Friday, August 16, 2013

The (Too?) Many Faces of Peter Sellers




If you ask me to play myself, I will not know what to do. I do not know who or what I am.--Peter Sellers 
Without doubt, Peter Sellers was one of the great character actors and stars of his time, and remains unmatched in his ability to play a kaleidoscope of characters with just the right bit of comedic elan and ethnic or class identity.  Arguably his most brilliant work was as  a "multiple roles" actor in films like "The Mouse that Roared"  (1959),  "Dr. Strangelove" (1963) and as the guileless fool "Chance, the Gardener" in the movie "Being There" (1979).     One of his popular remarks was that he had little if any personality of his own and that to put on a "mask" made him someone.  How a man with such little self-esteem yet with  world-wide recognition cope? Perhaps he was swamped inside by a profession where his stock in trade was being a chameleon on demand.


But before his death in 1980, he left behind a impressive trove of appearances in a variety of films, television sketches, radio commercials, and send-ups of popular recordings like The Beatles "She Loves You". And this other hit from the Lennon/McCartney stable:




Peter Sellers was a troubled soul, a man given to following many quack-doctors, spiritualist fads, and restless pursuits of exotic places and beautiful women must have made the man who felt he had so little personality that he had to be "on" all the time a more than likely case for  psychoanalysis. He had his share of affairs and marriages to beautiful women of course but on the record at least none ended well. It seems the women in his life  found him too exasperating to achieve a level of normalcy with.  His unsuccessful  attempt to woo Sophia Loren after they worked together on the film of GB Shaw's "The Millionairess" (1960) , to cite one example, carried with it a touch of the everyman lost in the Olympian world of an international female beauty that no amount of clever wit or mimicry could have brought him so grandiose and yet so natural a personal desire.

Of course not all his abrupt courtships ended badly...for a time at least.



 It is fortunate he was such a busy comic performer because no one in popular culture seems to have quite replaced him in broad appeal, although it appeared for a time that 'Saturday Night Live" alum Eddie Murphy had given Sellers reputation a run for its money. Both men could put on most any guise, play people of all races and genders. And they both  made their share of movies where they were the best part of a uninspired presentation.




But Eddie Murphy's star seems to have ebbed.  Sellers was afforded a stronger career boost in his fifties thanks to the success of his "Inspector Clouseau" films of the 1970s and the aforementioned  "Being There". Hopefully Murphy will find such a role if he cares to.

The first clip to share is from a 1957 film "The Naked Truth", also known in the USA  as "Your Past is Showing".

 
 

Here's Sellers as a Norwegian psychiatrist on
an afternoon of domestic bliss in the sex farce "What's New Pussycat?", written (and co-starring) Woody Allen with Sellers sharing the star turns with Peter O'Toole,  as a fashion photographer and male object-of-desire to Ursula Andress, Capucine, Paula Prentiss and quite a a few other ladies.   Sellers became perturbed years on when he was sometimes mistaken in public for Woody Allen by film fans.  





One thing for certain is the humor Peter Sellers brought to his work will be appreciated  long after the personality assessments have any bearing on his work, which stands as some of the best humor we have to look back upon.



9 comments:

  1. Hi Doug this is the third time I've tried to comment on your blog in the last few days. I am in Orkney Isles with connection problems, at this moment in time waiting for my delayed flight at Kirkwall airport. I'll let you have my comments on your interesting retrospective on Mr Sellers when I finally get home, hopefully sometime this week. Cheers AA

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    1. Thanks AA. I'm sorry you are having connection problems and wish you safe journeys back from what sounds like a very interesting destination.

