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Blake Edwards, RIP


GA Russell

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Blake Edwards died yesterday.

Although best known for his movies, he made this contribution to dramatic fiction: He was the first modern writer who created a private eye who got along swell with the police. Prior to him, there was usually friction between the private detective and the police. His first work in this regard was Richard Diamond on the radio with Dick Powell. He later took the same idea to television with Peter Gunn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Edwards

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Eugh. Another one whose work I always found to be horribly overrated. I'm a HUGE Peter Sellers fan, and I NEVER liked any of the "Pink Panther" films. I'm a huge Truman Capote AND Audrey Hepburn fan, and I HATE what Edwards did to "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

Never saw a single Edwards film that I liked. I found him crude in the extreme.

Rest in Peace, though...

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There are scenes in "A Shot in the Dark" that never fail to make me laugh, at times to the point of tears -- especially Clouseau in the English country house, the sequence that begins with him on the parallel bars, after which he quizzes everyone while becoming entangled in a suit of armor. And leave us not forget the genius of Herbert Lom as Inspector Dreyfus. Farewell, Mr. Edwards.

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This is Terry Gibbs orchestra with Henry Mancini and Steve Allen. The year is 1983. "Peter Gunn" is the music with "solo's" by Pete Candoli, Conte Candoli, Carl Fontana, Jerome Richardson, and Plas Johnson. Pete did the series and the original theme with Henry Mancini years before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dechpnavTyA

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There are scenes in "A Shot in the Dark" that never fail to make me laugh, at times to the point of tears -- especially Clouseau in the English country house, the sequence that begins with him on the parallel bars, after which he quizzes everyone while becoming entangled in a suit of armor. And leave us not forget the genius of Herbert Lom as Inspector Dreyfus. Farewell, Mr. Edwards.

Again, I'm a huge Sellers fan, yet the Clouseau movies have always left me cold. Part of it, I think, is that Sellers was such a brilliant verbal comedian (the guy got his start in RADIO for Christ's sake), but his physical comedy just wasn't that funny. And as the Pink Panther series dragged on, the films relied more and more on pratfalls and silly fight scenes. I mean, how many times can one watch Inspector Clouseau trip over something or drop the thing he was holding? And Herbert Lom was very funny, but the joke of Dreyfus getting more and more obsessed with getting rid of Clouseau got old REALLY fast...

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There are scenes in "A Shot in the Dark" that never fail to make me laugh, at times to the point of tears -- especially Clouseau in the English country house, the sequence that begins with him on the parallel bars, after which he quizzes everyone while becoming entangled in a suit of armor. And leave us not forget the genius of Herbert Lom as Inspector Dreyfus. Farewell, Mr. Edwards.

I think a good bit of the credit for the success of A Shot In The Dark is William Peter Blatty's screenplay, it's airtight.

I like many of Blake's films. He had a hit or miss career, the good ones usually being quite memorable and the bad ones quite dreadful. But I think there are some gems to be found in his filmography.

Operation Petticoat

Experiment in Terror

Days Of Wine And Roses

A Shot In The Dark

The Party

The Return Of The Pink Panther

plus several that are at least moderately amusing

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I consider "The Party" to be one of the three greatest comedies of all times that I had the chance to see. It's still physically painful for me to watch it.

On the other side, "The days of wine and roses" is a masterpiece, the kind of movie that stopped being produced in the last 30 years. A devastating look on alcoholism inside an amazing film atmosphere and photography.

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Eugh. Another one whose work I always found to be horribly overrated. I'm a HUGE Peter Sellers fan, and I NEVER liked any of the "Pink Panther" films. I'm a huge Truman Capote AND Audrey Hepburn fan, and I HATE what Edwards did to "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

Never saw a single Edwards film that I liked. I found him crude in the extreme.

Rest in Peace, though...

Crude, sure. Try his underrated "S.O.B.". I recall laughing pretty hard in the movie theater when that one came out.

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This is Terry Gibbs orchestra with Henry Mancini and Steve Allen. The year is 1983. "Peter Gunn" is the music with "solo's" by Pete Candoli, Conte Candoli, Carl Fontana, Jerome Richardson, and Plas Johnson. Pete did the series and the original theme with Henry Mancini years before.

Listening and watching this, I'm reminded again--as if I need reminding--of what an incredibly brilliant trombonist Carl Fontana was.

I'm with MartyJazz on "SOB." I think it's one of Edwards's best films. RIP.

gregmo

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Blake Edwards died yesterday.

Although best known for his movies, he made this contribution to dramatic fiction: He was the first modern writer who created a private eye who got along swell with the police. Prior to him, there was usually friction between the private detective and the police. His first work in this regard was Richard Diamond on the radio with Dick Powell. He later took the same idea to television with Peter Gunn.

http://en.wikipedia....i/Blake_Edwards

The Richard Diamond series is regularly aired on XM's Old Time Radio station, and the writing that Edwards did for that show is amazing -- just funny, fast paced, and top-notch all the way. I always try to catch it when it comes on.

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