I'd like to work with Mike Nichols very much.
I think I might find something going with him.
I'd like to work with Schlesinger, John Schlesinger
very much. I'd like to do another film with
Kubrick, Santa Kubrick and probably will.
Hello and welcome to Goon Pod. My name is Tyler Adams and this
is the podcast in which we talk about all things Goon related
Milligan, Sellers, Cecum and Bentine with a maybe an over
emphasis sometimes on Milligan and Sellers and this week is no
exception. We have literally in the last
few days just celebrated the centenary of Peter Sellers, who
was born on the 8th of September 1925, obviously no longer with
us. He's not been with us for nearly
half that time really, and to mark the occasion of a
centenary, I thought it would be a a wonderful opportunity.
I've had this in the back of my mind for going on for a few
years, actually. We're going to talk about films
that Peter Sellers never made. Specifically, I'm talking about
films that he was either attached to at one point or had
expressed an interest in being in, but for whatever reason
either were never made or were made without him in them, if you
know what I mean. And I've I've not really
explained that very well. So let me bring in my guest and
he can maybe explain a little bit more coherently.
It's it's returning guest active performer Patrick Paddy Strain.
Hello, Tyler. How's it all going?
Very good, very good Paddy. Thank you again for for coming
back. Did I explain myself well there
or not? I.
Think, I think for me, it's kind of it's something that it's
something that I've always had an interest in and that idea and
again, I sort of first started of from all things, you remember
that film that the last action hero of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I know where it exists. Yeah, yeah.
And there's 2 jokes in it where there's a scene where they're
watching Hamlet with Laurence Olivier, and it's Joan
Plowright's character who introduces the clip.
And the young boy in the film is obsessed with an art, so Arnold
Schwarzenegger type actor, and he's watching Hamlet with
Olivier. He finds it very boring.
So then he imagines Arnold Schwarzenegger playing Hamlet.
You know, to be or not to be, that is the question.
And I thought it was interesting because it's almost the concept
of, you know, we talk about actors turning down rules, and
we could sort of imagine the movie with that actor in it.
But you kind of realize that with certain actors, certain
movies would change because you cast a different actor in the
role, particularly star actors and particularly someone like
Peter Sellers, who was very, what for a better word, quite
opinionated about when he was on sets and having certain things
changed. I think what I find interesting
is and particularly something that we'll look at was we're
chatting, you know, the projects that, you know, were eventually
me, like, for example, Oliver, Willy Wonka.
How different would they have been if Sellers was in those
parts in those rules? Yes, he would have been very,
very different films. So I think that's kind of that's
where my interest is always, always lied in this sort of
subject, you know, the what ifs. But the what ifs would have been
vastly different than just, you know, because now we have deep
fix where people throw an actor's face on top of the other
actor's face and act like, well, that would have been how it was.
Like I've been a completely project many, many ways.
And also what Sellers was up to at the time as well, you know,
what projects did he choose instead of these projects?
Well, the The thing is, he was, he was also so fickle and he
could he could go to bed one night having agreed to star in a
particular film, waking up the next morning.
There's no way I'm making that film.
Yeah. Or as you know, we'll kind of
find in some of these projects, he'll sort of use a scapegoat,
you know, an excuse that, oh, somebody said something to me,
I'm not going to do this project.
Yeah, yeah. And look, and we're not going to
put we, this is no way we can be comprehensive and cover every
single film. There's for every film we
mentioned. Doubtless there were probably
dozens of others that he turned down and and we're not there's
no way that we can be 100% accurate.
There's going to be some some mistakes made along the way.
And I and I know that that may there may be certain listeners
have got a couple in mind who may may write letters.
It's a bit like points of view, isn't it?
Like Dear BBC, Why oh why? Yeah, there'll be somebody
complaining that we missed out a certain film or that we
misrepresented a film or whatever it may be.
But but look, you know, hopefully we're going to be as
close to accurate as we humanly can be and we're not going to
run through these. Oh, and sorry, one thing we're
not going to talk about Romance of the Pink Panther because I
think that could probably sustain an episode in itself.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we're not going to run
through these chronologically either.
It doesn't make sense to. So I thought we'd kick off by
talking about one of the earliest films that he was asked
to appear in and that he that he turned down, which is a film I
haven't seen, although I'm aware of called Espresso Bongo.
Oh, yeah, yeah. With Lawrence Harvey about.
Guest directed with Lawrence Harvey.
Yes. And Cliff Richard, oh, why I
didn't actually, was he up for the Lawrence Harvey role, the
agent? Yes he was and adapted the the
film was adapted from a a stage musical.
Yeah, Paul Scofield played the agent in the in the in the in
the stage version from what? I There you go, There you go.
But the screen adaptation for the film was written by Wolf
Mankiewicz, and I know you have things to say about Wolfman.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely yeah.
Because again, Wolf Mankiewicz, interesting character.
And that sort of leads to a film that never got me it called a
Memoirs or a Cross Eyed Man. It's a book by James Wellard,
which Sellers had they had the rights to.
And I think from what I believe the experiment the intention
was, it was Mankiewicz and Sellers created a production
company, I think it was called Seller Mankiewicz, and it was
meant to be his second directorial project.
And it gets mentioned in a New York Times article, 11th
December 1960, while he's on the set of Mr. Topaz.
And it gets mentioned that this will probably be his second
directorial film. Obviously, Mr. Topaz doesn't do
very well, so I think that may have got rid of his enthusiasm
to take that project forward. But something I find very
interesting is the plot of Memoirs Across Eyed Man.
It is a man who's a museum curator who falls for this girl,
gets obsessed, infatuated, and she eventually becomes an
International Film star and gets cast in this biblical epic.
And his obsession is so much that he sneaks onto the film set
as an extra just to get close to her.
And the thing I find interesting about that is how Sellers was in
his own life, quite an obsessive character.
And what's interesting is that Sellers in a way did that
himself. Was Sophia Loren on the set of
Fall of the Roman Empire, where after they finished The
Millionaire as he ends up flying to Rome and hanging around the
film set for weeks on end, doing photographs, taking film and so
forth. So I thought that was quite
interesting when reading. And I read the book years and
years ago and I could just remember that, that thin plot.
And I just thought that was fascinating that it was
something that Sellers in his own life kind of replicated.
So I'm not sure if he read the book and fought off, I'm going
to do this myself or. But yeah, I thought that was
very, very interesting. Again, with the Wolf Mankiewicz
thing, the Sellers, I think Mankiewicz kind of said they
they they announced the production company and that was
going to be the first film of their slate of movies.
And Mankiewicz said with within hours of us announcing it in the
trades, Sellers had changed his mind.
Yeah. And was not good.
The production company in the film didn't go forward.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
And and Mankiewicz never really forgave him.
No, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah, no.
Very bitter, bitter about it for quite a while.
Again, Mankiewicz was in again. He wrote the script for Waltz
the Toriadors as well. Now a couple of other.
Well, again, he was sort of a bit like, I think Michael, which
became a wee bit like Terry Sovereign did later on.
He came, he almost became his script doctor, like he would
come on to certain projects and rewrite the dialogue for him.
So yeah, we mentioned him recently because he wrote
Pickwick for Yes and you seek him.
This this one that we've got coming off is a story by an
American author called James Wellard, and the title is The
Memoirs of a Cross Eyed Man. Actually it's this man is a sort
of Serrano character. Who?
Is an ugly man, not because of this this business with his eye,
but but because he's nothing to do with.
Well, I have to go into a long rigmarole here and explain about
the film, which I won't bother you with boy you with now.
But he's a man who thinks he is attractive to women, attractive
generally. He thinks he is bigger than he
is. All his, all, all these
affectations are of course within him and only at certain
times through through the picture do you see what this man
really is and he sees himself as he is.
He's a very pathetic character of view of this.
And I thought this would be a good thing for me to.
First of all, I want to direct the film as a picture.
There's a lot in it I want to do.
For example, there is a whole section about a film company in
it, an American film company who are making a biblical musical
out in Morocco. And I think there's a great deal
of fun can be. So getting back to Espresso
Bongo, I've never seen the film. I've never seen the play.
It's as you you mentioned, it's got Lawrence Harvey and a very
young Cliff Richard. Yeah, yeah.
And Sellers said I turned down Espresso Bongo, the part that
Lawrence Harvey did, because I didn't like it.
I thought it would. I thought it was an incomplete
part. I didn't like the script.
Although Wolf's a great friend of mine.
Not anymore. Not.
Anymore, three years later, it's a very it's a very different
story. The thing that should have
attracted Sellers to the script, I would have thought, is that
Cliff Richard's character has a very goonish name.
His character's called Bert Rudge, right?
AKA Bongo Herbert. Bongo Herbert, That sounds like
something you'd go to see a doctor about.
Yeah, and sellers turned this down in favour of making two way
stretch, which I'm. A big fan of Two Way Stretch.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So as you say, you've you've
mentioned Memoirs of a Cross Eyed Man.
Is there anything else about that film that is notable?
The film that was never made, I should say.
Oh, I was never made again. I think it very much falls into,
as I said, that's sort of obsessive quality, which I find
in a lot of Cell. You know, again, the two films
that we've talked about, Lolita and Hoffman, it's certainly
something that Sellers was very good at, these sort of obsessive
characters. It's one of the one reading the
book and kind of looking at the project itself.
It's very much a film that Sellers after sort of his
international success, I don't think he would have been able to
do that film because it was it sort of falls into the little
man comedies that he's done in terms of the character.
So I think that's quite interesting in terms of a
project. It never really gets mentioned
again, but almost that he kind of maybe moved, I think at that
point. And Michael, which kind of
implies this, it's sort of gone, gone Hollywood in his own mind
and sort of saw himself as some more leading man type.
And again, was sort of probably moving away from those sort of
little man obsessive characters that he had done before.
Yeah, and and the film in the film, if you like that that that
she's making. Did you say it's a biblical?
Yeah, it's a biblical epic. Yeah.
OK, I think that leads quite neatly to the next film.
I want to to mention that seller's never made.
That was never made. This film another film that was
never made. Are you aware of a film called
or a proposed film called God Ha Ha So?
It's it I all I know is a script by Milligan that he's mentioned,
but I was actually trying to look that up myself and that's
all I could ever find was proposed script by Spike
Milligan with the intention of starring Peter Sellers.
