*** Peter Sellers ***

[Aggie87]

Any love out there for Peter Sellers? Is he worth a corner? I think so! I've loved almost everything I've seen him in, and think he was a genius.

Just a few days ago I bought the Pink Panther DVD Collection that originally came out in 2004. It includes all of his Pink Panther flicks with the exception of "The Return of the Pink Panther", for some reason. But the images look great (and it came with a free ticket to the upcoming Steve Martin PP flick).

Any time I stumble onto a Sellers film on tv, I become glued to it. And I'm almost ashamed to admit I don't own a dvd of Dr. Strangelove. Gonna have to remedy that soon.

[Free For All]

Much as I enjoy Steve Martin's projects, I can't see how his version could possibly hold up to Sellers' Clouseau.

"Being There" is an amazing film. I also love "The Party". The man was a genius.

[brownie]

Some of his early films can be forgotten but yes the man was a genius!

He was in Kubrick's 'Lolita' and 'Dr. Strangelove' and was mesmerizing in both.

His Inspector Clouseau parts were excellent but in 'The Party' he turned the film into a masterpiece!

What a brillant actor!

Edited February 3, 2006 by brownie

[jazzbo]

I love the guy. Genius, yes!

And of course, "I understand."

[catesta]

Much as I enjoy Steve Martin's projects, I can't see how his version could possibly hold up to Sellers' Clouseau.

Agree.

Those Pink Panther movies are some of my favorites.

[GA Russell]

My favorite is a black and white one from the 50s called The Wrong Arm of the Law.

Anybody else see that one?

[JSngry]

I used to have an LP of some Goon Show episodes, and he was as hilarious doing radio was he was doing film.

Apparently a bit of an enigma personally, but I guess he was able to turn it into his comedic art. The guy was funny in a "core" way that few have ever been. He wasn't just "laugh out loud" funny, either. He could get into that same "suspension of disbelief and reality" zone that Andy Kaufman did, albeit to different ends.

A rare talent was Mr. Sellers.

[kinuta]

My favorite is a black and white one from the 50s called The Wrong Arm of the Law.

Anybody else see that one?

Of course. That makes a nice double bill with 'The Wrong Arm Of The Law', followed by 'I'm All Right Jack', which I personally think is a bit over rated. That said, his portrayal of the shop steward is one of his best.

Has anyone seen a forgotten film by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore called 'The Wrong Box' ? Sellers has a brilliant cameo role in that as a doddering old cat lover.

Edited February 3, 2006 by kinuta

[ejp626]

I must be one of the few people to really hate The Party.* Just thought it dragged on and on and on. Oh look at Sellars' character create mayhem, oh there he breaks another lamp, then he gets people to fall in the pool. What little plot there was was so cliched.

* As long as I am being contrary, I also hate The Stunt Man (and Rope) for plots that lack conviction. They are supposed to be so daring and yet have completely conventional endings.

Dr. Strangelove and Harold and Maud are so much better for not ending with typical Hollywood happy endings.

[connoisseur series500]

I'll eventually pick up the P-Panther box set. Too bad it doesn't include "The Party," which might be my favorite of all Sellers' films.

[Quincy]

Love "Being There." I last saw it about 7 years ago and thought it was even better. Given the state of politics and the way people sup on TV I'm sure I'll think the same thing next time.

"The Mouse That Roured" is a fun one. As with Strangelove you get to see him play multiple parts.

I too wasn't that fond of "The Party" or a couple of other late '60s/early '70s ones, but hey, he's forgiven for all of the great movies he was in. "The Ladykillers" is very silly fun too.

[Quincy]

Any time I stumble onto a Sellers film on tv, I become glued to it. And I'm almost ashamed to admit I don't own a dvd of Dr. Strangelove. Gonna have to remedy that soon.

I still just have a videotape of the laserdisc.

Might be more than you want to know, but here's a link comparing the different flavors of the DVD. Might take awhile to load even with a fast connection.

