1
00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:02,320
I'd like to work with Mike 
Nichols very much. 

2
00:00:02,440 --> 00:00:04,520
I think I might find something 
going with him. 

3
00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:08,440
I'd like to work with 
Schlesinger, John Schlesinger 

4
00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:12,640
very much. 
I'd like to do another film with

5
00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:15,120
Kubrick, Santa Kubrick and 
probably will. 

6
00:00:48,480 --> 00:00:53,840
Hello and welcome to Goon Pod. 
My name is Tyler Adams and this 

7
00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:58,000
is the podcast in which we talk 
about all things Goon related 

8
00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:03,360
Milligan, Sellers, Cecum and 
Bentine with a maybe an over 

9
00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:07,560
emphasis sometimes on Milligan 
and Sellers and this week is no 

10
00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:09,520
exception. 
We have literally in the last 

11
00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:15,040
few days just celebrated the 
centenary of Peter Sellers, who 

12
00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:20,040
was born on the 8th of September
1925, obviously no longer with 

13
00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:22,400
us. 
He's not been with us for nearly

14
00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:26,280
half that time really, and to 
mark the occasion of a 

15
00:01:26,280 --> 00:01:29,480
centenary, I thought it would be
a a wonderful opportunity. 

16
00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:32,000
I've had this in the back of my 
mind for going on for a few 

17
00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:35,640
years, actually. 
We're going to talk about films 

18
00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:39,440
that Peter Sellers never made. 
Specifically, I'm talking about 

19
00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:42,800
films that he was either 
attached to at one point or had 

20
00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:48,160
expressed an interest in being 
in, but for whatever reason 

21
00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:52,920
either were never made or were 
made without him in them, if you

22
00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:55,160
know what I mean. 
And I've I've not really 

23
00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:57,080
explained that very well. 
So let me bring in my guest and 

24
00:01:57,080 --> 00:01:59,920
he can maybe explain a little 
bit more coherently. 

25
00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:05,000
It's it's returning guest active
performer Patrick Paddy Strain. 

26
00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:07,000
Hello, Tyler. 
How's it all going? 

27
00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:10,759
Very good, very good Paddy. 
Thank you again for for coming 

28
00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:14,040
back. 
Did I explain myself well there 

29
00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:14,280
or not? 
I. 

30
00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:17,480
Think, I think for me, it's kind
of it's something that it's 

31
00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:20,920
something that I've always had 
an interest in and that idea and

32
00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:23,760
again, I sort of first started 
of from all things, you remember

33
00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:26,480
that film that the last action 
hero of Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

34
00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:28,800
I know where it exists. 
Yeah, yeah. 

35
00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:31,680
And there's 2 jokes in it where 
there's a scene where they're 

36
00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:35,720
watching Hamlet with Laurence 
Olivier, and it's Joan 

37
00:02:35,720 --> 00:02:38,000
Plowright's character who 
introduces the clip. 

38
00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:41,760
And the young boy in the film is
obsessed with an art, so Arnold 

39
00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:45,360
Schwarzenegger type actor, and 
he's watching Hamlet with 

40
00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:46,920
Olivier. 
He finds it very boring. 

41
00:02:46,920 --> 00:02:50,280
So then he imagines Arnold 
Schwarzenegger playing Hamlet. 

42
00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:53,080
You know, to be or not to be, 
that is the question. 

43
00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:56,760
And I thought it was interesting
because it's almost the concept 

44
00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:01,200
of, you know, we talk about 
actors turning down rules, and 

45
00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:05,120
we could sort of imagine the 
movie with that actor in it. 

46
00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:07,960
But you kind of realize that 
with certain actors, certain 

47
00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:12,240
movies would change because you 
cast a different actor in the 

48
00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:14,640
role, particularly star actors 
and particularly someone like 

49
00:03:14,640 --> 00:03:17,800
Peter Sellers, who was very, 
what for a better word, quite 

50
00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:21,040
opinionated about when he was on
sets and having certain things 

51
00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:24,280
changed. 
I think what I find interesting 

52
00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:26,440
is and particularly something 
that we'll look at was we're 

53
00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:29,360
chatting, you know, the projects
that, you know, were eventually 

54
00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:31,720
me, like, for example, Oliver, 
Willy Wonka. 