So I'd love to know what's what you know about the projects.
Yeah, it's mentioned. It's touched on briefly in the
Roger Lewis book and I've really struggled.
I really struggled to find anything else about it.
Anyway, I looked in the the Milligan biographies that I had,
there's no mention at all. I want to give thanks to John
Dredge, friend of the show, who pointed me in the direction of a
a book that's been long out of print.
I managed to pick it up for a couple of quid on eBay, a book
called The Laughter Makers, which was written I think around
197071 by a guy called David Nathan.
And it's just about sort of British comedy of that time and
and and earlier and, and interviews with like, you know,
loads of top comedians and and comic writers and things like
that. Very interesting book.
And there's a there's a couple of pages about this proposed
film because the interview Spike all.
Right. I'm not going to read it all
obviously, and I'm just going to sort of summarise the the
background to this idea. So Milligan says, why should all
serious writers have charge of God?
Why can't the clowns have some of him?
And so he's got this. I don't know if it's half
written or even completed script in mind.
And he describes the opening scene, which has is like a
pretentious drum roll and A and a totally black screen and the
sound of this like ethereal wind.
And then this kind of Valentine dial like voice saying in the
beginning, God said let there be light.
And then a 40 Watt bulb goes on and there's a bloke lying in a
bed in a night shirt and he sits up and says who put that light
on? Busiest sketching queue?
Really. Pretty much.
And he then he went on to describe some other kind of
comic set pieces. So Sellers was going to be
Christ, by the way. Obviously, Yeah, God, there was
going to be a bit with with God being stopped to the ticket
barrier at Waterloo Station. The sea doesn't part for Moses
apparently. And and Milligan says have you
thought of the problem of getting 2 bloody chickens up a
gangplank together? You see a nod to Noah's Ark
there, and Sellers as Christ was going to be kind of like a Tommy
Cooper figure doing the loaves and the fishes thing.
Right. And climax with Sellers as
Christ being crucified in a laundrette.
Right. And and Spike said that he hated
laundrettes and the people who frequented them because he saw
the he saw them as misfits, drinks of society.
Milligan always had that joke before his grief says I told you
I was ill. I think he always used to make
reference, like he buried in a tumble dryer.
Yeah. Oh, to to confuse future
archaeologists. Yeah, that was it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that makes a lot of.
Was he washed to death or dried to death?
But I think what's interesting about that, again, it's it's
sort of all predating Life of Brian.
Yes, it is. As in that because a lot of
communities like Peter Cook, it's another example of because
they have him and Dudley Moore recorded at the Dead Sea
Scrolls, I think when they were doing beyond the Fringe and it
never got released or a day if it did, it was a as a bootleg.
But is that fascinating that communities that time do have
this real fascination with religion and gods.
Again, you see that in bedazzled yes, Peter Cook's obsession with
nuns. You know, the flying nuns on the
in the not only but also sketch of that wasn't the jumping nuns
of Saint Barrel or. Oh, that's the funniest bit of
the film, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think it's interesting because you had Cook Milligan, I had
Tony Hancock as well. He was always talking about that
musical with Galton and Simpson about Noah.
I think that is is a fascination that you had a lot of these
comedians very obsessed with, but they actually they're going
back to bedazzled. But what you call them Valentine
Dyel does play God in that in a. Similar.
Oh, he does. Yes, he does.
But I think, yeah, again, it's not interested you, you do get a
lot of these projects floating around, but it's only, it's not
till Life of Brian that you get the big project and the, the,
the. The well, yeah, because spikes
and that obviously briefly. He's also a couple of years
later in Mel Brooks History of the World Part 1.
Yeah, yeah. Which which does have Moses.
At the beginning, yeah, yeah, yeah.
With the 15 commandments, 10/10 commandments.
While we're on you, you mentioned Pete and Doug there.
Yeah, yeah. Was there a film that Sellers
was meant to be in and Dudley ended up making it?
Well, there's three films really.
There's We have 10, Lovesick and fifthly Yours.
So 10 Be again. 10 is interesting because that was,
you know, the Blake Edwards project, which is originally
offered to Peter Sellers. He turns it down again.
I think it was one of those where it's interesting.
I read an article that kind of said like they sort of believed
because again, Tan is the story of, you know, man going for a
midlife crisis, becoming obsessed with this young, young
girl Bo Derek while being with Julie Andrews.
And again, like a lot of Edwards films like That's Life are quite
similar to this. But I think what's interesting
is that Sellers, sellers turns it down again.
I think he I think he said the part was like it wasn't part of
his wheelhouse or something like that.
It was a party that couldn't really didn't see himself
playing. What's interesting is he does.
Originally he is in the film with Henry Mancini in a party
scene. I heard that, yes.
Is that right? Yeah, so it got cut.
And the reason apparently got cut was because Sellers showed
up on set. He was so apparently drunk,
disorientated, or had taken something that according to
Henry Mancini, he kept referring because the characters got
Dudley. Moore's character is called
George Webber, but Sellers kept referring to him as Dudley
throughout the film. Apparently they couldn't use any
of the footage because he just kept calling him Dudley over and
over again. But what I find fascinating,
because then you have the two projects Lovesick and on
faithfully yours that come after.
Those are the two projects that sellers again, the three
projects, the romance of the pink Pam firm, faithfully yours
Lovesick. Those were the ones lined up
before his death. Apparently while he was prepping
for Lovesick and they find some recordings of him practicing his
lines, but he was practicing his lines in a German accent.
And again, the whole movie set in New York.
It's a very it's directed by a guy called Marshall Brickman,
who wrote with Woody Allen quite a lot.
And again, a lot of the reviews for Lovesick kind of say it's a
Woody Allen film about Woody Allen.
Right. Because again, it's the main
character is a therapist and again, becomes obsessed with one
of his clients. So what's interesting is that
Sellers was, and I kind of always find like this seemed to
be a repeated theme of Sellers when he was prepping for a role.
Apparently he'd always try to do it in a German accent.
I think we talked about with this with Hoffman when he went
off to Alvin Racket, but I was got a new tonic accent and
apparently he's going to be the same of lovesick.
He was already starting his his walk into the to try to speak in
this obsession with doing everything in a German accent,
which kind of made me think it maybe again, they always say he
was up for the lead, though he may again, he was a bit older by
this point. And again, it's sort of meant to
be a younger character again ends up a bit of young character
with more. But again, he would in the film.
There's Alec Guinness is in it. Sigmund Freud.
Kind. Of thought that maybe he was up
for the Freud part and not the lead role, but apparently all
the things. I know he was up for the lead
part. But with Lovesick, which I find
interesting, is that it's a film that obviously Moore has a good
success with Arthur, and one of the big things in Arthur is the
relationship between him and John Gilbert, the Hobson
character. That's right, yeah.
And in Lovesick, they kind of try and repeat that, but what
they do is instead of giving him one elderly actor to work with,
they give him 2 because he ends up with Alec Guinness and John
Houston. So I just imagine like someone
that whoever produced it kind of going like, oh, that really
worked in Arthur. Let's do it again.
But let's do 2. Let's give him, let's give him
two elderly actors to be these, these kind of father figures.
Was it? Wasn't John Houston meant to be
a nightmare, though? Yeah, yeah, to work.
With as a either as a director or an actor.
John, John, John, John. Interesting.
An actor. I worked with Frank.
He had a meeting with John Houston back in the day, because
John Houston lived, used to live in Ireland.
He had this big house and he was always telling the Irish Film
Board that, oh, I'm going to be, I will make it.
Was Joyce's The Portrait of an Artist as a young man.
I think I was going to make this film.
So Frank gets invited to his house.
He goes to the door and knocks on the door.
First person to open the door. He goes, oh, Mr. Houston, it's
lovely to meet you. The guy goes, no, I'm the
Butler. Mr. Houston will be coming,
cutting down at the moment. Then John Houston appears at the
top of the steps and they have dinner.
And during the dinner, Houston goes, I wasn't her.
Frank, what do you as an actor, what's the best, you know,
medium measured film or theater? And Frank is kind of like Frank.
It just had a big success for a play called About Brendan Dean.
Oh yeah. And he goes, oh, you know, Frank
at all, you know, John, you know, theatre is the only medium
for an actor, only place for an actor, film, film, you know,
films, all bullshit. And all this again, very young
man. And he's in front of me and I,
we've had dinner a couple of years ago.
And he goes, Patrick, I'm sitting here now.
Is he not year old man? I was sitting in front of the
man who directed Humphrey Bogart, Walter Houston,
Katherine Hepburn, and I'm telling him like it's all a load
of show. He doesn't.
I could go back in time, but again, I think yeah, Houston
was. But again, he did a lot of these
projects as an actor just to to the fundest films really.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then again, he would also
take directing jobs just to fund his other movies.
I think there's a movie called The Mackintosh Man.
Oh, I've seen it. Yeah, with Paul Newman.
Yeah, Paul Newman, But apparently Houston didn't really
direct it. Apparently when you'd walk on
set. So the second AD would be
directed and Houston would just be in a phone booth putting his
bets on for the day. OK, You mentioned John Houston
there wanting to make a was it make a film of Portrait of an
Artist, the artist. And you also mentioned Alec
Guinness. Now, combining those two themes,
there was talk of a film of Ulysses with Sellers as Leopold
Bloom. Yeah, yeah.
And. Alec Guinness was going to be in
that and Jack Cardiff would have directed it.
Yeah, yeah. That never came to pass.
I couldn't find much about that much information.
Again, there is there is an adaptation with Milo O'Shea.
Again, I might not have been the same project, but the film does
come around sort of the late 1960s.
Yeah. So it does get, it does get
eventually adapted and made, but I'm not sure if that was the
same projects that they were. Involved in and Speaking of
Bloom. Bloom.
Yeah, it's not. It's not the only bloom we
turned down. No.
And and this is what you, you kind of think.
I, I, I haven't found any evidence of Sellers on record
saying it was one of his greatest regrets.
But he turned down the producers and and yeah, Mel Brooks wanted
him to play Leo Bloom. And Sellers apparently loved the
script when it was shown to him. But but getting him to commit
was another was another matter. Yeah, I think the original
script was called Springtime for Hitler.