DVD Beaver Strangelove comparsion

[tatifan]

I'll eventually pick up the P-Panther box set. Too bad it doesn't include "The Party," which might be my favorite of all Sellers' films.

Why would a P-Panther box include "The Party"??

Maybe not so much for Sellers, but the '55 version of "The Ladykillers" is subtle insanity of the highest level!

[connoisseur series500]

I'll eventually pick up the P-Panther box set. Too bad it doesn't include "The Party," which might be my favorite of all Sellers' films.

Why would a P-Panther box include "The Party"??

Maybe not so much for Sellers, but the '55 version of "The Ladykillers" is subtle insanity of the highest level!

"The Party" isn't Pink Panther, but Blake Edwards did direct it along with the P-Panther films. That's about the only connection. I'd like to see a box set of the Blake Edwards/Peter Sellers collaboration.

[ghost of miles]

Any love out there for Peter Sellers? Is he worth a corner? I think so! I've loved almost everything I've seen him in, and think he was a genius.

Just a few days ago I bought the Pink Panther DVD Collection that originally came out in 2004. It includes all of his Pink Panther flicks with the exception of "The Return of the Pink Panther", for some reason. But the images look great (and it came with a free ticket to the upcoming Steve Martin PP flick).

Any time I stumble onto a Sellers film on tv, I become glued to it. And I'm almost ashamed to admit I don't own a dvd of Dr. Strangelove. Gonna have to remedy that soon.

There's some legal hangup with RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER, which is why it's not included

Nice 2-DVD edition of STRANGELOVE that came out in the last year or so. Sellers plays three roles in that movie, does he not? The crazy American general's aide, the U.S. president, and Dr. Strangelove himself.

[tatifan]

Luckily, THE RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER was just issued on DVD in a nice transfer (Universal/Focus).

[ejp626]

Luckily, THE RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER was just issued on DVD in a nice transfer (Universal/Focus).

I see it has been released in the US and a UK release is scheduled for March. It's amazing how studios can settle their legal differences when there is money to be made. The Pink Panther cartoons are also finally being released in the US now that the Steve Martin movie tie-in is ready. (Unfortunately, it will probably suck like all post-Sellers Panther movies.)

In some respects The Party and the Pink Panther films (particularly the later ones) are quite similar. Mayhem, funny accents, etc. Maybe I find just enough of a plot in the Pink Panther movies that I am not bored they way I was with The Party.

Anyway, I do like much of Sellers' work with Dr. Strangelove at the very top of the list. He's also in Kubrick's Lolita. I like the idea of Being There a bit more than the actual movie, but I was young when I saw it and should give it another chance. For these roles alone, he would be considered as a great comic actor, though I suppose he wouldn't have become a legend without the Inspector Clouseau role.

What I find interesting about Sellers' roles is that he moved from a fairly restrained lunacy in the British movies (I'm All Right, Jack; Ladykillers; Carlton-Browne of the F.O.) to over-the-top silliness and crazy outfits after the success of Shot in the Dark/The Pink Panther. This could be effective but sometimes was just too much and his talents might have been served better if he had been reigned in a bit (I'm thinking of The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu in particular). I'm realizing as I look at his movies that I really haven't seen most of his work from the 1970s, so I don't know if I would like it or not.

[BERIGAN]

I was checking out allmovie.com to see if I had forgotten a film of his I really liked, and stumbled across this one...anyone ever see it? Never on VHS or DVD, at least in the states it appears...

The Great McGonagall

I second, or 4th Ladykillers, so much better than the remake. As for Being There, it's very interesting. I remember seeing it when it came out, and being 12, I thought it was lame, where was the comedy? Then, I saw it several years later, and with no expectations, I really liked it. If I haven't seen it in awhile, I don't think as highly of it til it runs again...and I am again blown away by Seller's performance, and wonder why I was thinking it wasn't that good of a movie!