55
00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:34,520
How different would they have 
been if Sellers was in those 

56
00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:37,560
parts in those rules? 
Yes, he would have been very, 

57
00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:40,880
very different films. 
So I think that's kind of that's

58
00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:43,640
where my interest is always, 
always lied in this sort of 

59
00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:46,480
subject, you know, the what ifs.
But the what ifs would have been

60
00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:48,880
vastly different than just, you 
know, because now we have deep 

61
00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:51,480
fix where people throw an 
actor's face on top of the other

62
00:03:51,480 --> 00:03:53,760
actor's face and act like, well,
that would have been how it was.

63
00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:57,400
Like I've been a completely 
project many, many ways. 

64
00:03:57,880 --> 00:04:00,400
And also what Sellers was up to 
at the time as well, you know, 

65
00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:02,880
what projects did he choose 
instead of these projects? 

66
00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:06,600
Well, the The thing is, he was, 
he was also so fickle and he 

67
00:04:06,600 --> 00:04:10,000
could he could go to bed one 
night having agreed to star in a

68
00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,240
particular film, waking up the 
next morning. 

69
00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:13,960
There's no way I'm making that 
film. 

70
00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:15,920
Yeah. 
Or as you know, we'll kind of 

71
00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:18,560
find in some of these projects, 
he'll sort of use a scapegoat, 

72
00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:22,280
you know, an excuse that, oh, 
somebody said something to me, 

73
00:04:22,760 --> 00:04:24,400
I'm not going to do this 
project. 

74
00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:27,040
Yeah, yeah. 
And look, and we're not going to

75
00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:29,800
put we, this is no way we can be
comprehensive and cover every 

76
00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:32,000
single film. 
There's for every film we 

77
00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:33,360
mentioned. 
Doubtless there were probably 

78
00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:38,600
dozens of others that he turned 
down and and we're not there's 

79
00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:40,600
no way that we can be 100% 
accurate. 

80
00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:43,640
There's going to be some some 
mistakes made along the way. 

81
00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:46,920
And I and I know that that may 
there may be certain listeners 

82
00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:50,840
have got a couple in mind who 
may may write letters. 

83
00:04:52,240 --> 00:04:53,760
It's a bit like points of view, 
isn't it? 

84
00:04:53,800 --> 00:04:59,600
Like Dear BBC, Why oh why? 
Yeah, there'll be somebody 

85
00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:02,400
complaining that we missed out a
certain film or that we 

86
00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:04,200
misrepresented a film or 
whatever it may be. 

87
00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:08,200
But but look, you know, 
hopefully we're going to be as 

88
00:05:08,200 --> 00:05:13,840
close to accurate as we humanly 
can be and we're not going to 

89
00:05:13,840 --> 00:05:16,600
run through these. 
Oh, and sorry, one thing we're 

90
00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:18,640
not going to talk about Romance 
of the Pink Panther because I 

91
00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:21,640
think that could probably 
sustain an episode in itself. 

92
00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:25,160
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 
And we're not going to run 

93
00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:27,160
through these chronologically 
either. 

94
00:05:27,720 --> 00:05:31,600
It doesn't make sense to. 
So I thought we'd kick off by 

95
00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:34,680
talking about one of the 
earliest films that he was asked

96
00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:39,120
to appear in and that he that he
turned down, which is a film I 

97
00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:41,880
haven't seen, although I'm aware
of called Espresso Bongo. 

98
00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:45,840
Oh, yeah, yeah. 
With Lawrence Harvey about. 

99
00:05:45,840 --> 00:05:47,600
Guest directed with Lawrence 
Harvey. 

100
00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:50,160
Yes. 
And Cliff Richard, oh, why I 

101
00:05:50,160 --> 00:05:52,760
didn't actually, was he up for 
the Lawrence Harvey role, the 

102
00:05:52,840 --> 00:05:56,600
agent? 
Yes he was and adapted the the 

103
00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:58,680
film was adapted from a a stage 
musical. 

104
00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:03,360
Yeah, Paul Scofield played the 
agent in the in the in the in 

105
00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:05,480
the stage version from what? 
I There you go, There you go. 

