In interviews for Anthology and other publications, the Beatles describe filming "Help!"
George: "In color...Yeah, wow, see? They had more money for that one..."
Paul: "Things went a little bit awry, see, we said, 'We've never been to the Bahamas, can you write that in? I've never been skiing, I wonder if you could write in a scene with me skiing.'"
Ringo: "It was fabulous, of course the problem was we went to the Bahamas to do the hot scenes, and of course it was freezing. Of course, we had to ride around and run around in shirts and thin trousers and it was absolutely bloody cold."
John: "By then we were smoking marijuana for breakfast, at that period, and we were well into marijuana, and nobody could communicate with us because it was just four glazed eyes giggling all the time."
Paul: "I think that was one of the reasons for not learning the script. We'd just sort of showed up a bit stoned, and sort of smiled a lot and hoped we'd get through it."
George: "It's difficult, you know, when four people all have to say lines one behind the other. And if one person forgets it, you've got to start again. And then the next person'd forget his lines and we'd did some scenes, the scenes that were in Buckingham Palace in "Help!" (laughs)..We were doing that scene for days.."
George is referring to Paul's flubbing his lines and fixing on the drumsticks he's playing with
Ringo: "There's one scene in the film where Victor Spinetti, and whoever else is in that scene, and they're doing that curling, you know, with the big stones and you slide them, and one of them, of course, has a bomb in it. We find this out, so it's going to blow up so we have to run away. And Paul and I ran about seven miles (laughs). We just ran and ran so we could stop and have a joint and come back. And we were just off...we'd run to Switzerland....."
John: "I enjoyed filming it, you know, I'm sort of satisfied with, but not smugged about it, but it'll do. 'Cause we're not capable enough actors to make it any better than that.."
Paul: "John got the idea, I think, for the title "Help!" And I think from the things he said later, I think that was a bit his state of mind at the time, he was feeling a bit constricted by the whole Beatle thing..."
John: "...I was in the middle of a trough during "Help!" I mean, you can't see it, really, I mean, I'm singing 'Help' for a kickoff, but it was less noticeable, you were protected by the power and the image of The Beatles..."