[sgcim]

I love most of Peter Sellers work, and I decided to read a bio on him called "Mister Strangelove" by Ed Sikov, and I found out he was a working jazz drummer during the war years:

But the title of the book should tell you about the man himself. He was crazy,crazy, crazy CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The author said that the reason why he took to the drums was because Sellers had no identity himself. He was just an obsessive impersonator, and PS the person didn't exist, so the drums were such an abstract thing, that he loved to bang the crap out of them. He stopped being a professional jazz drummer, because some guy wanted the band to play some tune, and he didn't know it. The guy called him a shiface because he didn't know the tune, and he decided that any profession that involved being treated like that was not for him. He was a Mommy's boy, who was so attached to his Jewish mother that even when she died, he still would talk to her at night. He was married four times, and expected his wives to take care of him like his mother did, and when they didn't, he would throw objects at them,and they or he would have to leave the house for days or weeks, or even months!

He would have crazy reactions to things, and wind up telling women that he wanted to marry them the first time he met them. he would have a director fired if they told him to follow the script, because he had to improvise most of his lines in all his movies. Dr. Strangelove-improvisation, Lolita-improvisation, Pink Panther movies-improvisation- the man was a comedic genius! He would at first turn down any movie that was offered to him until he could spend time with his tape recorder, taping different accents and listening to them over and over again until he decided he would take the roles, because he could do the accent he wanted to use for the film.

He would fire anyone on the set who would wear the color purple, because he was afraid and/or hated the color purple! He was definitely bi-polar, and would threaten to commit suicide countless times if he got the feeling that his wives didn't love him like his mother did.

He cared about things more than people- especially cars, new expensive cars. In just six years, he went through 50 different cars, because he would see a new one and immediately yell out "I've gotta have it!" We're talking Bentley's, Rolls Royces, Ferraries, Jaguars. He would give cars away as presents if he liked you, or he would insist on being given a new Rolls Royce or he wouldn't take a role. He got interested in photography, and would make home movies where he would tell his wives and kids to smile and laugh as if they were having a good time, when they were really miserable. Phony home movies

He was going to marry Liza Minnelli, but she knocked off his toupee at a restaurant, and after months of dating her and proposing to her, he walked out of the restaurant and never saw her again for the rest of his life. He walked out on "Casino Royale" because

Sellers had four heart attacks in one day and was clinically dead until they installed a primitive pace marker in him. Rather than go to a hospital and get an angiogram, he would rather wear his pacemaker all the time, and wound up dying at 55 in early 1980 of another heart attack. He trusted psychics and numerologists more than he trusted his doctors. I could go on, but you get the idea. The reason none of this was public knowledge was because of one piece of advice he was given by Alec Guinness when PS was a young man. "Son", he told him, "whatever you do, NEVER talk to a journalist". He followed that advice most of his life, but at the end, he was so far gone, he couldn't shut up, and got himself into a lot of trouble....

 

[soulpope]

Quite a character 🧐🤯🤓 .... 

[Rabshakeh]

I watched I’m Alright Jack recently for the first time. That’s got one of his best performances.

[T.D.]

I remember when that biography was published. It caused a real sensation in all the book review columns.

I never read it because it seemed too creepy. I did read Maggin's biography of Stan Getz, though...probably because I've spent more time with Getz's music than Sellers's films.

[gmonahan]

Yes, I've read accounts of his...er...eccentricity?! He was apparently a dreadful husband. We've talked here many times about artistic geniuses who turn out to be pretty lousy human beings. All that said, "Dr. Strangelove" is a masterpiece, and Sellers is fabulous in it!

 

[JSngry]

Seller was repeatedly brilliant for a long time.

Was he acting or acting out?

That's not a question for me to answer.

[sgcim]

5 hours ago, JSngry said:

Seller was repeatedly brilliant for a long time.

Was he acting or acting out?

That's not a question for me to answer.

Yeah, that's one of the conclusions the author comes to.

I was surprised that Wally Stott/Angela Morley was the musical director for the Goon Show, WS was very close to PS and was interviewed extensively for the book. From Scott Walker to John Williams and Hollywood, WS/AM was everywhere back then.