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Entert Peter Selle A 4.~: r\ li J By David Baker Fflm Critic In the annals of comedy, Peter Sellers has only three equals: Lucille Ball, W.C. Fields and Charlie Chaplin. But Sellers, who died July 23 at the age of 54, possessed something that his equals could only dream ofversatility. In the 1940s, Ball played a Itnriatu n( rnlnc in mntinri vai IVV/A I VIVO 111 I11UV1UII pictures, but she didn't become a star until she became a clown, the wacky redheaded Lucy Ricardo of television's I Love Lucy. In her tw> subsequent series, Ba'l maintained her beloved characterization, for a grand total of 25 years. Fields, too, maintained a single characterization-that of a cynical, child-hating alcoholic-through most of hie latpr films Phanlin nf course, was "the little tramp." Sellers' career, however, was marked by the extraordinary range of characters in which he was able to instill life. In Stanley Fu Maru swan soi By David Baker Film Crhic The great Peter Sellers' swan song, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, is notable, I'm sorry to say, only because of Sellers' presence in 11. i ne piciure is a pleasant enough way to pass an afternoon, but its slapstick never comes close to rivaling that contained in any one of Sellers' Pink Panther movies. Fu Manehu is the sixth film in which Sellers has portrayed more than a single character, Let's Go Crazy, The Mouse That Roared, Dr. Peter Sellers a Strangelove, Undercovers Hero and The Prisoner of Zenda being the other five. Here, Sellers appears both as Fu Manchu, the evil Oriental mastermind, and as Nayland Smith, an Englishdetective who happens to be Fu's arch-nemesis. As might be expected, Sellers is brilliant in both characterizations, though neither is worthy of his, extraordinary talents. Vhe two roles, however, do give Sellers the opportunity to demonstrate his flair for outre accents. The voice he uses for Nayland is a British variation of the emotionally neutered voice he used for Chance the gardener in Being There. The voice he uses for Fu is a sort of upperclass English, tinged with a tainmer rs ibute i Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, he simultaneously portrayed a demented Nazi scientist, me jrresiaeni 01 me uniiea States and a noble officer of the RAF. If Joe McGrath's The Great McGonagall, he portrayed Queen Victoria. In Hal Ashby's Being There, he portrayed a mentally retarded gardener who rises to political prominence through a series of hilarious misunderstandings. And in the five Pink Panther movies directed by Blake Edwards, he portrayed the bumbling French Inspector Jacques Clouseau, a role which needs no further description. In Sellers' 54 films, he filled a to-al of 72 roles, as many as eight in a single movie, The Mouse That Roared. He received two Academy Award nominations as Best Actor, for Dr. Strangelove in 1963 and for Being There in 1979. Sellers was also one of the few true superstars to fall from the public's grace and then come back more suc11 ki ^iiu uioajj ng for Se number of Chinese consonant sounds. The latter may seem like an odd choice, but I assure you that it works perfectly within the context of the character. As the picture opens, it is Fu's 168th birthday. His apprentices are gathered around the pipe organ, singing "Happy Birthday," when Fu orders his mfl"servant (Burt Kwouk, v played the Clouseau manservant, Kato, in the Pink Panther films) to fetch the remaining drops of his youth elixir. Upon returning, the ser H^^P|H|HBMB9BHBIk ^^8E? ? :;^^l vant catches fire and, in a panic, uses the potion to douse the flames. Fu is inceased because he must concoct another vial if he ever wants to see 169, and because the ingredients for the elixir are darn near impossible to come by. Fearing that his time may be short, Fu puts his proteges through an intense training session, then the group leaves for London to steal one of the most important ingredients: the King George V diamond. The training sequence, which also serves as the film's title sequence, is one of the picture's highlights. Dressed primarily in yellow and gold, the apprentices whirl and lunge under Fu's .u a vei cessful than ever before. b After he made What's a New, Pussycat in 1965, tl Sellers appeared in 17 pi straight failures, some of them so bad that they were ai not distributed in America. ol Then in 1975, Sellers re- p, teemed with Blake Edwards n (whose career had also S reached its nadir) for The b; Return of the Pink Panther. si It became Sellers' most o financially successful film, p and of his six movies since, T only one--the 1978 re-make of The Prisoner of Zenda- tl failed to show a profit. His b last film, The Fiendish Plot ii of Dr. Fu Manchu, took in e* close to $2.5 million in its fi first thrpf* Havs of rflpasp The trademark of a Sellers S< performance was his total a lack of condescention toward ri his character. Whether he L was playing the world's h< wealthiest man or a starving jc bum, a brilliant scientist or a ti retarded waif, Sellers made la lie nnrp nhnnf whatpupr 01 character he had assumed. M He even made us fall in love S< with a stupid, self-centered j tfc ipointmg; llers s w expert guidance against a b background of solid black. i? With the white, Chinese- w influenced lettering ap- jr pearing against the blackness as well, the t< sequence take on a stark, ti stylized look that makes f( most title sequences seem ^ bland in comparison. d After the promising start, ij however, Fu Manchu rapidly v dissipates into one of those s routine creampuffs