Right, OK, OK. And the story is that Brooks
trailed around after him while he while Sellers was shopping in
Bloomingdale's, trying to pitch the film to him.
And, but obviously Sellers had this reputation.
He was difficult to pin down. And he was quite, as I said
before, he's very fickle. And he also lost interest in
things very, very quickly. He got bored with with things
very quickly. And so he initially said he'd do
it. And then and then he just wasn't
returning Mel's calls. And in the end, was it Dennis
Salinger, Seller's agent, basically had to tell Mel Brooks
that this is not the right time to approach him.
Both new material. So what what?
What happens? Mel Brooks, he turns to Gene
Wilder. Yeah.
And the rest is film history. And.
But obviously, as we know, the
film became an obsession of Sellers later on.
Yeah, also he he became it's biggest champion.
Yeah, I don't think the film was because again, it's on the set
of Alice B Talklers, where he wants to see a Fellini film and
they don't have a copy of it, but we have a copy of something
else and they play it for him. And I think it's a film that
wasn't getting any distribution at the time.
Yeah. And so he takes out an article
in, I think it's the New York Times.
So yeah, he takes out that article in Variety.
But it's interesting because Mel Brooks was interviewed recently
and he kind of said he was our biggest champion, but he was
also, it also worked against us as well because it was sort of
Sellers saying this movie is brilliant and you must think
it's brilliant. And he said a lot of the
reviewers at the time started going like, wow, we'll see for
ourselves if we think this is so.
A lot of reviewers started reviewing it badly.
The kind of 1 was combat against Sellers is over.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
He played there was a painter for you paint an entire apt 2
coats one afternoon. You're listening to this from
the horse now. Hitler had more hair than
Churchill, he told Funnier. Jokes.
And he could dance the pants up of Churchill.
Churchill couldn't even say nothing.
That is my favorite bit of dialogue from and a plug for
good old Mel Brooks and the producers in springtime for
Hitler and Germany. I shared your admiration
actually for that for. That film, they're great film,
very underrated. I don't know why people, they
didn't push that, Yeah. Well, you know why they didn't
push it is what's wrong with the movie, basically.
Isn't it absolutely right. We might talk.
We'll talk about that. Later, Gene Wilder.
Later Gene Wilder was looking to make the adventures of Sherlock
Holmes's smarter brother. Yeah.
And he was asking Sellers for
sort of tips on comedy. Ask him how he should make it.
Yeah, Sellers have. No, Wilder went to Sellers for
advice. But there's a time when Sellers
went to Wilder looking for a recommendation because he'd been
offered a role in a film called The California Dolls being
directed by Robert Aldrich. Again, it's a film about female
wrestling, and he was up for the part of the coach.
And so apparently, and this appears in Wilder's by
autobiography Kiss Me Like a Stranger and he recalls that
Sellers calls him looking what is what?
How is Aldrich as a director as he just worked with him on the
film called The Frisco Kid starring him in Harrison Ford?
OK, Yeah. And what was so he?
Well, it goes, yeah, I know he's a great action comedy director.
So apparently then Sellers asked the question like, oh, OK, well,
the film we're making, the film he's proposing to me is more of
a comedy farce. Would you vouch for him as a
farcical director? And while there was quite
honest, he said, look, I actually can't vote for him in
that regard because, you know, my or the type of film I made
with him was different. So apparently a few days later,
Wilder gets a phone call from Aldrich's daughter and going,
how could you? How dare you?
He's like, what, what? What have I done?
He went like, Sellers has
dropped out of the project. The project's probably not going
to happen, you know, because you probably the the, the message
that was sent back from sellers agent was that I've heard from
Gene Wilder that Aldrich is not a very good director and has I
won't project. So Barney Wilder held on to that
for a while. Just he was he can see reading
his biography. He's just like very confused.
I mean, kind of acts like it was a betrayal from sellers.
But again, it kind of comes back to, we mentioned earlier that
sort of using excuses because anyone kind of giving him any
sort of leeway to lead the project, he took it.
Well, put a pin in that. Put a pin in that for a moment.
I just want to briefly mention you.
You mentioned Robert Aldrich at one point in 5859 was attached
to direct a film version of Brouhaha, which was the rather
disastrous play that Sellers was appearing in at that time.
Oh yeah, yeah. That never happened, but getting
getting back to you said about sellers looking for excuses to
to drop out of films. The one that springs to mind is
for me is great film. Love it.
Top Carpie. Oh yeah, yeah.
Which famously people now say about that film that so Sellers
was offered a part in the main part in Top Carpy and Peter
Ustinov was offered the Cluso role in the Pink Panther.
And then they they Sellers turned down Top Carpy, Ustinov
turned down Pink Panther. Ustinov went on to win.
I think he won. Yeah, best supporting best.
Supporting actor for his role as what was his name?
It's a great film, Arthur. He plays a character called
Arthur. Anyway.
Anyway, and yeah. And Sellers, obviously.
Well, need I say any more about Sellers?
He he went on to do Cluso. Inspector Cluser was originally
Peter Ustinov and did you ever see Top Copy?
Yes. Well I was originally the taxi
driver and Peter Ustinov left the Pink Panther and I left Top
Copy. So we switched over and I took
Inspector Cluser and he took the taxi driver.
That's how it came about. That's true.
Sellers use the excuse that he didn't want to work with
Maximilian Shell, who was also cast in Top Carpe.
Sellers told the the director Jules Dassin, who I think he
made Rafifi as well, didn't he? He told Jules Dassin that he
heard that. Believe it or not, he is ironic.
He'd heard that Shell was unprofessional on movie sets,
but I'll. Call it kettle black there but.
Yeah, but I think it's more likely that he was jealous
because Maximinian Shell was a good looking man and who'd also
recently Co starred with Sophia Loren in a film called The
Condemned of Altova. But yeah, he just made the
excuse that Shell was unprofessional and that's why he
didn't want to want to make top copy.
Well actually interesting because I read a story about the
actor Peter Bull actually got cast in the film to enticed
Sellers to do the project because he had worked with him
on Doctor Strangelove. Apparently they go on quite
well. So they apparently cast Peter
Bull in the rule that eventually was given to Robert Morley.
Yeah, because according to Peter Bull, once seller said no.
Then they got rid of Peter, him and him as well because they
were like oh I don't need you anymore because you can use a
bargaining chip to get him on the.
Project, Yeah. The only thing I don't like
about Top Carpie is is Robert Morley, so I was.
About I was about to say because I saw your tweet the other day
and I I do actually agree with you.
Robert Morley is one person that is never ever, in my opinion,
apart from fear of a blood, has never been in agree.
Yeah, I'd agree. That's that's that's where he's.
Like, oh, this is going down there.
Where he's eating his dogs. Yeah, yeah.
Well, yeah, no, apparently Peter Bull was used as a bargaining
chip to get him onto the project.
Yeah, I think also where Sellers was in his career, because I was
obviously like a sort of a supporting character role.
And I think he saw himself more as a leading man by that point.
So maybe that's another. Well see I rewatched it
recently. I've seen it probably about 8
times over the years. I love it and and Houston off is
the lead. Yeah, yeah.
The it's a grey area maybe. And again, I think that comes
back to, you know, even again, there's the films that he made
but then turned down rules of in the film, you know, the 2 great
examples being the two way stretch and the wrong arm of the
law. You know, he's offered both his
role and you know, he's given a choice between that and I know
Jeffrey parts and he chooses the the the Pearly Gates and Dodger
Lane. And on both occasions he ends up
going I should have done your part.
Yeah, and then and then he ends up resenting Lionel Jeffries.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's been that ridiculous
part in The Prisoner of Zender. Yeah, well, they kind of he he
kind of made-up with. Well, it is it is headed made-up
with Lionel Jeffries. Or at least all sins were
forgiven as far as sellers but. I always kind of feel when I
watch that film, I I'm not sure if it's Lionel.
It's just it's a very subdued performance from Lionel
Jeffries. It's very uninteresting
performance and I'm not really sure why, because I think he was
a brilliant actor. Oh, he was.
I think he's the greatest talent in Two Way Stretch.
Yeah, yeah, just on Jeffrey's. Then can we go to another film,
The Spy with a cold nose? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Have you seen that? I haven't because that's a very
hard I I I've always. Again, it gets mentioned in the
Roger Lewis biography quite a bit, and again it's written by
Clements and the Three. No, no, Galton and Simpson.
Galton and Simpson, all right. I thought it was I thought it
was a champs from Porridge, but it's Galton and Simpson.
Well, they, they'd they'd written with John Entropist the
wrong arm of the law And and Sellers like, you know, like
their work. Yeah, Yeah.
He, he was recovering from his heart attack in 64.
He asked and he approached Galton and Simpson and asked
them to write him another film. Yeah, Yeah.
Alan Simpson said that they that the two of them were invited to
his and and Britt's home in in Elstead and they had the script
and they said they showed him the script and he fell about
laughing, which I find hard to believe.
I've never seen anyone thought thought about laughing Auntie.
Find amusing, you know. Comic Sans.
And they said he was laughing so much they were fearful of
another heart attack. And the reason I mentioned
Lionel Jeffries, Sellers obviously proposed himself as
the the the doctor in it, and he wanted Lionel Jeffries cast as
well. I've not seen the film, so I'm
not sure. That's because the film was made
and Jeffries is in it. Yeah.
But I'm not sure what part he played and.
Interestingly, it then has Lawrence Harvey plays the
operation. That's right.
Oh, again, going back to Espresso Bongo.
Absolutely. All these things connected and,
and Golden Simpson was he kind of strung them along.
Seller strung them along for about 3 weeks and then he pulled
out because he he, he was already under contract to make
What's New Pussycats and he he, he declined to mention that.
Again, but I, I, again, I've never seen the film, but I, I,
I've always been fascinated by it just because of the title,
because obviously it's around the same time of Le Carre, the
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.
I thought that was an genius title, but I don't, I don't
think it's ever been released. I think you could find like an
old VHS, you know, tape off YouTube, which is why I've
probably never watched it because I thought you're barely
going to see it. No, that's, that's fascinating,
you know? OK, so next film.
So what film would you like to throw into the mix?
Well, again, because we were all sort of on it, sort of Gene
Wilder chart, there's Willy Wonka.