106
00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:10,000
But the screen adaptation for 
the film was written by Wolf 

107
00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:14,720
Mankiewicz, and I know you have 
things to say about Wolfman. 

108
00:06:15,280 --> 00:06:17,960
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 
definitely, definitely yeah. 

109
00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:20,440
Because again, Wolf Mankiewicz, 
interesting character. 

110
00:06:20,440 --> 00:06:24,880
And that sort of leads to a film
that never got me it called a 

111
00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:29,040
Memoirs or a Cross Eyed Man. 
It's a book by James Wellard, 

112
00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:31,440
which Sellers had they had the 
rights to. 

113
00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:34,480
And I think from what I believe 
the experiment the intention 

114
00:06:34,480 --> 00:06:38,040
was, it was Mankiewicz and 
Sellers created a production 

115
00:06:38,040 --> 00:06:42,480
company, I think it was called 
Seller Mankiewicz, and it was 

116
00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:44,640
meant to be his second 
directorial project. 

117
00:06:44,640 --> 00:06:48,000
And it gets mentioned in a New 
York Times article, 11th 

118
00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:52,080
December 1960, while he's on the
set of Mr. Topaz. 

119
00:06:52,480 --> 00:06:55,600
And it gets mentioned that this 
will probably be his second 

120
00:06:55,680 --> 00:06:58,520
directorial film. 
Obviously, Mr. Topaz doesn't do 

121
00:06:58,520 --> 00:07:02,600
very well, so I think that may 
have got rid of his enthusiasm 

122
00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:05,840
to take that project forward. 
But something I find very 

123
00:07:05,840 --> 00:07:08,880
interesting is the plot of 
Memoirs Across Eyed Man. 

124
00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:13,960
It is a man who's a museum 
curator who falls for this girl,

125
00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:18,960
gets obsessed, infatuated, and 
she eventually becomes an 

126
00:07:18,960 --> 00:07:23,280
International Film star and gets
cast in this biblical epic. 

127
00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:27,400
And his obsession is so much 
that he sneaks onto the film set

128
00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:30,120
as an extra just to get close to
her. 

129
00:07:30,840 --> 00:07:34,640
And the thing I find interesting
about that is how Sellers was in

130
00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:36,720
his own life, quite an obsessive
character. 

131
00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:40,480
And what's interesting is that 
Sellers in a way did that 

132
00:07:40,480 --> 00:07:42,760
himself. 
Was Sophia Loren on the set of 

133
00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:46,080
Fall of the Roman Empire, where 
after they finished The 

134
00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:49,280
Millionaire as he ends up flying
to Rome and hanging around the 

135
00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:53,160
film set for weeks on end, doing
photographs, taking film and so 

136
00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:54,720
forth. 
So I thought that was quite 

137
00:07:54,720 --> 00:07:57,320
interesting when reading. 
And I read the book years and 

138
00:07:57,320 --> 00:08:00,800
years ago and I could just 
remember that, that thin plot. 

139
00:08:01,160 --> 00:08:02,760
And I just thought that was 
fascinating that it was 

140
00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:06,120
something that Sellers in his 
own life kind of replicated. 

141
00:08:06,280 --> 00:08:08,560
So I'm not sure if he read the 
book and fought off, I'm going 

142
00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:12,120
to do this myself or. 
But yeah, I thought that was 

143
00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:15,200
very, very interesting. 
Again, with the Wolf Mankiewicz 

144
00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:18,120
thing, the Sellers, I think 
Mankiewicz kind of said they 

145
00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:20,400
they they announced the 
production company and that was 

146
00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:23,160
going to be the first film of 
their slate of movies. 

147
00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:27,440
And Mankiewicz said with within 
hours of us announcing it in the

148
00:08:27,440 --> 00:08:29,400
trades, Sellers had changed his 
mind. 

149
00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:30,640
Yeah. 
And was not good. 

150
00:08:30,640 --> 00:08:32,679
The production company in the 
film didn't go forward. 

151
00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:34,240
Yeah, that's right. 
Yeah. 

152
00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:36,120
And and Mankiewicz never really 
forgave him. 

153
00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:38,679
No, no, no, no. 
Yeah, yeah, no. 

154
00:08:39,039 --> 00:08:40,720
Very bitter, bitter about it for
quite a while. 

