The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 08, 1980, Page Page 10, Image 10
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
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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