Of course, of course, yes. And again, you kind of suppose
some Milligan is up for this role as well, apparently off his
beard for the audition especially did.
He glue it back on afterwards. So yeah, apparently from what I
from what I know, Roald Dahl was a big fan of both Sellers and
Milligan, and that was the first proposal to the producers.
I want Milligan or Sellers. And I think from my
understanding, no to Milligan because Milligan wasn't, you
know, you know, film star. Yeah, he was never bankable.
And I think at this point, Sellers again, was bankable but
was no longer considered bankable.
And so that's the reason he gets turned down and then in part
goes to Gene Wilder and the the rest is history.
Yeah, yeah. See, it's it's funny to me that
Roald Dahl wanted Sellers because I don't know the exact
relationship, whether it was strained or not, between Roald
Dahl and his daughter Tessa. Oh yeah, yeah.
But Tessa Dahl, as a teenage late teenager I must taste and
mention, had a fling with Sellers.
Yeah, yeah. And I, I, I I do believe he
treated her rather shabbily. Well, again, that's kind of like
sort of the main theme, as you were sort of saying there about
Golden Simpson again, you know, the sort of boredom that he
would get. And again, it came with people,
came with lovers, and it came with film projects as well.
And, you know, it seems you're saying, like, rolling around
laughing after reading the script.
And again, John Cleese and Graham Chapman tells similar
stories, you know, one minute laughing his head off, the next
minute he tells a joke to his milkman.
And the milkman doesn't laugh. And he no longer wants to do the
script. Yeah, you mentioned John Cleese
and Chapman. Do you know about this film that
Sellers wanted them to write for him called The Future Began
yesterday. No, I don't.
Actually, no. OK, so from what I can piece
together 1967 around that time, God, where do I start?
Are you aware of the writer Primo Levy?
Yes, yes. I think he was at Auschwitz,
wasn't he? And he wrote If This is a Man,
which very harrowing memoir, but he, under a pseudonym, wrote a
series of short stories called Story Naturally or natural
Stories, and one of them's called Angelica Butterfly.
And in this story, a man uses advanced technology to duplicate
his wife. But as you can imagine, things
go rather awry and and it it it asks questions of identity,
intimacy, and the consequences of perfecting or replicating
loved ones. Right.
And and sellers sent. 28 photocopied pages of this story
translated into English and and, and an accompanying note sent it
to Gleason Chapman saying, my dear John and Graham, please
read these beautiful things. What is here for your
commentaries and love with the compliments of Peter Sellers.
And that's in February 1967. OK, and there's But there's no
evidence that they ever ended up writing anything, although John
Cleese years later in an interview, mentioned that he'd
found a pristine copy of a movie script that he and and Chapman
had written in 1967 in a storage unit in Santa Barbara.
Yeah, yeah. Although we have no idea if it's
that film future began yesterday.
Could be could have been anything really.
Now the the story. The film would have been about a
man who's trying to duplicate his wife.
Sellers had a particular actress in mind to play the wife.
Who? Who do you think that might have
been? Sophia, Absolutely.
Who do you want, Peter? You could.
You could have anyone. Sophia.
Yeah. Oh, dear.
And then and then I really
handle. And then I really handle.
But again, as we were kind of saying about the heart attack,
again, obviously the spy Nicole knows and what's new because he
can't come after, but there's the project just before gets me
stupid. Now, Hollywood, it doesn't make
so many pictures today as it did, but it still is a very
powerful movie making center, isn't it?
Yes, I quite agree. Do you plan making any pictures
in Hollywood this year or next? Well, most certainly next year
I'm going to make the film with Billy Wilder there.
A great director? Yes.
A great director. I agree with you absolutely.
And I understand that there will be Frank Sinatra and Shelley
McLean in the same film. That isn't bad.
No, it isn't. So it's a great thrill to look
forward to that. I've not done much research on
that because again, that could be almost an episode in itself.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But Sellers was working on that
for a couple of weeks prior to his heart attack and like.
Six weeks on the project. Yeah.
And then subsequently replaced by Ray Wollstone.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Filmed directed by Billy Wilder,
of course. And there's this stills of
Sellers. Isn't there still photographs of
him? Yeah, with the jumper, with
can't. Remember Beethoven?
Beethoven. Yeah, Yeah.
And Sellers, when he was recuperating, obviously didn't
end up making the film. He was interviewed by Alexander
Walker back in Britain and I haven't got the interview to
hand, but it was quite scathing about well.
Yeah, How's that phrase I got? I got Hollywood in a big way,
darling. The love, yeah, that's it,
That's it. And, and I think Wilder, Kim
Novak, he was on the film Dean Martin, They, they wrote this
open letter to him in one of the trade papers saying something
about, of talk about unprofessional rat finks.
Yeah, Well, I, I, I think in the Xander the Walker interview, he
mentions, and I think it's interesting that because that
was his first, well, if if he had completed the movie, it
would have been his first Hollywood film filmed in Los
Angeles. And what's interesting is I
think one thing he didn't particularly like was the fact
that at these big Hollywood studios, you get tourists,
people come onto the set and watch you doing doing the job
you do. And apparently that was
something he found very, very disconcerting and bewildering.
I think at one point in the interview he started a bags,
Walker said. He started doing a blood knock
voice and saying get the cannons ready like the blows.
But again, what's interesting about the Wilder thing, and
again, it does bring us on to another project, the Private
Life of Sherlock Holmes, because even though they have this this
falling out during Kiss Me Stupid, apparently he is offered
the role of Doctor Watson. But what's interesting on A and
again, I went to, so the BFI did a screening of what they're
doing, a top five Billy Wilder films.
And something that was kind of pointed out to me, which I
thought interesting is that on Billy Wilder movies, when you
look at the credits, you know, most movies you have a script
supervisor. On a Wilder film, you would have
a dialogue supervisor and a script supervisor.
And people were always kind of saying that's Wilder was so
specific about you could not change a comma in a Wilder
script. And apparently that's one of the
reasons why Sellers was so unhappy on the project as well,
because he was used to being allowed to improvise multiple
ticks. Wilder was very different from,
you know, the example being Kubrick really, in terms of
allowing him to to flow with his creator.
You know, that what did Cuber call it?
The comic ecstasy? I think that was being very much
stifled on the set of Kiss in in Sellers point of view.
But then, yeah, as you said, then what I find interesting is
regardless of, you know, the open letter and all this, he is
off for the rule of Doctor Watson in the private life of
Sherlock Holmes. And I'm assuming that his reason
for turning it down was his prior experience on Kiss Me
Stupid. Well, it's interesting, I asked
Jonathan Coe. You know the novelist.
Yes. Who's huge fan of the film
Private Life of Sherlock Holmes? And I asked him if he had any
any information about Sellers involvement or proposed
involvement. And he said he said, I don't
think Sellers was ever officially attached to private
life. And any involvement was
certainly curtailed by the fact that he'd fallen out with Wilder
on the set of Kiss Me Stupid even before his heart attack.
Do you know the interview he gave to Alexander Walker of in
the wake of that experience, I've had Hollywood love.
OK. And then he says, Nicholas
Palais, who's just finished writing a book about Private
Life of Sherlock Holmes. You almost certainly have more
info. Unfortunately, I didn't have
time to contact Nicholas Blay, but I will certainly be getting
that book whenever it's published because that sounds
fascinating. I love the film, the film, and I
know you've got something to say about that film.
Oh yeah, yeah, no, because the actor then who is cast?
Colin Blakely. Him and my grandmother, they
used to court. Luckily he wasn't successful
because I always joke if he was I would have ended up five foot
5. Oh yeah, it was.
Yeah, they. Yeah.
And again, interestingly. So can I just say Colin Blakely?
I watched it again the other night because I love it so much.
And just to prepare for this all, sort of that's my excuse.
Colin Blakely is stand out in that.
If I didn't know you're better, I might suspect you're taking
advantage of the young lady. As a matter of fact, I did take
advantage of her. Would you hand me the butter
knife, please? Of course you did.
What? Thank you, Holmes.
This is reprehensible. Where are your professional
ethics? Have you no sense of decency?
No shame? None whatsoever.
If you must know, I found her body quite rewarding.
You can't. Again.
He was one of Pinter's top actors.
I'd always forget that. But he's in the The Pink Panther
strikes again as the police boss.
Is he reporting to Leonard Rossiter?
Yeah. Dudley Sutton as well.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I, Dudley was a chap I
used to know, passed away years ago.
And I always, you know, I, I always kept forgetting Dudley
was in that film and I should have asked him about his
experience. He was always too busy telling
me how much he hated Ian McShane.
But yeah, Tinker. Yeah, yeah, he's Tinker.
But yeah, I always, I always regret.
Yeah, he passed away quite a few years ago.
And I I always forgot he was in that film because there were.
The three of them are brilliant. And yeah, I always just forget
all three of them are in that movie because, yeah, like I
should have asked him while he was alive.
It's one of my regrets. Well, you mentioned Leonard
Rossiter. I mentioned Leonard Rossiter.
He, he made a couple of films with Stanley Kubrick, as you
know, as did Sellers. What a segue this is.
Sellers obviously famously made Doctor Strangelove, but also
Lolita, which you and I have discussed at length.
And there was talk, well as far as Sellers was concerned of
another collaboration between him and Kubrick.
So while while Sellers was making the Optimists of Nine
Elms in early 1973, he was interviewed and on set, and he
said about Kubrick, he said, we're going to do another film
together. He's working on it now, but
Stanley doesn't want to mention what it's going to be about.
Stanley would say it's very, very different.
Gee, you've really got to see it, right?
And that's all he, that's all he said about it.
I've looked and looked and looked.
There's very little else that I can find that corroborates this.
Yeah. And again, Kubrick at that time
was working on his Napoleon project.
You know, that was kind of his name.
Barry Lyndon. Barry Lyndon.
Yeah, well, Barry Lyndon's the project that end up ends up he
does after abandoning Napoleon using most of the research he
used on it. Right.
OK, yeah, yeah. The only thing I could find
there was a route and I can't remember where I read this
actually. Damn it all, but there was a
right. Surely this film would be the
film that could absolutely not have a sequel.
But there was talk at some point of a A Strangelove 2.