155
00:08:40,720 --> 00:08:43,240
Again, Mankiewicz was in again. 
He wrote the script for Waltz 

156
00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:45,720
the Toriadors as well. 
Now a couple of other. 

157
00:08:45,720 --> 00:08:48,200
Well, again, he was sort of a 
bit like, I think Michael, which

158
00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:50,960
became a wee bit like Terry 
Sovereign did later on. 

159
00:08:50,960 --> 00:08:53,240
He came, he almost became his 
script doctor, like he would 

160
00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:56,440
come on to certain projects and 
rewrite the dialogue for him. 

161
00:08:56,440 --> 00:08:59,640
So yeah, we mentioned him 
recently because he wrote 

162
00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:02,400
Pickwick for Yes and you seek 
him. 

163
00:09:02,760 --> 00:09:08,080
This this one that we've got 
coming off is a story by an 

164
00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:12,280
American author called James 
Wellard, and the title is The 

165
00:09:12,280 --> 00:09:18,440
Memoirs of a Cross Eyed Man. 
Actually it's this man is a sort

166
00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:21,040
of Serrano character. 
Who? 

167
00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:26,520
Is an ugly man, not because of 
this this business with his eye,

168
00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:31,560
but but because he's nothing to 
do with. 

169
00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:33,760
Well, I have to go into a long 
rigmarole here and explain about

170
00:09:33,760 --> 00:09:36,160
the film, which I won't bother 
you with boy you with now. 

171
00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:40,040
But he's a man who thinks he is 
attractive to women, attractive 

172
00:09:40,040 --> 00:09:42,800
generally. 
He thinks he is bigger than he 

173
00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:45,760
is. 
All his, all, all these 

174
00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:49,640
affectations are of course 
within him and only at certain 

175
00:09:49,640 --> 00:09:54,440
times through through the 
picture do you see what this man

176
00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:56,240
really is and he sees himself as
he is. 

177
00:09:56,360 --> 00:09:58,920
He's a very pathetic character 
of view of this. 

178
00:09:59,560 --> 00:10:01,880
And I thought this would be a 
good thing for me to. 

179
00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:04,560
First of all, I want to direct 
the film as a picture. 

180
00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:06,240
There's a lot in it I want to 
do. 

181
00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:12,040
For example, there is a whole 
section about a film company in 

182
00:10:12,040 --> 00:10:15,400
it, an American film company who
are making a biblical musical 

183
00:10:18,280 --> 00:10:21,800
out in Morocco. 
And I think there's a great deal

184
00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:25,520
of fun can be. 
So getting back to Espresso 

185
00:10:25,520 --> 00:10:27,680
Bongo, I've never seen the film.
I've never seen the play. 

186
00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:33,040
It's as you you mentioned, it's 
got Lawrence Harvey and a very 

187
00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:34,840
young Cliff Richard. 
Yeah, yeah. 

188
00:10:36,120 --> 00:10:40,040
And Sellers said I turned down 
Espresso Bongo, the part that 

189
00:10:40,040 --> 00:10:42,240
Lawrence Harvey did, because I 
didn't like it. 

190
00:10:42,760 --> 00:10:44,920
I thought it would. 
I thought it was an incomplete 

191
00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:46,680
part. 
I didn't like the script. 

192
00:10:46,680 --> 00:10:48,280
Although Wolf's a great friend 
of mine. 

193
00:10:48,280 --> 00:10:50,120
Not anymore. 
Not. 

194
00:10:50,840 --> 00:10:53,080
Anymore, three years later, it's
a very it's a very different 

195
00:10:53,080 --> 00:10:55,480
story. 
The thing that should have 

196
00:10:55,480 --> 00:10:59,160
attracted Sellers to the script,
I would have thought, is that 

197
00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:03,080
Cliff Richard's character has a 
very goonish name. 

198
00:11:04,560 --> 00:11:07,280
His character's called Bert 
Rudge, right? 

199
00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:13,440
AKA Bongo Herbert. 
Bongo Herbert, That sounds like 

200
00:11:13,440 --> 00:11:14,880
something you'd go to see a 
doctor about. 