that t il I il .1 11 . i.! t k. aonea me miacue purnun 01 Sellers' career. Only a handful of romantic interludes between Sellers and the lovely Helen Mirren keep the movie flowing tmirarH itc CA00V lin. WVTTU1U * VU l'Vb5J I satisfying end. Although the film would have been disappointing whatever the circumstances, I'm willing to concede that Sellers' death might be the cause of several of its scenes falling flat. The scenes in which the moribund Fu recharges himself with electricity, for instance, probably would have been funnv two months ago. But we can not laugh at them now. Seeing a man whom we know to be dead trying valiantly to keep his life systems going is eerie and unsettling -- in no way can it be perceived as humorous. Directed by Sellers under the pseudonym Piers Haggard, The Fiendish Plot of nr Fit Manchu is too lightweight an entertainment to bear the heavy burden of being the last testament of Sellers' genius as an actor. It's unfortunate that the picture was not completed and released prior to Being There, so that Sellers' career could have ended on the truly spectacular note that it deserved/ sit1' i ! Still, the movie is the last pIiq npo iuo'I I c/ot tn cm> VIWIIVV TTV MM v 1.V uvv Sellers at work and, for that reason alone, it should not be missed. (NOTE: The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu opens in Columbia on September 12. rsatile oob like Clouseau and I B an't imagine anyone other jji lan Sellers being able to f| ull off a feat like that. ^ Sellers was born 55 years || go today in the tiny borough f Southsea, England. His | nronfc Don anH Kill iiroro 5 VIIU7) A vg Uiivi A^ftiAy nv*v ;::x: msic hall performers, so ellers grew up surrounded y the arts. He made his tage debut at the tender age J f eight weeks, in a | roduction at the King's heatre in Portsmouth. During a stint in India with r? le Royal Air Force, Sellers % ecame well-known for J npersonating others, M specially the camp's of- || cere. H Upon being discharged, g| ellers worked in London as j| stand-up comic. A lengthy || an at the Windmill Theatre, ij ondon's famous burlesque W ouse, led to an announcing & ib with the BBC and that, in ^ irn, led to The Goon Show, a | tndmark anti-establishm- 9 it radio series with Spike U. [illigan and Harry I scombe. 0 Last year, when I visited ig le set of Being There, I had p le privilege-the honor?of 9 atching Sellers at work. He || as simply mesmerizing, p ften, he would add a line or ' * vo to a rehearsal just to atch the crew (and ystanders) break into mghter, which in turn h ould cause Sellers to erupt fi lto snickers as well. v If you were smart enough F ) stick around for the end p ties of Being There, which a matured outtakes of Sellers d oth deliberately and un- f eliberately bio' /ing his \ nes, you can well imagine v /hat Sellers was like on the r ici. r Sellers: Let's Go Crazy (1950) Penny Points to Paradise (l! Down A mone> the Z Men (195 Orders are Orders (1955) John and Julie (1955) The Ladykillers (1955) The Smallest Show on Eartl Time Operators (1957) The Naked Truth,a.k.a. Y< Showing (1957) Tom Thumb (1958) Up the Creek (1958) Carlton-Brown of the F.O., in a Cocked Hat (1959) I'm All Right, Jack (1959) The Battle of the Sexes (195S The Mouse That Roared (19! Two Way Stretch (1960) Never Let Go (1960) The Millionairess (1960) Mr. Topaz, a.k.a. I Like Mor Road to Hong Kong (1961) Only Two Can Play (19,61) Lolita (1962) I \ ? icome :?;<<M%Mg&3BKI^^F? Ilk. * tcHEII !j?Nli .. BjH H Bt I:: 1 x'S^n^.v vi y ::^^fp> "W:' js vM^iip^A r flnjBB 8E82SSS^\J Peter Sellers as Chance i With Hip rtoooirtrf T finrfl if U ?f *V?? UiW J/UkJkJillf, y A illiu IV f ard to think about the cor uture of film comedy. What con /ill the 1980s be like with no filn *ink Panther films to to i iraise? And how will we be be ible to make do without the loss lelightful change-of-pace dus ilms Sellers was known for? pas Vill we ever a??ain he ahlt? to me vatch a Sellers film without you nourning his death? I think it r< lot. a filmogi Waltz of the Torec 951) The Dock Brief, ? 2) (1963) The Wrong Arm o Heavens Above (J The Pink Panther i, a.k.a. Big Dr. Strangelove, Stop Worrying ( our Past is (1963) The World of Heni A Shot in the Dark What's New, Puss a.k.a .Man After the Fox (196 The Wrong Box (J Casino Royale (IS )) The Bobo (1967) >y; Woman Times Se The Party (1968) I Love You Alice J The Magic Christ ley (1961) Hoffman (1969) There's a Girl in I Where Does itHu Alice's Adventu (1972) ^ *' The Optimists of I Soft Beds and Hai Ghost in the Noon A The Great McGor |HHL Undercovers Her mHR The Return of the Murder by Death The Pink Panthei R evenge of the Pi _ Thu* Prio/infl* r^f 1 . |'?v ? r IUWI%%, r uj Ay P Being There (197) The Fiendish Pi (1980) Peter Sellers as Clouseau, his most famous characterization. dian n 'Being There.' yith that in mind, I have npiled what I think to be a nplete list of Sellers' ns. One has only to read it see why his death should considered the biggest 5 the motion picture initry has suffered in the it decade. I hope the mories the list revives in i will be as sweet as those evived in me. raphy idors (1962) l.k.a. Trial and Error f the Law (1963) ! 963) (1963) | or How I Learned to . ; ind Love the Bomb ry Orient (1964) i (1964) / 1 0?<: \ \5) 966) )66) ven (1967) 9. Toklas (1968) ian (1969) L>T.. C?..n / inrr/\\ ouup ( ij/u; r, rt (1972) res frt* Wonderland Vine Elms (1973) i rd Battles (1973) day Sun (J974) Kigali (1974) o (1975) Pink Panther (1975) (1976) r Strikes Again (1975) ink Panther (1977) enda (1978) V ot of Dr. Fu Manchu