Yeah, yeah, no, I said I read ABFII wasn't about it, but it it
gets mentioned ABFI article, I think it's sort of floats
around. I think it even was still
floating around in 1992 from what I understand.
Right Again, if if ever a movie had an ending without.
Absolutely I. Mean in many ways.
I'd say The Bedsitting Room is the sequel to Doctor Strange.
Yeah, now you mentioned to me before we started recording
about our chat about Lolita. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I spend quite a bit of time here in Barcelona.
I'm a partner here, Miriam Cannon.
She's a writer. We're doing our book launch
tonight, actually. Plug.
But what I was going to say is our episode of Lolita has become
recommended listening on one of their courses at the Bloom
School in Barcelona because they do a a course on Nabokov.
Wonderful. Use.
Use it in terms of the idea of adaptation.
So, so this podcast or an episode of this podcast is being
used in academia. Yeah, yeah.
Wow, you finally meet. Yeah, yeah.
Again, what was I? What was I going to mention?
So this is one that, and I think this appears in Rogersburg, the
Phantom versus the 4th Reich. That intrigues me.
I don't know much about it. Go on, tell me about that.
So the Phantom versus the first, right?
It's the, you know, the, the comic book character, the
Phantom. It gets me into a film with
Billy Zane in the 90s. Yeah, yeah.
Apparently this was a project. It was written by Philip Mora,
who does Mad Dog Morgan with Dennis Hopper.
He also directs what I consider the worst, best film of all
time, Holding to your your your, your Sister is a Werewolf.
It's got Christopher Lee giving probably one of the most phoned
in performances I have ever, ever, ever seen.
But so apparently this project was going to be produced by King
Features Syndicate, who were the publishers of The Phantom.
Yeah. And which I find quite
fascinating because this is the early 1970s.
And obviously nowadays we're very used to, you know, Marvel,
DC, these comics being added, being made into made into films.
It's common. It's big part of the film
industry. Yeah, I don't like it myself,
but yeah. Yeah, I know, same, but sorry.
Tim. Yeah.
But I think what's interesting is this is this was an attempt
by a publishing house to make a film of the Phantom in 1970.
And the idea is that Sellers was cast in three rules.
He was going to play the Phantom.
He was going to play Hitler and Hitler's son Heinrich.
Apparently Sellers was interviewed at the time going.
I know Hitler didn't have a son, but if he did, he'd be called
Heinrich. I'm not sure where he got that
information from. So what's interesting is I came
across. So it's yeah, it gets announced
in a magazine which is called Monster Magazine in 1970.
And I just, I'm just going to read this out because I find
this hilarious. Adolf Hitler alive with son, yet
both played by Peter Sellers, putting it against the famous
jungle hero, the Phantom. That's right.
In the new King features flick The Phantom versus the 4th Reich
film roles in July in London. All I can say is right on.
Jesus, right? So, yeah, so again, it gets
mentioned. Actually it's in Alexander
Walker's biography, the one that gets published in 1982.
So apparently, like Sellers, God had photographs of himself taken
as a love Hitler to kind of create funding for this movie
while they were getting filled. Apparently taken, he goes, they
should have had a Eurovision Hitler contest.
Yeah. So again, this is a project
falls through because the head of the publishing house passes
away. I think he's in a skiing
accident. And whoever takes over decides
that this is not a project that we should we should go forward
with. But interesting like Philip
Moro, he gets interviewed in 1976 about the projects and I
don't know why but he gets he made a movie called Eagle and he
they asked him where the idea of Eagle come about and he
mentioned this movie. So apparently the Phantom versus
the 4th Reich, which was a black comedy about the Phantom, the
comic strip character tracking down Hitler in South America.
Hitler was 80 years old and he has a 21 year old son called
Heinrich Hitler who wore shorts and long white socks.
Peter Sellers was going to play Hitler at 80 Heinrich and the
Phantom. The interviewer asks who decided
that? He answers Peter Sellers.
But I guess, as I said, he's almost, we almost had a moment
of of Peter Sellers entering the comic book world in 1970.
Yeah, before it was fashionable. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, yeah. I mentioned before about the
possibility of Doctor Strangelove 2.
It reminds me that there was a couple of possible sequels to
Sellers films that well, there were a couple made and there was
one that was proposed that was never made.
So I'm all right, Jack Two, really.
That was suggested at one point, I think.
And people always forget it's a sequel itself.
To this, absolutely. So it would have had the
character Fred Kite coming back. I presume Irene Handel would
have been on board as well. Never happened, although Sellers
did reprise the Fred Kite character when he was making the
Sellers Market LP at the end of the 70s.
Yeah, although though the that was cut from the actual album
couldn't. Do the voice apparently wasn't.
The voice wasn't very good and also because it was, it was
deemed disrespectful to Mrs. Thatcher and sellers wanted.
To Yeah. Was it June Whitfield?
Did she? Do June Whitfield.
That's right, yeah. She was doing Thatcher.
Yeah, that's. Right.
And there's a couple of other sequels that were made to films
that had Peter Sellers in them. So it's spectacle.
So yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Which I have. It's not a very good film.
I love Alan Arkin, but it's not very good.
I can never finish that film. I one of those movies I've tried
on so many occasions and it's it's quite interesting because I
read an interview from Alan Arkin and he mentioned the
reason. I think they asked him why did
you take on this part and he said at the time I thought I was
indestructible. Inspector Clouseau taught me I
wasn't. Well, he'd made one of my
favorite films of all time, I think the year before.
Wait Until Dark with Yeah, Hepburn.
The Russians are coming. The Russians are coming.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can't. Remember, it's catch 22
afterwards. Yeah, I think it was 1970.
Yeah, yeah. I think the if I remember
correctly, the end of Inspector Clouseau is Beryl Reed.
Try humping him. Yeah, like as I said, I've never
Now, now, now I know I won't make it to the.
End And of course, there's another film which was a sequel
that Sellers didn't want involvement with, which was you
reminded me of today, actually, Mouse on the Moon.
Yeah, because I watched it actually on the flight over to
Barcelona on Wednesday. Never ever seen it before again.
But apparently it was, I think he was making heavens above at
the time. So I think it was a scheduling
problem as well. But what's interesting is I
think who they get to play, the characters, I would sort of
argue, are the people that he was impersonating.
You know the Grand Duchess is Margaret Rutherford.
Yeah. And then the character he's his
character is the, is it was he called Sully or so Tully isn't
in it, but he kind of replaced the Tully character with the son
of the Prime Minister. He gets played by Bernard
Cribbins. Right.
And again, Bernard Cribbins is very good and again, I always
sort of say the Tully's probably not one of sellers best
performances. You know if you had a Bernard
Cribbins in that role, it would have been a lot, lot better.
So it's interesting. It is kind of and then the Prime
Minister is played by Ron Moody. Does actually really good
performance. Interesting.
Terry Thomas is in it and I thought Terry Thomas would have
been the Prime Minister when I saw the titles.
But he plays an MI 6 agent who obviously tried.
The old Terry Thomas joke tries to ingratiate himself, but just
comes across as this Englishman, the bird Birdwatcher.
No, the only person who comes back is David Kossoff, the
professor. He's in a weird way, he's kind
of the lead in the film. Very interesting in terms of the
lead. He's the one who moves the plot
forward. None of the other characters
really move move anything, particularly Margaret
Rutherford. I'm pretty sure, am I right in
saying that Sellers pushed for Richard Lester to get the
directing gig on that? And because obviously they they
were friends. And then I think the next film
Leicester made was A Hard Day's Night after the well, that's the
scene. Producer Walter Ascension.
Oh, there you go. Right, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I think that, yeah, that lays on to, I think it's got a cameo
from Frankie Howard trying to use the toilet.
Christ. OK, You're not selling it to me.
Yeah. Yeah.
But then again, moving on from that one mentioning Ron Moody,
there is Oliver. Now, right, So with Oliver, I
think I'm right in saying because Sellers had set up this
production company called Brookfield Films in 64, then he
has his heart attack. He he was meant There's one film
that he was meant to star in which never got made because of
the heart attack situation, which was Don Quixote.
There's a funny thing, because I would say he has a, because
Cluso has a very Quixote, sort of, you know, like.
I mean, Roger Lewis says this very well in this book.
You know the whenever you know, he, he tries to open the door
and the the door handle falls off in his hand.
There is that little moment that's very quiote, that kind of
the little moment of defeat. But getting back to Oliver.
So that was originally going to be made by Brookfield Films and
then legal disputes prevented them.
So it was made, but not but in a different, totally different
production, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
With Carol Reed directing. But again, I think with that
one, I'm sort of, I just feel if he did do that project, he just
would have done his Alec Guinness impression, which he
was. He kept doing.
Yeah, he kept doing over and over again on TV shows.
But yeah, but you mean Guinness as Fagin, you mean?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because he does sound quite a
few like television shows at the time.
He always does the fake. Oh, because he always sees the
quick change. See, I'm not sure about that
because from what I read, Sellers was anxious to to try
and move away from the sort of anti-Semitic.
Yeah. And basically said that he would
play Fagin just as an old rogue. Whatever I could do with Fagin
would be. A copy because Alec.
Had done the ultimate, you see, there was nothing left to do.
He was off the he was one of Boss's drawings out of the book,
out of Dickens books. He was Fagin.
And to do that, I mean, I would have meant, it would have meant
copying Alec and I wouldn't want to do that.
But have been a good reuniting with Harry Secombe.
Yeah, well, if Secombe had been attached to that first
production, maybe. Who knows?
But it would have been, wouldn't it?
Around this time as well. So that was 64 around this time.
Are you aware of a comedy film called Rotten to the Core?
Oh it. Rings a bell, but no I I'm not
aware of it. OK, I only discovered this
literally the other day I watched.
In fact, I watched the film again a couple of weeks ago just
just for for the enjoyment factor.
I had no idea that sellers there was a small sellers connection.
It's a it's a, it's a British crime caper film from 65 Bolton
Brothers film. And and it also it has Len Heath
and John Warren as the writers now they worked on Two Way
Stretch and in in Rotten to the Core 1 character's called Jelly
Night, which is obviously Dave Lodger's character in Two Way
Stretch. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. And there's another character
called Anxious O'Toole. And if you remember, Wrong Arm
of the Law, Bernard Cribbins played Nervous O'Toole.
