called "Scrambled Eggs". By the time filming had wrapped, "Scrambled Eggs" had acquired new lyrics and a new title: "Yesterday".

[scarlett]

The Bahamas, which is where the "Another Girl" sequence was filmed, was rather cold during filming. This why all of The Beatles except Sir Paul McCartney are wearing long-sleeve shirts in what looks like hot weather.

[ray]

While filming in the Bahamas, The Beatles rented sports cars for each of them to drive. According to various stories, they drove to a rock quarry and began having races and smashing into each other for fun. There is filmed evidence of this fact: in the theatrical trailer, there are excerpts of the Beatles driving around in the quarry, mixed with the movie footage.

[brent]

George Harrison said that during the filming of the sequence in which The Beatles threw a hose out of the window and the Army guards all fall down, they were in hysterics laughing and the scene took almost a day to film.

[carla]

Due to time constraints, the movie was edited while it was being shot. So by day, director Richard Lester would shoot the movie, and by night, he would edit any scenes that had been completed.

[ava]

Originally, the Beatles were going to make a western movie. The story was going to be set in Texas and involved the four of them fighting over the affections of a cattle baron's daughter. There are even publicity photos showing them on horseback and wearing cowboy outfits. However, the movie shut down production and the Beatles ended up making this movie instead.

[russell]

The song "A Hard Day's Night" can be heard instrumentally throughout the movie.