Peter Sellers BFI 10 essential movies
Sept 8, 2020 7:39:34 GMT
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Post by teleadm on Sept 8, 2020 7:39:34 GMT
Peter Sellers, a comedian and actor that one either liked or didn't, who was as we have learned later, not an easy man to get along with, neither on sets or in private life. Well since it would be his birthday today I thought it could be interesting to see what we ought to see, at least according to BFI (British Film Institute) and their chosen 10 essentials of his career.
The Ladykillers 1955 directed by Alexander Mackendrick.
This was Peter Sellers’ first major role in a film, although for once he is not the most exotic creature displayed within. He has to compete for attention with Alec Guinness’s false teeth, Herbert Lom’s fedora, Danny Green’s bulk and the outrageous, seemingly unwitting, scene-stealing of Katie Johnson as the little old lady they are trying to kill. He seems somewhat subdued but this suits his character, a pudgy Cockney spiv, and the fact that he makes a mark at all in such company is a sign of good things to come. Sellers also appears as the voice of Mrs Wilberforce’s parrots.
I'm All Right Jack 1959 directed by John Boulting.
Although Sellers provides some memorable moments in his earlier films, particularly as the obnoxious TV host in The Naked Truth 1957, his first fully realised leading character is Fred Kite, the union leader in the Boulting Brothers’ freewheeling satire about industrial relations in which the bosses are spivs and crooks and the unions are freeloading fools.
Never Let Go 1960 directed by John Guillermin.
This is a real oddity in the Sellers filmography, a straight crime thriller in which he plays a serious, villainous role. It’s one of his very few non-comic parts and he’s remarkably effective in it, although the contemporary critical reception was unkind and led him to decide that it wasn’t an experiment he wished to repeat. The seedy London milieu of the film is well captured by John Guillermin and the cast, headed by Richard Todd and Mervyn Johns. But good as they are, it really comes alive when Sellers is on screen as Lionel Meadows, a small-time crook who steals cars. Initially brimming with bonhomie, his turns into nastiness are sudden and startling and, according to his wife at the time, often taken home with him.
Only Two Can Play 1962 directed by Sidney Gilliat.
One of the last films from Sellers’ British period, Only Two Can Play is an adaptation of the novel "That Uncertain Feeling" by Kingsley Amis and presents one of his most relaxed and attractive performances. He plays John Lewis, an unappreciated Welsh librarian who is caught between his ambitious wife and a glamorous amateur actress.
Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1963 directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Over 50 years later, Dr Strangelove has lost none of its power to provoke, amuse and disturb. After The Mouse That Roared 1959 he developed a reputation for playing multiple parts, one which slightly dogged his career, but on this occasion all three characters are carefully thought-out and integral to the film. He is hilariously as President Merkin Muffley, especially in his long phone conversation with the Soviet premier, suitably staunch as British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, and delightfully, if slightly scarily, unhinged as Strangelove, the scientist who has invented the Doomsday Machine and finds the idea of Mutual Assured Destruction to be sexually exciting.
The Party 1968 directed by Blake Edwards.
Although its racial stereotyping could make you want to skip over this one, The Party is the most successfully sustained excursion by Sellers and Blake Edwards into pure slapstick. Heavily influenced by silent comedy and the work of Jacques Tati, the film features Sellers as Hrundi V. Bakshi, a disaster-prone Indian actor who attends a lavish Hollywood party and proceeds to completely destroy it.
Hoffman 1970 directed by Alvin Rakoff.
Hoffman is a film without much of a reputation, which is a shame because it contains one of Sellers’ most interesting performances. Famously, he considered the end result to be too revealing of his own personality and offered to buy back the negative from EMI. This in itself is fascinating because Hoffman is a troubled, dark character, a man who becomes obsessed with the woman he imprisons in his flat for a weekend for the purposes of blackmail. It’s a complex and enlightening turn, with Sellers appearing gaunt and grim, spitting out misogyny and simmering with suppressed rage.