Yeah. Yeah.
I I saw two references to Sellers having been cast early
on as the lead character called the Duke.
OK. This sort of leader of a gang, I
suppose, which was Sellers. I mean, sellers loved playing
those sorts of roles. Didn't he look at wrong arm of
the law after the fox two way stretch.
But then, but but then for whatever reason, he he didn't
end up making it. And Anton Rogers.
Took me. So that would have been an
interesting interpretation had he had he taken that on.
Oh yeah, definitely. But again, I think it would have
been sort of maybe from sellers point of view, probably ground
already covered. Absolutely.
Similarity as you said there, you know, again after the Fox, I
always kind of say it's like a bigger budget version of the
wrong arm of the law in some respects, but kind of the same
sort of comedy caper, but one that was going to mention there
again. Speaking of comedies that did
eventually get made, but apparently Tootsie was at one
point offered to Sellers title. Would I lie to you?
I. Never knew that.
Yeah, so it was apparently it was a script floating around in
the mid 70s offered to both Sellers and Michael Keane and
only finally kind of comes comes together like mid 80s with
Dustin Hoffman. But no, I came across that the
other day. I love Tootsie.
I can't imagine. Brilliant film.
I can't imagine anyone else playing that.
Oh. No, no, no, no.
OK, a couple of mentions of films where I don't really have
much additional information. In 1979 there was there was
going to be a film based on a long running radio series called
Chandu the Magician. Oh yeah, Chandu.
Yeah, yeah. Chandu yeah, it's.
It was. It got a film in from Bela
Lugosi in 1930 I believe. Right.
So he's going to be on that, But that would have been around the
time he was making or made Fu Manchu.
Yeah, it's quite, Yeah. It's very similar to Fu Manchu
that's sort of interestingly Orient at the time.
So he basically he's a magician who's a crime fighter.
Right. OK, he was.
He wanted to make a film version of UNESCU's Rhinoceros, and it
was going to be set in Hamburg, directed by the man who directed
him in The Lady Killers, Alexandra Mackendrick.
There's also there's a couple of films that Michael Palin
mentions in his Diaries. He mentions the Graham Chapman
film from 1978, The Odd Job. Oh yeah, yeah.
Which Peter Peter Matic directed.
Yes, Peter Matic, that who directed him disastrously in The
Ghost in the Noonday Sun. Now, apparently, according to
Palin, his in his Diaries, Sellers wanted to be in the
film, but Chapman wanted Peter O'Toole.
Oh, as as the assassin or as the?
I guess so, yeah. That's all I know.
Yeah, 'cause it's eventually it's made with Graham Chapman
and David Jason replying. David Jason from.
The six faces of Barker, I think it's called.
Where the show where you did like the free the six episodes?
06 dates with Barker. Yeah, six dates with Barker.
That's it. Yeah, Yeah.
And also so that's that would have been intriguing.
And also, I think Gillian was considering asking Sellers to
play the David Warner role in Time Bandits.
Oh, OK. And this was in April 1980,
which was three months before Sellers died.
So yeah. Yeah, yeah.
And you mentioned Peter Medak, there's a there was a novel
called Absolute 0 written by Ernest Tidyman and it was
published in 1971. And it's a it's a near future
thriller satire. The the main character is called
a True Blessing or Adam True Blessing who who establishes
this cryogenics firm. He and he becomes sort of
accidentally involved in cryogenics while attempting to
preserve his accidentally frozen dwarf parents.
Right. A lot of accidents here.
And there's a character in it called Chicken Charlie, who's a
shady, flamboyant figure who's kind of a hustler fixer.
And he, he sort of does The Dirty work for, for, for true
blessing. Yeah, Yeah.
I've never read the book, obviously.
But Sellers in 1973 says that he's he says I'm doing another
one in New York called Absolute 0, written by Ernest Tidyman,
who wrote Shaft, apparently. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
He said, he said it's an hysterical, high farce.
It's serious humor, and I love serious humor.
As Chicken Charlie says, Far out, man, Far, far out.
And Peter Medek was slated to direct that, but in the end he
and Sellers went off and made Ghost in the New Days.
How much? We making sense.
Well actually well-being on the theme of sort of future sci-fi,
the alien yes, very interesting project.
It was meant to be Peter Sellers and Marlon Brando from the
director Sajid Ray. Again, this I find this one
interesting because it has an interesting back story to it
because basically it's about an alien coming to earth lands in
India. And sort of basically from what
I've read, it's basically ET in India, but this is from like 19,
from the late 1970s. And what I find interesting is
that was both Sellers and Marlon Brando were attached.
It was via Columbia Pictures and the reason why he cast Sellers
was apparently due to his performance in the Millionaire S
Ray sort of said it's it's not a great performance, but he always
thought that Sellers kind of captured sort of elements of
Indian culture in that performance.
But that his opinion changed very much when he went to go
visit him on the set of the party, apparently with Blake
Edwards, where he considered his performance becoming very, very
broad and over the top. Cartoonish.
Yeah. Cartoonish.
But apparently that project didn't go ahead.
Well, Sellers dropped out. The reason?
Apparently he did his usual thing, sort of kept them, kept
them on hook for ages, and then finally wrote he gets his agent
to write a letter saying, oh, sorry, he's been busy with
reshoots. Oh, so he will only do this
project if you expand his part and rewrite the entire script,
which is his way of saying no? I mean, I know who actors and
people in the profession think that great directors are, but
the public, as far as the public is concerned, I wonder who they
think. All they know is whether they
like a film or they don't. So, for example, if I mentioned
a famous Indian director like Satajit Ray, who probably plays
in art houses all over the world, which he does, he's never
become commercial, but he's a fantastic director.
He's his own camera operator. He works his camera himself.
I mean, that way he sees exactly what's happening.
But you see, I mean, he's not, he's not what you'd call box
office. I don't know.
But he's a great filmmaker. And the project doesn't happen.
Reason being is because when the script gets copyrighted, so Ray
writes the script, but it gets copyrighted by his an executive
at Columbia called Michael White.
And what happened was when Michael White copyrighted the
script, he put his name on the script.
So Ray refused to produce the film.
So it never happens. But apparently there's a lot of
Hoo ha wants ET and close Encounters get released because
it was quite apparently the time it was quite a big script being
passed around by quite a few studios and apparently there are
elements from the script that are very similar to things that
happen in ET and close encounters.
So Ray, a lot of the time accuses Steven Spielberg of
stealing some of his ideas or some executive at some point
taking things from the script and passing them on to
Spielberg, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
Well, yeah, because Spielberg claimed he was still at school
when. According to Ray, I think he
leaves film school in 1965 when this script went around.
And you know, Spielberg starts in the industry quite early on.
So yeah, I think that's always been Spielberg's defense.
But I think our defense is that he does leave as UCLAI think, in
1965 and begins to work quite quickly after.
There's definitely universal because he directs some episodes
of The Night Gallery. Does he direct the first episode
of Columbo or he doesn't? He directs A Columbo.
It's. He directs, so there's two,
there's 2 pilots of Columbus. Well, there's there's ATV movie
prescription Murder in 68, and then there's a pilot called
Ransom for a Dead Man. Yeah, Yeah.
And he, Spielberg directs the first episode proper, if you
like. And just on that, actually,
Peter Faulk wanted Sellers to appear as a villain in an
episode of Columbo in 1974, specifically the episode
Negative Reaction, in which a famous photographer kills his
wife. I mean, that's yeah, that's that
makes sense. Sellers would have loved that,
but apparently Sellers was far too expensive.
He asked for $360,000, which was nearly 20 times what was on
offer. Wow.
I mean 7074. 74 Did I mention it was Dick Van Dyke he ended up
playing. Prior is that before or?
Yeah, that would have been the year of the release of Return of
the Pink Panther. 75 S OK. That's interesting.
Sellers was still in a bit of wilderness period at this time.
That's quite interesting. He would turn down what was
quite a high profile. You know, we at the time he's
appearing in those with those adverts for Transworld Service.
And also films like the Block House that don't don't even get
proper release. I find that quite interesting.
Or maybe he would have considered it like a step down
I. I think it was more that the TV
element maybe, yeah. Yeah, Yeah.
No, I thought that's quite, no, that's quite because again, as I
said, that would have been quite a, you know, when you look at
the things he was doing at the time, that would have been quite
a high profile project. Well, there's another film.
Well, that's obviously ATV show. Yeah, yeah.
There's a film around that time, similar time that he turned down
a, albeit A relatively small part, but it would have done his
career, would have been a shot in the arm if he if he'd done
it. Coppola wanted him to play Hyman
Roth in The Godfather 2. Really.
I've never heard of that. I think it was Lee Strasberg
ended up taking the role. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, and I don't have any other information other than seller's
just turned it down in favour of doing soft beds hard battles.
Oh gosh. But could you imagine him and
the Godfather too? That is fascinating.
I'd, I'd never, yeah, I never, I never.
I remember Orson Welles, but Barry lobbied Francis Ford
Coppola to be the godfather and they got photographs taken and
stuff like that. Yeah, I could see that maybe.
Yeah, Well, I think I could see it, but I would be a very.
And again, it's sort of what we've sort of been broaching on.
We would have been a very different film with Wells as
opposed to Brando. There's sort of that difference
between an actor and a performer, if you know what I
mean. I always feel like Wells wasn't
very much, you know, he was not the actor that Brando was.
No, at times he was more a performer.
And I'm sure he would have spent most days trying to work out
which nose to have, as was his won't.
But I can also done another film is the contest from Hong Kong
Chaplain's last movie. His name gets mentioned for the
Patrick Cargill part. The Hudson no the Butler again I
think. I think both him and Noël Coward
are mentioned as possible possible Hudson's.
But I think the reason in the end they don't get cast is it
was already decided the film was already top heavy with Marlon
Brando and Sophia Loren. So they decided to go with a
lesser name, probably a cheaper name so that Patrick Cargill
gets cast instead, which I think for Sellers was probably a good.
I'd say working with Chaplain probably would have been very
similar to working with Billy Wilder.
Sticking to the script, no improvisation.
And again, Brando has, you know, it's quite famous, Brando having
a horrible time on the set of that film.