201
00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:20,560
Yeah, and sellers turned this 
down in favour of making two way

202
00:11:20,560 --> 00:11:24,960
stretch, which I'm. 
A big fan of Two Way Stretch. 

203
00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:28,560
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. 
So as you say, you've you've 

204
00:11:28,560 --> 00:11:30,400
mentioned Memoirs of a Cross 
Eyed Man. 

205
00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:33,160
Is there anything else about 
that film that is notable? 

206
00:11:33,840 --> 00:11:35,400
The film that was never made, I 
should say. 

207
00:11:35,480 --> 00:11:39,840
Oh, I was never made again. 
I think it very much falls into,

208
00:11:39,920 --> 00:11:42,360
as I said, that's sort of 
obsessive quality, which I find 

209
00:11:42,360 --> 00:11:44,560
in a lot of Cell. 
You know, again, the two films 

210
00:11:44,560 --> 00:11:47,760
that we've talked about, Lolita 
and Hoffman, it's certainly 

211
00:11:47,760 --> 00:11:50,400
something that Sellers was very 
good at, these sort of obsessive

212
00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:53,760
characters. 
It's one of the one reading the 

213
00:11:53,760 --> 00:11:55,840
book and kind of looking at the 
project itself. 

214
00:11:56,160 --> 00:12:00,240
It's very much a film that 
Sellers after sort of his 

215
00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:02,520
international success, I don't 
think he would have been able to

216
00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:04,960
do that film because it was it 
sort of falls into the little 

217
00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:08,680
man comedies that he's done in 
terms of the character. 

218
00:12:08,680 --> 00:12:10,160
So I think that's quite 
interesting in terms of a 

219
00:12:10,160 --> 00:12:12,440
project. 
It never really gets mentioned 

220
00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:16,920
again, but almost that he kind 
of maybe moved, I think at that 

221
00:12:16,920 --> 00:12:18,160
point. 
And Michael, which kind of 

222
00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:22,800
implies this, it's sort of gone,
gone Hollywood in his own mind 

223
00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:25,320
and sort of saw himself as some 
more leading man type. 

224
00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:28,080
And again, was sort of probably 
moving away from those sort of 

225
00:12:28,280 --> 00:12:31,280
little man obsessive characters 
that he had done before. 

226
00:12:31,680 --> 00:12:35,400
Yeah, and and the film in the 
film, if you like that that that

227
00:12:35,400 --> 00:12:39,440
she's making. 
Did you say it's a biblical? 

228
00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:41,000
Yeah, it's a biblical epic. 
Yeah. 

229
00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:44,320
OK, I think that leads quite 
neatly to the next film. 

230
00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:47,320
I want to to mention that 
seller's never made. 

231
00:12:47,320 --> 00:12:49,440
That was never made. 
This film another film that was 

232
00:12:49,440 --> 00:12:52,680
never made. 
Are you aware of a film called 

233
00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:56,040
or a proposed film called God Ha
Ha So? 

234
00:12:57,160 --> 00:13:02,520
It's it I all I know is a script
by Milligan that he's mentioned,

235
00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:04,640
but I was actually trying to 
look that up myself and that's 

236
00:13:04,640 --> 00:13:07,000
all I could ever find was 
proposed script by Spike 

237
00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:09,680
Milligan with the intention of 
starring Peter Sellers. 

238
00:13:09,680 --> 00:13:12,360
So I'd love to know what's what 
you know about the projects. 

239
00:13:12,520 --> 00:13:14,960
Yeah, it's mentioned. 
It's touched on briefly in the 

240
00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:19,360
Roger Lewis book and I've really
struggled. 

241
00:13:19,400 --> 00:13:21,480
I really struggled to find 
anything else about it. 

242
00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:24,040
Anyway, I looked in the the 
Milligan biographies that I had,

243
00:13:24,040 --> 00:13:27,640
there's no mention at all. 
I want to give thanks to John 

244
00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:31,880
Dredge, friend of the show, who 
pointed me in the direction of a

245
00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:34,080
a book that's been long out of 
print. 

246
00:13:34,280 --> 00:13:37,200
I managed to pick it up for a 
couple of quid on eBay, a book 

247
00:13:37,200 --> 00:13:41,080
called The Laughter Makers, 
which was written I think around

248
00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:44,560
197071 by a guy called David 
Nathan. 