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  2. Well back now thanks Doug.....I posted a lengthy comment on this post in Orkney on an annoying little notebook and lost it....as I did attempt no 2 ....so here's hoping third time lucky holds good. You make some interesting points about Peter Sellers self proclaimed absense of a personality of his own, of being able to be anyone but himself and to not know what his own part in the drama was unless it was scripted. Peter Sellers as you also demonstrate Doug was a master, a comic genius in fact, he made me laugh when I was a kid and he still can now. One of my favourite scenes is the Pink Panther ...does your dog bite?.... sketch....viz.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXn2QVipK2o

    I suddenly realised that Sellers deconstructs psychoanalysis because you can't have an ego without a personality. This could be a whole new syndrome we could make a fortune Doug.....we seem to have stumbled upon the ultimate personality disorder namely No Personality Disorder. NPD its the curse of the acting classes, it is rampant in the House of Commons and congenital in the House of Lords, if only we could now invent personality pills..... the sky's the limit Doug, GlaxoSmithKline better watch out....but to get back to the point, I've often wondered myself when seeing character actors interveiwed on TV how do they know which is the real one, so who's talking now? Those sorts of thoughts which is what I think Peter was talking about actually...this probably refers to most people who just sort of get up in the morning (or whenever) and just 'be' for the rest of the day without any reference to their personality type or what star sign they happen to be. This reminded me in turn for some completely odd reason of the pioneering work of David Matza who is one of my favourite American psychologists whose work influenced me a lot in the early 1980s.....he said for example "The meaningful issue of identity is whether this activity, or any of my activities can stand for me, or be regarded as proper indications of my being. I have done a theft, been signified a thief. am I a thief? To answer affirmatively, we must be able to conceive a special relationship between being and doing--a unity capable of being indicated. That building of meaning has a notable quality. I could wax lyrical about the social construction of deviance until the cows come home Doug and it is thanks to your blog that I was inspired to revisit these old areas of interest and enjoy them again...so thanks Doug for a good read and a fine choice of clips to illustrate Mr Sellers considerable versatility.

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    1. Thanks for the interesting additions to the subject of identity by Dr. Matza, AA. To be a comedian in itself (of any value) is to be a deviant in my view, which is one of the reasons I admire men and women who do it well. To assume to be someone else and inject humor into something controversial (police work, "the troubles" between England and Ireland, "The Bomb", psychiatry, et al, takes a bit of iconoclastic courage we all need to at least be exposed to. I remember reading about Sellers work on "The Goon Show" in the Fifties and how this program paved the way for a transition for the British nation to laugh at the changing circumstances within the society, the loss of international status coupled with the rise of youthful rebellion that came through with the fuss about Mods and Rockers, rock and roll, questioning the hide-bound class system, the consumer economy, et al. Quite a lot on one plate really, but I think the more a nation's leaders fail to accept change, the better opportunity there can be in a reasonably open society for the humorists to do the work for them. It may even serve as a safety value in my mind to excessive violence, staving off the real "goonery" of state terrorism and chaos in nations where institutions like religion and certain creatures of power in a regime are decidedly not capable of bearing a joke.

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    2. Lest I forget, thanks a bunch for including that delightful exchange about the innkeeper's dog from "Curse of the Pink Panther" (1977). I remember all the 1970's "Pink Panther" movies fondly because they were such crowd-pleasing films to see with an audience in a movie house. I think that film and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" were the most enjoyable times I spent laughing my ribs to spasms on first viewings of those films. (With honorable mention to Mel Brooks' Western/race in America spoof, "Blazing Saddlers" (1974) and Woody Allen's take on a 2173ad North American police state, surfeited with domestic robots and "sex orbs", "Sleeper" (1973).

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  3. Thankd Doug, great review.
    when I think of Peter Sellers its always Dr Strangelove that I see. I thought this movie was way ahead of its time and he was just brilliant. Of course I love his 'professor of accents ' role too. I also remember his recital of 'Its a hard days night in the style of Lawrence Olivier playing Shakespeare, yeah............he was an all round theatrical genius

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    1. Thank you Loretta. "Strangelove" is my favorite dark comedy of all time. Hard to imagine that film without Sellers, a clear Best Actor choice for that year in my view in a major film. And, yes, the spoof conjoining Olivier's "Richard III" and The Beatles song was another indication that Sellers was always one of the best in the business. Thanks for your comments.

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  4. oh forgot to say...................I was looking for the 'follow by email' gadget to click and can't see it on your page. Am I missing it or is it not here??.

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    1. I don't see one Loretta. I'll see if I can bring it up somehow.

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