It would not have been healthy for Sellers to be on a film set
with Sophia Leverett, Lorraine. There's also there was talk
again years before the Richard Attenborough film, of Sellers
starring as Chapman in a biopic of Chaplin.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because yeah, yeah.
It was a bit like Gandhi. It's one of those projects that,
well, I think it was Brian Forbes wrote the script, didn't
he? Did he right?
Yeah, yeah, he's, he is. Again.
I'm not sure. Yeah, No, I think I remember
reading this. Brian Forbes is credited for,
you know, the film that gets made in 1992, I believe, with
Robert Downey. OK.
Yeah. And.
Forbes does have a credit, but I think it's one of those credits
where he wrote a script 20, you know, 20-30 years ago.
His name was always sort of attached to it, had been
rewritten quite a few times. But he's still, you know, the
Writers Guild were still like, no, no, you're still using
elements of the script he wrote. So his name remains.
So that may have been a connection why Sellers was
involved as well. Anne Forbes.
Yeah, yeah, There's a film called Bless You Mr. Rosewater
or Pearls Before Swine. Pearls before swine.
Which was based on a Kurt Vonnegut novel and it was to be
directed by Blake Edwards, but instead he and Sellers made the
party. OK.
There's a film called The Fixer. Frankenheimer.
Yeah. And, and The MGM wanted Sellers
to star in the film. So it's about a Jewish handyman
in Czarist Russia who becomes the victim of a false accusation
and is imprisoned. And it's like, it's kind of like
a Kafkaesque trial thing going on.
And MGM wanted Sellers to be to star in it.
Frankenheimer didn't want him. He wanted Richard Burton.
And eventually they got Alan Bates.
Why did you? Turned down John Frankenheimer's
invitation to do the fixer. There was no precedent there was
an original novel by. Now that was for a different
reason. That was because I I didn't
think it was a suitable subject to be made at that time.
I may say I was proved right and I think Frankenheimer was wrong
to embark on it. And after Lexie walks along the
Via Appia in Rome, we spoke of it.
I, I said that I, I really didn't feel that I should do it.
And you know, I'm, I get very worked up about these things and
I, I'm very interested in the films all together and every,
every part of it, of the, of the film making process.
And I suggested that he gave it up too.
I'll try and do humour. Just staying on the the Russian
theme, there was going to be a film version of the wonderful
Michael Fraine's novel The Russian Interpreter.
I love Michael Frayn. He obviously wrote some some
wonderful novels. He also wrote the screenplay for
Clockwise for for John Cleese. Oh, yes, yes.
And in 1967, he'd, he'd, he'd had a relatively successful
novel called The Russian Interpreter published.
And Michael Powell, the great Michael Powell wanted to make a
film of it and he wanted Sellers to get on board.
And there's a whole story. So Michael Powell's a bit of a
although a great film maker, although he'd he'd made Peeping
Tom a few years before and his career had been damaged, but bit
of a ludicrous character, Michael Powell in some respects.
And he his pitch for this film that it would be Chekhov fire,
Billy Wilder apparently. And Sellers kind of toyed, toyed
with him a little bit, Michael Powell and said, yeah, I'll do
it. But he toyed with him for some
time, and eventually, in a meeting, Sellers told Powell
that he wasn't the right director for his own project.
I know. I've Yeah, I've heard this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and there's a theory one of
the reasons that they that Sellers might have had a been
his bonnet about Michael Powell is that 10 years earlier,
Sellers had auditioned for a for a role in Powell's film I'll Met
by Moonlight. Oh yes, with dark.
Don't Bogart again, yeah. He gets me into a goon that is
ill, ill lit by moonlight. Ill.
By Goon Light, Ill. Lit by goon light, yeah.
And, and he didn't get the role. And Michael Powell apparently at
the time describes Sellers as looking like an India rubber
owl, right. So anyway, so sellers just sort
of toyed with him like a, like a cat does with a, with a mouse.
You know, there was a, there was a.
Point where when Sellers was making I love you LSB talk last
that he discussed with the screenwriters Larry Tucker and
Paul Mazursky that that the they make they form their own
production company and make a a version of the Russian
interpreter that never happened, but that's intriguing.
Well, yeah, also it shows that sort of petty side to Sellers.
You know, 10 years earlier you turned me down for a film that's
actually by being really in a very poor movie, Probably the
weakest Paulo and Pressburger movie in my opinion.
I couldn't get through it. Yeah, I see.
It's a bit like Inspector Clues. Oh, I can never get.
And Dirk Bogart is very, very poorly cast in that film.
But but still on the theme of Russia, Mel Brooks as the 12
chairs who's originally offered the Dom de Luise, part of the
preacher, the father. Oh, OK.
He turned down and then Dom Deluise is cast and then
obviously Dom Deluise has a very it's the first film that Dom
Deluise does with Mel Brooks and obviously ends up with a very
fruitful career afterwards work at being one of his
collaborators on silent movie, history of the world, etcetera
of. Course and and of course,
Blazing settles. Yeah, yeah, of course.
That steam escaping. No, no, no, they're doing the
French mistake. Voila, there's a film that came
across. Again, this is the only
information I have about it, but again, just an interesting
because it connects back to Never Let Go.
The production team, Leslie Parkin and Julie and Wintle.
Apparently around the time of Heavens Above, there was going
to be another film he was going to do with them called The
Innocent Gunman. Again, I couldn't find any
information on the book, but apparently they were going to.
It was a screen version of this book which they were going to
rename to Uncle With Love. Right.
Which I think is a film title that we give you 5 to 10
nowadays. But but it is just came up in
this the Mr. Topaz article. And apparently at the end, at
the end of the article, he says, oh, so him and Sir Gallic
Guinness continue to search for a subject they can film
together. But I feel like that was kind
of, and I, and again, you mentioned this earlier with
Stanley Kubrick, I always feel like Sellers tended to fabricate
a lot when he was spoken to, you know, in terms of a lot of
interviews, like bringing up, because he always kept
mentioning that. I think you always mentioned
that he was going to be working on another project with Kubrick.
And when you look at the Kubrick archives or anything like that,
there's not really anything to imply there was any truth in
this. I do sometimes think Sellers
was, you know, wee bit of a. Fantasist.
Yeah, a bit of a fantasy, sort of picking himself up and like
all things, you know, like any publicist, you know, like any
publicity meeting, you're trying to make yourself, as I know, as
an actor myself, you're trying to make yourself some more busy
than you are on many occasions. Yes, he obviously in 62, he was,
he was making Lolita with James Mason.
And Sellers around this time told a journalist that he and
Mason wanted to go to again back to Russia.
They wanted to go to Russia to make a film of Hassan, which was
a 1923 play by James Elroy Flecker set in Baghdad during
the golden age of the caliphate. And it's about Hassan of
Baghdad, who's a confectioner whose quiet life is upended when
he's drawn into the intrigues of Princess viziers and courtesans.
And he So Sellers would have played Hassan and Mason would
have played the the powerful Khalif, the ruler of Baghdad.
Oh wow. OK.
Again, never never happened. Listen here, Khalif, where's my
daughter? I.
Was going to I was going to mention Oh yeah this is 1 you
brought up so I'm assuming and I couldn't find that but waiting
for Godot talking about double axe.
Do you get any more information? On that well.
Project. Well, I I I do and I don't.
Yes, he was. He was the actor and good friend
of Sellers Kenneth Griffith, the Welsh actor He wanted to to make
waiting for got it but it but on radio.
Oh, yes, yes, yes. There there is quite a bit of
information about that in the in the Lewis book.
I didn't make a note because it's a radio rather than film.
And again, I, I, I just, even though that was a radio, I
always feel like that was sort of a missed opportunity to work
with Beckett cause Beckett was such a, a big admirer of the
Music Hall Oddville. And you know, some of the, you
know, he worked with Buster Keaton on film.
He also worked with Max Wall. And yeah, just because you
mentioned that projects probably, I always thought that
was a wee bit of a missed opportunity the sellers never
worked with. Absolutely I'd love to see I'd
love to see waiting for God I was sellers and in any format
really or hear him and. Again, that's a project that's
very open to, I mean, I think it was a Steve Martin and Robin
Williams did it on Broadway in the 90s under Mike Nichols, and
then Ed Edmondson and Rick Nail did it.
Absolutely yes they did around the time they were making
bottom. Yeah, yeah, Bill and Ted are
doing a nine on Broadway. Really.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Keanu Reeves and Alex.
Oh, I can't pronounce his. Last Alex, not winter is.
It winter, that's it. I was thinking of someone else
which had a more complicated name.
Yeah, I know they're, they're about to appear on appear on
Broadway with it. So yeah, again, I, I, I just
want to bring it up because I thought just knowing his
connections with these, you know, Music Hall vaudeville
performers and that being very much part of Sellers background,
I think it's just a bit of a shame they never had any, any
collaboration. Yes, indeed, indeed.
Now again, no information other than I I There was a suggestion
that he was asked to play Caesar in Cleopatra.
Oh, wrong. Which obviously Burton ended up
doing, didn't he? Oh.
No, Rex. Rex Harrison.
Oh, Rex. Sorry, Rex Harrison.
Richard Burton is Marc Anthony. Of course, yes, yes.
But again, that was I think because originally it was Peter
Finch and Stephen Boyd until the production got moved to Italy.
Oh, OK. And all the sets get used for
carry on Clio when they get abandoned.
That's right. That's right.
Now there's a film that never was called.
Pardon me, Sir, Is My eye hurting Your elbow subtitled.
We would like to thank the television industry for making
this film necessary. Right?
Right. It was to be directed by Arthur
Hiller, apparently, and it was. It was going to be like a
collaborative script with all these great writers like Terry
Southern, Peter Cook, Philip Roth, Godfried Cambridge, Allen
Ginsberg, Paul Krasner and each writer.
The idea was that each writer provides a sketch of between 4
to 10 minutes, and the pitch was that they had to present in
scenario form, their view of life in America.
No holds barred. Write about anything that
bothers you, OK? And apparently there was a
finished script around 1964 and a budget of $750,000 and Sellers
was attached to the project at one point.
He would have played nine parts in it.
It was never made. And the only bit of it that
really exists that there was a a book that comes out in 1968 with
the script in which was basically just 9 or 10 sketches
really. But again, intriguing if that
had if that had been made. There's a film also called
Arigato, which I don't think got made.