The Optimists of Nine Elms 1973 directed by Anthony Simmons.
This is a film in complete contrast to Hoffman, a charming and generous comedy about an itinerant busker who befriends two children who are battling against the squalor of their poverty-stricken existence. It’s shot with a keen eye for the glamour of urban decay and the kids are refreshingly unaffected in their performances. Sellers is in his element here. Although only 47 when the film was made, he seems a decade or more older and his eyes betray disappointment and a bewilderment at where life has taken him.
The Return of the Pink Panther 1975 directed by Blake Edwards.
Opinions differ as to the best of the five Pink Panther movies that Sellers completed before his death. The author of the original article choosed this one because: Like all the others, it’s often frustratingly inconsistent and there are scenes which go on far longer than they need to. However, perhaps aware that he had made too many flops for Hollywood’s liking, Sellers really brings his best game to this, embellishing Clouseau with even more verbal confusions than before and adding moments of divine comedy, whether harassing a blind street musician while a robbery is taking place behind him or fending off attacks from his manservant Cato.
Being There 1979 directed Hal Ashby.
This was not Peter Sellers’ last completed film, that honour goes to the frankly appalling The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu 1980, but it is such an effective swansong that it should have been. It casts him as Chance, the gardener to an old man who is forced out into the world when his patron dies, inadvertently becoming both a celebrity and a presidential advisor. The role is perfect for Sellers, that blank canvas upon which so many portraits could be painted but never a definitive one, and he underplays Chance to perfection.
The complete article can be found here: BFI Peter Sellers
Personally I like a lot of those pre-Hollywood movies that Sellers acted in, like the mentioned The Naked Truth 1958 and The Mouse That Roared 1959. plus The Battle of the Sexes 1960, The Waltz of the Toreadors 1962 and The Wrong Arm of the Law 1963 for example.
A special mention too towards the lovely The World of Henry Orient 1964 I think would be in place too, out of his post-1963 movies.
By pure chance, without knowing about his birthday, I watched tom thumb 1958 yesterday, a movie I've never seen before:
Thanks for watching!
Other opinions are allowed!
The Ladykillers 1955 directed by Alexander Mackendrick.
This was Peter Sellers’ first major role in a film, although for once he is not the most exotic creature displayed within. He has to compete for attention with Alec Guinness’s false teeth, Herbert Lom’s fedora, Danny Green’s bulk and the outrageous, seemingly unwitting, scene-stealing of Katie Johnson as the little old lady they are trying to kill. He seems somewhat subdued but this suits his character, a pudgy Cockney spiv, and the fact that he makes a mark at all in such company is a sign of good things to come. Sellers also appears as the voice of Mrs Wilberforce’s parrots.
I'm All Right Jack 1959 directed by John Boulting.
Although Sellers provides some memorable moments in his earlier films, particularly as the obnoxious TV host in The Naked Truth 1957, his first fully realised leading character is Fred Kite, the union leader in the Boulting Brothers’ freewheeling satire about industrial relations in which the bosses are spivs and crooks and the unions are freeloading fools.
Never Let Go 1960 directed by John Guillermin.
This is a real oddity in the Sellers filmography, a straight crime thriller in which he plays a serious, villainous role. It’s one of his very few non-comic parts and he’s remarkably effective in it, although the contemporary critical reception was unkind and led him to decide that it wasn’t an experiment he wished to repeat. The seedy London milieu of the film is well captured by John Guillermin and the cast, headed by Richard Todd and Mervyn Johns. But good as they are, it really comes alive when Sellers is on screen as Lionel Meadows, a small-time crook who steals cars. Initially brimming with bonhomie, his turns into nastiness are sudden and startling and, according to his wife at the time, often taken home with him.
Only Two Can Play 1962 directed by Sidney Gilliat.