249
00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:49,520
And it's just about sort of 
British comedy of that time and 

250
00:13:49,520 --> 00:13:52,640
and and earlier and, and 
interviews with like, you know, 

251
00:13:52,640 --> 00:13:56,200
loads of top comedians and and 
comic writers and things like 

252
00:13:56,200 --> 00:13:57,520
that. 
Very interesting book. 

253
00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:02,960
And there's a there's a couple 
of pages about this proposed 

254
00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:05,000
film because the interview Spike
all. 

255
00:14:05,640 --> 00:14:07,320
Right. 
I'm not going to read it all 

256
00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:10,280
obviously, and I'm just going to
sort of summarise the the 

257
00:14:10,280 --> 00:14:15,760
background to this idea. 
So Milligan says, why should all

258
00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:17,880
serious writers have charge of 
God? 

259
00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:20,840
Why can't the clowns have some 
of him? 

260
00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:24,400
And so he's got this. 
I don't know if it's half 

261
00:14:24,400 --> 00:14:26,800
written or even completed script
in mind. 

262
00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:29,720
And he describes the opening 
scene, which has is like a 

263
00:14:30,280 --> 00:14:34,240
pretentious drum roll and A and 
a totally black screen and the 

264
00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:36,480
sound of this like ethereal 
wind. 

265
00:14:37,280 --> 00:14:41,800
And then this kind of Valentine 
dial like voice saying in the 

266
00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:45,160
beginning, God said let there be
light. 

267
00:14:46,360 --> 00:14:49,480
And then a 40 Watt bulb goes on 
and there's a bloke lying in a 

268
00:14:49,480 --> 00:14:53,240
bed in a night shirt and he sits
up and says who put that light 

269
00:14:53,240 --> 00:14:56,480
on? 
Busiest sketching queue? 

270
00:14:56,480 --> 00:14:57,520
Really. 
Pretty much. 

271
00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:01,360
And he then he went on to 
describe some other kind of 

272
00:15:01,360 --> 00:15:04,680
comic set pieces. 
So Sellers was going to be 

273
00:15:04,680 --> 00:15:09,200
Christ, by the way. 
Obviously, Yeah, God, there was 

274
00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:11,640
going to be a bit with with God 
being stopped to the ticket 

275
00:15:11,640 --> 00:15:16,000
barrier at Waterloo Station. 
The sea doesn't part for Moses 

276
00:15:16,160 --> 00:15:20,600
apparently. 
And and Milligan says have you 

277
00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:22,920
thought of the problem of 
getting 2 bloody chickens up a 

278
00:15:22,920 --> 00:15:26,280
gangplank together? 
You see a nod to Noah's Ark 

279
00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:30,400
there, and Sellers as Christ was
going to be kind of like a Tommy

280
00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:33,160
Cooper figure doing the loaves 
and the fishes thing. 

281
00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:37,440
Right. 
And climax with Sellers as 

282
00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:40,520
Christ being crucified in a 
laundrette. 

283
00:15:41,240 --> 00:15:44,560
Right. 
And and Spike said that he hated

284
00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:47,440
laundrettes and the people who 
frequented them because he saw 

285
00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:50,240
the he saw them as misfits, 
drinks of society. 

286
00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:55,120
Milligan always had that joke 
before his grief says I told you

287
00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:56,480
I was ill. 
I think he always used to make 

288
00:15:56,480 --> 00:15:58,360
reference, like he buried in a 
tumble dryer. 

289
00:15:58,680 --> 00:16:01,240
Yeah. 
Oh, to to confuse future 

290
00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:02,800
archaeologists. 
Yeah, that was it. 

291
00:16:02,800 --> 00:16:04,560
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 
So that makes a lot of. 

292
00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:06,920
Was he washed to death or dried 
to death? 

293
00:16:08,920 --> 00:16:13,280
But I think what's interesting 
about that, again, it's it's 

294
00:16:13,280 --> 00:16:15,200
sort of all predating Life of 
Brian. 