It's based. There's a Richard Condon novel
called Arigato, which is about a wine heist.
Apparently it's like a comic novel.
And Peter Sellers, around the early 70s, was very impressed by
the work of the director Hal Ashby.
Did Hal Ashby do Harold and Maude?
Yes, he did. Yeah, Yeah.
Yeah, Sellers love that. And then and then Ashby's
filming the last detail with I think that's Jack Nicholson,
Jack. Nicholson, Yeah.
And so he's he's filming the last detail and Sellers keep
sending him all these scripts that he wants Hal Ashby to, you
know, to he he basically wants to be in a hell Ashby film.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and he sent him a script
for this proposed film called Arigato, and there was some work
done on it. I think Terry Southern was
drafted in to tighten up the script of it.
And anyway, it never happened. In the end, Ashby and Sellers
collaborated, of course, on being.
There, Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Again, I think that comes back to, isn't it?
That's all about clout as well with Ashby, because they try to
get being there made for so many years and other projects as
well. But it's only once he's got the
pink Pampers going and Ashby's done.
I think Shampoo was kind of his biggest war on BT Once that was
done, then the road was open for them.
And again, it's a shame. How many more?
Well, again, obviously he gets funny about the the ending of
being there, so I'm guessing that probably would not have led
on to any more collaborations after that.
Despite that ending, he still Sellers still thought it was the
most wonderful film he'd ever made.
So I think, oh. Yeah, yeah.
Well, I think he held up the film, but I'm guessing he
probably was not the happiest of.
I think he probably still loved the movie, but not Hal Ashby.
No. We're here, that is to say, Hal
and I, Hal Ashby, our director. Hal Hello Alice made many, many
successful films such as Tomorrow's New Yesterday and
Back Backwards Before Dawn. Backwards Before Dawn was
another huge success, yes. Now there's a film proposed
about Freud's life, isn't there? Yes, yes.
So John, he's I'd wait. Going back to John Houston,
actually, Yeah. Freud, The Secret Passion, which
was played by Montgomery Cleft. So I again, it's one of those
again, the film itself, it's a biopic of Freud's and again
Sellers involvement. I'm not never find that much
information, but I always from what I could kind of gather,
there was always this talk that when he makes you know, it's
sort of his big break in America in many ways is the most that
roared. You know, that's the kind of
film that gets released and gets seen.
And they sort of talk about how at the time he was offered a lot
of American projects, which he turned down.
And I believe Freud would have been one idea.
I believe Freud was one of these projects that he was asked to do
and turned down, which again, I think probably works out in his
favour, kind of going to Hollywood more on his own terms
with the Pink Panther. But yeah, no Freud.
It's. Yeah.
Again. Again, as I said, it got made
with Montgomery Cliff directed by John Houston, which
apparently John Houston was. Again, as you mentioned earlier,
John Houston wasn't the nicest of people and apparently wasn't
the nicest to Montgomery Cliff on that project.
I think it was Montgomery Cliffs last, sort of.
It does a couple of more movies afterwards, but I think this was
sort of his last big leading role in cinema.
Yeah. But interestingly, the look of
the look of that he has, his Freud's Montgomery Cliff always
is the look that sort of sellers has, his Topaz with the beard
and stuff like that. So again, it's interesting in
terms of look, I think he would have been able to play the role
again. I've never seen the film myself
again. It's never one of those that has
gone through the cracks of cinema.
By the way, I rewatched Mr. Topaz the other the other day.
I watched it. I got it on Blu-ray ages ago.
I watched it the once and wasn't that fuss and then I rewatched
it after a couple of years. I watched it again recently.
It's really quite enjoyable. I have a lot of time for that
film. I have a lot, a lot of time.
I think 11 last film I met because it is a part he
technically did play but not in the film but The Specialist and
Tommy. Oh yes.
Oh, because he plays it. I can't remember.
He's in the the Roundhouse whenever the state devastation.
He plays the specialist. Apparently he was up for it in
the film version until Ken Russell discovered Jack
Nicholson was in town. I cast Jack Nicholson instead.
Oh. Dear, All right, I'm sure that
didn't put sellers nose out of joint.
Oh. No, no, no, no, no, no.
It'd be sanguine about that. Something Oliver read blow cigar
smoke in his face. Well, the last film I want to
bring up because because we're, we're drawing to a close now.
Peter Pan 1962. He, he told a reporter that he'd
been asked to play Captain Hook in a film of Peter Pan opposite
Audrey Hepburn, who would play Peter Pan, and Hayley Mills, who
would play Wendy. Yeah.
And Seller said, all I've ever done is say I like the idea of
playing Captain Hook, but I've never even seen a script and
everyone seems to think it's all set up.
It isn't. It's.
So he's kind of almost dismissing it during this
interview. And then no, it doesn't end up
being made. It turns out that Disney put the
kibosh on it because. Because, as you probably know,
the Great Ormond St. Hospital for Sick Children had
the rights to. To this very day, still own the
rights to. Yeah, but I believe Disney kind
of put pressure on them to refuse to give the rights for a
big screen adaptation because obviously their film had come
out, what, 10 years earlier? Yeah, yeah.
Well, again, that's again, that's a nice kind of connection
again to sellers because of Hayley Mills in because she was
offered Lolita. The horse was oh, her father
John Mills put the kibosh on it. But in reality, it was Disney
because she was under contract. That's right.
Yeah.
Well, so Paddy, I believe or not.
If anyone finds anything we didn't cover, I'll eat my heart.
I'm sweating buckets. But as I said, because I'm under
this duvet in 30° in Barcelona, so.
You're suffering for your art. Yeah, yeah.
Believe it or not, I think we have covered at least 50 films
and projects there, possibly only barely scratched the
surface, but I think it was a a nice idea to look at what might
have been. Yeah, where, where his career
could have gone, where, you know, the films he did made
couldn't have made for whatever reason.
Yeah, I guess as I said, I just find that fascinating.
The the what ifs and how things would have different, how cinema
would have been different or how actors would have been kind of
perceived. And also, you know, how we look
at him as an actor. We always referred to him sort
of as a character actor. But then some of these rules
that, you know, 10, for example, would certainly not have been a
character part. And again, the implication is
that, oh, that would have been out of his wheelhouse, which I
kind of argue would not been true because Hoffman and even,
what do you call it, a girl of my soup is not a character role
either, in my opinion. No, I I love, I love
conversations like this. It's just, it opens up a, opens,
opens up your imagination to a lot of things.
Absolutely. Which of those films that we've
mentioned, if you could just choose one of them that you wish
had been made with sellers in it?
Which which one? The Alien.
Oh, OK, the alien. Aliens.
I think that's just it. It just sounds like a very
fascinating project from and again, like before the project
kind of gets the coalition before Sellers sends a letter,
you know, the agent sends a letter to Ray.
In interviews, he claims that Ray, second to Kubrick, is the
greatest director on the planet. His only problem is he doesn't
get distribution. And this would have been, you
know, it was being financed by Columbia Pictures.
This would have been it kind of makes me curious that and again,
it sort of comes back to Sellers being sort of very flaky.
But there was kind of an opportunity to help, you know, a
very well known filmmaker and, you know, one of the best film
makers ever. But that would have been an
opportunity to help that filmmaker enter a new arena of
filmmaking, you know, going into Hollywood's and away.
Sellers kind of is championing it, but at the same time then
puts the kibosh on it the same way he does with Powell, You
know, and again, Paul at that point was not at the height of
his power. And you know, you know, he
unfortunately, it would have gone along.
I, I, I feel quite sorry for piling that story because that's
him trying to get back on his feet.
Well. I'd say of of those films we've
talked about, there's the obvious one for me would be the
Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, with him as Watson up against
Peter O'Toole as as, as Holmes. Yeah.
Yeah, but to be honest with you,
I love Colin Blakely and the. Robert Stevens as well.
I, I, I have such a yeah, I have such a, a place in my heart for
that film. I think it's brilliant.
Yeah, so so that film wouldn't exist if Sellers and O'Toole.
Made it well with O'Toole and Sellers, it would be a very,
very different film. The thing about people like
O'Toole and Sellers because they're star.
And again, I think the example being what's new Pussycats?
What new Pussycat? You know, it's a film written by
Woody Allen. Woody Allen's got one of the
lead parts and Sellers comes in, he's only mental film for two
weeks, ends up, you know, getting top billing because he
flips a coin with Peter O'Toole. I think that's the one of the
interesting things I find with these, looking at how different
they would be because you've got an actor who very much put his
stamp on films, sometimes in a good way and sometimes in a bad
way. You're very much seen control of
the project, which Sellers had a lot of tendency to do.
I think sometimes that's why he he maybe avoided some of these
projects because he knew he wouldn't have had that control.
Absolutely. So I don't know, maybe, maybe,
if not the Sherlock Holmes film, maybe Spy with a cold nose.
I'd like to have seen that with Sellers in it.
See, what he'd have made of that was up against Lionel Jeffries
again, you know so. But never to be, was it not?
Not to be some. Special mention, they see the
Phantom and versus I think the wildest production is probably
the Phantom versus the 40. Yeah.
So I think I would I would love to have seen that.
Just as interesting it had it helming it.
They had Ted Kocher who did Rambo and Weekend with Bernie's.
And wake and fright. Oh, yes, Wake and fright.
Yeah. Oh.
Dear, let's not talk about that. Patty, listen, Thank you so
much. Tyler, always a pleasure.
I hope that listeners have enjoyed our conversation.
Please do, you know, comment on the usual in the usual channels,
let us know if we've missed any out, if there's any glaring
emissions, if there's any glaring errors in what we've
said. But yeah, always, always welcome
feedback, constructive feedback. So and yeah, Paddy, look, the
door's always open for you to return and talk about maybe,
maybe come back and talk about that I romance of the Pink
Panther or yeah, piss me stupid or something in more detail.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah.
No, I'd love, I'd love the cup. Yeah.
Romance of the ## for it, certainly.
I mean, bet particularly with Stephen Bach's novel, the It's
book, the Final Cut. There's some fascinating, have
you ever read it? Final Cut?
No thanks, have a read of that and we'll have a chat.
Done OK. All right, Patty.
Thank you so much mate. All the most, mate.