I grew up watching Sellers's screwball Pink Panther films, in which he portrayed Inspector Jacques Clouseau of the French Sûreté (detective branch of the police force). Clouseau, bumbling fool that he was, was so sure of himself that he was oblivious to most of his errors, and actually came out on top at the end of each of his misadventures. Much to the chagrin of Chief Inspector Dreyfus, whom Clouseau slowly drove mad with his antics.
Sellers appeared in seven Pink Panther movies, all so successful that his face became known worldwide. The TV cartoon The Pink Panther, featuring an actual - animated - panther (who is pink), even included a segment called The Inspector, its eponymous character based upon Sellers's wacky sleuth. Known simply as Inspector in the animated series, he is more competent than his film counterpart, and is accompanied by a Spanish (and maddeningly French-challenged) sidekick, Sergeant Deux-Deux. I watched the early Panther movies and the cartoons as often as they were aired on television. A great source of laughter and imaginative adventure for a young lad with a thing for crime-fighting.
My favourite things in the Pink Panther movies were the scenes where Cato, Clouseau's manservant, would suddenly attack his employer... he was instructed to do so to keep the Inspector always on guard and ready to defend himself. These bits were hilarious and still bust me up. Here is the best of the bunch (click for the video):
Inspector Clouseau and Cato in a martial arts showdown
Sellers has been lauded as a comic genius, and I guess I could agree with that. His ability to inhabit his cinematic characters so completely was only outdone by this outrageous sense of humour and impeccable timing. From his bizarre and baffling French accent as the Inspector to his striking versatility playing several eccentric characters in the film Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb... all a study in the craft of acting and being funny.
While in my teens, I saw several of Sellers's other works (mostly the comedies) on the tube: After the Fox, The Bobo, Casino Royale, The Magic Christian, What's New Pussycat?, Murder By Death, The Mouse That Roared, and The Prisoner of Zenda. Those are the movies I can remember, anyway. All cool in their different ways... some maybe not great films, but ol' Peter certainly elevated even the lesser ones.
The Sellers movie that comes to mind most often after all these years is The Party, from 1968. Though the picture is not without its flaws (I'm not crazy about the overlong pool and elephant scene), Sellers is unforgettable as Hrundi V. Bakshi, an Indian actor who is inadvertently invited to a big Hollywood dinner party. Very loosely structured, the film serves as a vehicle for Sellers to exercise his hilarious improvisational talents. Poor Hrundi finds himself in many predicaments that worsen as the evening wears on, all very amusing and memorable. "Birdie num num".
Years later, I was able to appreciate Sellers in his dramatic roles. Being There (1979) was one of his few non-comedic turns, which left me suitably impressed with his acting range. The same goes for 1962's Lolita, where the actor played a creepy Mr. Quilty.
It was also later on that I finally caught Sellers in the rambunctious The Lady Killers, a 1955 British film by Ealing Studios, best known for its satirical romps. Odd to see a young Obi Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) in those dark comedies.
I had heard about Sellers's work on the British radio program The Goon Show, but never had the chance to enjoy it. Sellers and his cohorts developed a brand of irreverent comedy that would influence The Beatles and the Monty Python troupe, just a couple of the many who were inspired by the early Goon Shows.
To quote Sellers as Clouseau: "There is a time to laugh and a time not to laugh, and this is not one of them".
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