295
00:16:16,480 --> 00:16:18,360
Yes, it is. 
As in that because a lot of 

296
00:16:18,360 --> 00:16:21,840
communities like Peter Cook, 
it's another example of because 

297
00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:24,480
they have him and Dudley Moore 
recorded at the Dead Sea 

298
00:16:24,480 --> 00:16:27,920
Scrolls, I think when they were 
doing beyond the Fringe and it 

299
00:16:27,960 --> 00:16:31,480
never got released or a day if 
it did, it was a as a bootleg. 

300
00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:35,720
But is that fascinating that 
communities that time do have 

301
00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:38,800
this real fascination with 
religion and gods. 

302
00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:42,920
Again, you see that in bedazzled
yes, Peter Cook's obsession with

303
00:16:42,920 --> 00:16:45,080
nuns. 
You know, the flying nuns on the

304
00:16:45,360 --> 00:16:49,840
in the not only but also sketch 
of that wasn't the jumping nuns 

305
00:16:49,840 --> 00:16:52,800
of Saint Barrel or. 
Oh, that's the funniest bit of 

306
00:16:52,800 --> 00:16:54,640
the film, I think. 
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

307
00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:58,240
I think it's interesting because
you had Cook Milligan, I had 

308
00:16:58,240 --> 00:17:00,720
Tony Hancock as well. 
He was always talking about that

309
00:17:01,320 --> 00:17:04,359
musical with Galton and Simpson 
about Noah. 

310
00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:09,000
I think that is is a fascination
that you had a lot of these 

311
00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:12,920
comedians very obsessed with, 
but they actually they're going 

312
00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:15,400
back to bedazzled. 
But what you call them Valentine

313
00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:17,440
Dyel does play God in that in a.
Similar. 

314
00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:19,599
Oh, he does. 
Yes, he does. 

315
00:17:19,599 --> 00:17:22,800
But I think, yeah, again, it's 
not interested you, you do get a

316
00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:25,680
lot of these projects floating 
around, but it's only, it's not 

317
00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:29,880
till Life of Brian that you get 
the big project and the, the, 

318
00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:31,520
the. 
The well, yeah, because spikes 

319
00:17:31,520 --> 00:17:33,440
and that obviously briefly. 
He's also a couple of years 

320
00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:36,080
later in Mel Brooks History of 
the World Part 1. 

321
00:17:36,360 --> 00:17:38,320
Yeah, yeah. 
Which which does have Moses. 

322
00:17:38,720 --> 00:17:39,960
At the beginning, yeah, yeah, 
yeah. 

323
00:17:39,960 --> 00:17:43,960
With the 15 commandments, 10/10 
commandments. 

324
00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:50,080
While we're on you, you 
mentioned Pete and Doug there. 

325
00:17:50,360 --> 00:17:53,080
Yeah, yeah. 
Was there a film that Sellers 

326
00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:55,320
was meant to be in and Dudley 
ended up making it? 

327
00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:57,000
Well, there's three films 
really. 

328
00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:01,040
There's We have 10, Lovesick and
fifthly Yours. 

329
00:18:02,440 --> 00:18:05,600
So 10 Be again. 10 is 
interesting because that was, 

330
00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:08,400
you know, the Blake Edwards 
project, which is originally 

331
00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:13,640
offered to Peter Sellers. 
He turns it down again. 

332
00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:17,640
I think it was one of those 
where it's interesting. 

333
00:18:17,640 --> 00:18:19,640
I read an article that kind of 
said like they sort of believed 

334
00:18:19,640 --> 00:18:23,200
because again, Tan is the story 
of, you know, man going for a 

335
00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:26,600
midlife crisis, becoming 
obsessed with this young, young 

336
00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:30,000
girl Bo Derek while being with 
Julie Andrews. 

337
00:18:30,720 --> 00:18:34,000
And again, like a lot of Edwards
films like That's Life are quite

338
00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:37,280
similar to this. 
But I think what's interesting 

339
00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:40,880
is that Sellers, sellers turns 
it down again. 

340
00:18:40,880 --> 00:18:43,640
I think he I think he said the 
part was like it wasn't part of 

341
00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:44,840
his wheelhouse or something like
that. 

342
00:18:44,840 --> 00:18:47,120
It was a party that couldn't 
really didn't see himself 

343
00:18:47,120 --> 00:18:50,640
playing. 
What's interesting is he does. 