One of the last films from Sellers’ British period, Only Two Can Play is an adaptation of the novel "That Uncertain Feeling" by Kingsley Amis and presents one of his most relaxed and attractive performances. He plays John Lewis, an unappreciated Welsh librarian who is caught between his ambitious wife and a glamorous amateur actress.
Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1963 directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Over 50 years later, Dr Strangelove has lost none of its power to provoke, amuse and disturb. After The Mouse That Roared 1959 he developed a reputation for playing multiple parts, one which slightly dogged his career, but on this occasion all three characters are carefully thought-out and integral to the film. He is hilariously as President Merkin Muffley, especially in his long phone conversation with the Soviet premier, suitably staunch as British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, and delightfully, if slightly scarily, unhinged as Strangelove, the scientist who has invented the Doomsday Machine and finds the idea of Mutual Assured Destruction to be sexually exciting.
The Party 1968 directed by Blake Edwards.
Although its racial stereotyping could make you want to skip over this one, The Party is the most successfully sustained excursion by Sellers and Blake Edwards into pure slapstick. Heavily influenced by silent comedy and the work of Jacques Tati, the film features Sellers as Hrundi V. Bakshi, a disaster-prone Indian actor who attends a lavish Hollywood party and proceeds to completely destroy it.
Hoffman 1970 directed by Alvin Rakoff.
Hoffman is a film without much of a reputation, which is a shame because it contains one of Sellers’ most interesting performances. Famously, he considered the end result to be too revealing of his own personality and offered to buy back the negative from EMI. This in itself is fascinating because Hoffman is a troubled, dark character, a man who becomes obsessed with the woman he imprisons in his flat for a weekend for the purposes of blackmail. It’s a complex and enlightening turn, with Sellers appearing gaunt and grim, spitting out misogyny and simmering with suppressed rage.
The Optimists of Nine Elms 1973 directed by Anthony Simmons.
This is a film in complete contrast to Hoffman, a charming and generous comedy about an itinerant busker who befriends two children who are battling against the squalor of their poverty-stricken existence. It’s shot with a keen eye for the glamour of urban decay and the kids are refreshingly unaffected in their performances. Sellers is in his element here. Although only 47 when the film was made, he seems a decade or more older and his eyes betray disappointment and a bewilderment at where life has taken him.
The Return of the Pink Panther 1975 directed by Blake Edwards.
Opinions differ as to the best of the five Pink Panther movies that Sellers completed before his death. The author of the original article choosed this one because: Like all the others, it’s often frustratingly inconsistent and there are scenes which go on far longer than they need to. However, perhaps aware that he had made too many flops for Hollywood’s liking, Sellers really brings his best game to this, embellishing Clouseau with even more verbal confusions than before and adding moments of divine comedy, whether harassing a blind street musician while a robbery is taking place behind him or fending off attacks from his manservant Cato.
Being There 1979 directed Hal Ashby.
This was not Peter Sellers’ last completed film, that honour goes to the frankly appalling The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu 1980, but it is such an effective swansong that it should have been. It casts him as Chance, the gardener to an old man who is forced out into the world when his patron dies, inadvertently becoming both a celebrity and a presidential advisor. The role is perfect for Sellers, that blank canvas upon which so many portraits could be painted but never a definitive one, and he underplays Chance to perfection.
The complete article can be found here: BFI Peter Sellers
Personally I like a lot of those pre-Hollywood movies that Sellers acted in, like the mentioned The Naked Truth 1958 and The Mouse That Roared 1959. plus The Battle of the Sexes 1960, The Waltz of the Toreadors 1962 and The Wrong Arm of the Law 1963 for example.
A special mention too towards the lovely The World of Henry Orient 1964 I think would be in place too, out of his post-1963 movies.
By pure chance, without knowing about his birthday, I watched tom thumb 1958 yesterday, a movie I've never seen before:
Thanks for watching!
Other opinions are allowed!
