The Beatles in Help

by Al Hine

They're back - in the kinkiest, 'round the world caper of their career. With 8 pages of exclusive photos from the movie.

Genres: Fiction, Music

156 pages, Mass Market

First published January 1, 1965

Reviews

[Herm Stippich · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read “Help!” right after “Hard Days Night” and almost gave up on it after about 20 pages… the various attempts at Ringo becoming tedious. But then decided to restart and glad I did. Silly and dry British humor and the Lads, of course... plenty of LOL dialogue and gags. Glad I don’t have to wait for the movie versions to premiere ;)

[GLF (Seeing better than ever!) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A more intricate plot than "A Hard Day's Night", "Help!" works better as a book than it did as a film (IMHO)

[Mimana · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing style is really excellent.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this were just a novelization of the film, I would have rated it three stars. However, it gets bonus points for anticipating Monty Python's surrealist moments, and for including the description of a scene filmed but cut from the final movie, with the boys taking acting lessons from a famous British dramatic coach (played by Frankie Howerd, who starred in Dick Lester's A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM and later in that awful SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND, with George Burns and Steve Martin slumming along with Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees. Ugh.)

Anyway, I bought it for a quarter at a book sale, and it's worth $25 or so. But I'll never sell it.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge Beatles fan and Help! is one of my all-time favorite movies, so I was very excited when I was able to get my hands on a copy of the novelization! I'll just say now, it does not disappoint. Al Hine definitely captured the humor of the movie and the personalities of the fab four! There are a few scenes in the book that were deleted from the movie (partly why I wanted to read the book). The one conceivable issue I can think of (other than the fact that it's out of print) is that it's just as confusing/random as the movie, but that only adds to the humor (at least in my opinion!) It's a very quick read and very much worth it!

[Ariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, I'd seen the movie about Feb of last year. I fell in love with it instantly. It's hilarious. It's the Beatles. But it wasn't until a few months later that I found out that there was a novelization of the movie, but that there was a whole extra chase scene in the book that was cut out of the movie. So eventually I tracked down a copy of the book (for a fair price auctually) and read it. It was fantastic! It was like the movie and yet so very different from it. There were parts that were exactaly the same and then things that were different. I plan to read this again, no questions asked.

[Jacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as good as Hard Day's Night, but a powerful reminder of my youth.

[Amanda Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh hush. It was my graduation present and it made me laugh my ass off. ;D