FRANKCAPRA

I saw it yesterday at the Stratford Picturehouse and it was simply stunning.

Wow what a fantastic script and when hearing Terry Thomas talk I now realise where Basil Brush got his voice from!

ian

Ljelja

I sometimes wonder what would it look like without the poor Fred Kite? And, what was that "Modern Times" sequence in the beginning all about? And I somehow didn't manage to come to terms with Sir Kennaway from the very prologue. Odd but brilliant mixture. It's all interaction and rhythm between the characters.

NappieB

Peter Sellers was nominated for an Oscar for that role. He didn't get the Oscar (there was a lot of competition that year!) but won the British Film award best actor instead!

Focus 2

The most memorable part for me was the ATV Outside Broadcast vehicle!

Ljelja

No, no. He wasn't. Two of his Oscar nominations went for "Dr. Strangelove" (1964) and "Being There" (1979). But not for Fred Kite. Not that this diminishes his achievement, though. I think Oscar would prove to be rather sudden for him then. BAFTA was just right. The fact that he eventually never won an Oscar is more due to his (politically) incorrect personality than his dubious acting abilities.

orpheum

all those cornfields and ballet in the evening

codsall

'An absolute shower'... memorable saying by Terry-Thomas's character - A very fine film indeed. Most of the main characters were featured in Private's Progress about 3 years earlier...

Wee Sonny MacGregor

Sam Kydd, on the picket line, to a cameraman "why don't you f f f f f f photograph someone else"

clitheroekid

Yes, a good line

NappieB

Ah! I stand corrected. Thanks, Ljelja! I was thinking of Dr. Strangelove for the Oscar nomination. But knew I had the BAFTA one right!

I saw a 2 hour documentary on Peter Sellers here in the USA about 3 years ago. It was total garbage... a real hatchet job!!! The presenters absolutely destroyed everything he ever did. Maybe it's some kind of new trend: Create an Expose` even if it's false! And since you can't libel the dead...

That sort of stuff shouldn't be allowed.

Chris B

Hi All,
I'm Alright Jack, brilliant film, Two Way Stretch and the Wrong Arm Of the Law thesw are 3 of my favourite Peter Sellers films. Real Life Experience, when I was a young fellow saving up for a deposit on a house I went to work at a small shopfitting company, and I beavered away on my circular saw and produced loads of shelves etc, the shop steward came around one day and said "who's done all this job?" "I have " I replied thinking I was going to get complimented on a job well done, back came the answer "you'd better slow down otherwise the gaffer will be stopping the overtime, you want nip off now and again and have a fag in the yard" "but I don't smoke" I naively replied, "well take a newspaper and go and sit on the toilet and have a read for 10 minutes" was the next suggestion, no wonder British Industry went down the pan
regards Chris B

DB7

I think it was an unofficial sequel charting the post-war lives of the officers and squaddies with the class system replacing military rank. Even minor characters likes Kenneth Griffith and Miles Malleson reprise their original roles. (Le Mesurier oddly goes from shrink to time-and-motion man)

Ljelja

That's right. Boultings intended continuing Stanley's adventures, now as a bumbling civilian. Only this time, the joke was on the labor movement. Both films, i.e. "Private's Progress" and "Jack" were after Alan Hackney's novels.

"Jack" was released in the election year of 1959, and since it went well, many thought it helped Conservative Party winning them. If I'm not mistaken, I think that even later when Thatcher was to be elected for the first time, BBC canceled its election-eve broadcast fearing a bit that getting a partisan image wouldn't do it any good.

Ljelja

Well, I dunno if I ever saw this documentary, but the truth is Sellers probably wasn't all milk 'n honey. I personally think he is the best thing England ever produced, an unsurpassed actor. But his paranoia and hypersensitivity gave a hard time to most who worked with him. That's pity. He just wasn't able to reign his enormous talent.

There is one good documentary that leaves all the private stuff and yellow pages off the screen and talks business. "The Unknown Peter Sellers" (2000) concentrates on his career and gives many great clips and unseen footages. It features some wonderful "I'm All Right, Jack" behind-the-scenes. If I remember correctly, I think even Roy Boulting talks about it.

NappieB

Wow... I'd love to see that! A good, factual, no-holds-barred sorta documentary would do Peter Sellers proud! Maybe he was a bit of a tempramental genius... but the strain of trying to "break through" in the 1950s and early 60s with all the talent emerging at that time...

I saw another documentary... maybe 18 months ago ... not about Peter Sellers per se, but it featured an interview with Shirley McLaine. She waxed poetic about Peter Sellers and couldn't pay him enough compliments! It was a great accolade, she was obviously a Fan with a capital "F". She idolized the guy!

Praise indeed from a star who has "been around the block": so to speak - sister of Warren Beatty, ex-wife of Frank Sinatra...