344
00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:53,960
Originally he is in the film 
with Henry Mancini in a party 

345
00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:55,960
scene. 
I heard that, yes. 

346
00:18:55,960 --> 00:18:58,040
Is that right? 
Yeah, so it got cut. 

347
00:18:58,040 --> 00:19:01,040
And the reason apparently got 
cut was because Sellers showed 

348
00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:04,640
up on set. 
He was so apparently drunk, 

349
00:19:04,640 --> 00:19:07,600
disorientated, or had taken 
something that according to 

350
00:19:07,600 --> 00:19:11,320
Henry Mancini, he kept referring
because the characters got 

351
00:19:11,600 --> 00:19:12,600
Dudley. 
Moore's character is called 

352
00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:15,600
George Webber, but Sellers kept 
referring to him as Dudley 

353
00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:18,200
throughout the film. 
Apparently they couldn't use any

354
00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:20,640
of the footage because he just 
kept calling him Dudley over and

355
00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:24,320
over again. 
But what I find fascinating, 

356
00:19:24,360 --> 00:19:27,960
because then you have the two 
projects Lovesick and on 

357
00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:29,520
faithfully yours that come 
after. 

358
00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:32,080
Those are the two projects that 
sellers again, the three 

359
00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:34,440
projects, the romance of the 
pink Pam firm, faithfully yours 

360
00:19:34,440 --> 00:19:35,720
Lovesick. 
Those were the ones lined up 

361
00:19:35,720 --> 00:19:39,840
before his death. 
Apparently while he was prepping

362
00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:44,200
for Lovesick and they find some 
recordings of him practicing his

363
00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:47,720
lines, but he was practicing his
lines in a German accent. 

364
00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:50,600
And again, the whole movie set 
in New York. 

365
00:19:50,600 --> 00:19:53,320
It's a very it's directed by a 
guy called Marshall Brickman, 

366
00:19:53,560 --> 00:19:55,800
who wrote with Woody Allen quite
a lot. 

367
00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:57,920
And again, a lot of the reviews 
for Lovesick kind of say it's a 

368
00:19:57,920 --> 00:19:59,360
Woody Allen film about Woody 
Allen. 

369
00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:01,600
Right. 
Because again, it's the main 

370
00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:05,000
character is a therapist and 
again, becomes obsessed with one

371
00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:09,480
of his clients. 
So what's interesting is that 

372
00:20:09,520 --> 00:20:11,640
Sellers was, and I kind of 
always find like this seemed to 

373
00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:14,640
be a repeated theme of Sellers 
when he was prepping for a role.

374
00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:16,760
Apparently he'd always try to do
it in a German accent. 

375
00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:19,000
I think we talked about with 
this with Hoffman when he went 

376
00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:22,280
off to Alvin Racket, but I was 
got a new tonic accent and 

377
00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:24,000
apparently he's going to be the 
same of lovesick. 

378
00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:28,840
He was already starting his his 
walk into the to try to speak in

379
00:20:28,840 --> 00:20:32,120
this obsession with doing 
everything in a German accent, 

380
00:20:32,880 --> 00:20:35,840
which kind of made me think it 
maybe again, they always say he 

381
00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:39,320
was up for the lead, though he 
may again, he was a bit older by

382
00:20:39,320 --> 00:20:40,880
this point. 
And again, it's sort of meant to

383
00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:43,800
be a younger character again 
ends up a bit of young character

384
00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:47,080
with more. 
But again, he would in the film.

385
00:20:47,120 --> 00:20:49,840
There's Alec Guinness is in it. 
Sigmund Freud. 

386
00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:52,160
Kind. 
Of thought that maybe he was up 

387
00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:55,960
for the Freud part and not the 
lead role, but apparently all 

388
00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:58,040
the things. 
I know he was up for the lead 

389
00:20:58,040 --> 00:21:01,240
part. 
But with Lovesick, which I find 

390
00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:04,880
interesting, is that it's a film
that obviously Moore has a good 

391
00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:08,000
success with Arthur, and one of 
the big things in Arthur is the 

392
00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:10,120
relationship between him and 
John Gilbert, the Hobson 

393
00:21:10,120 --> 00:21:11,120
character. 
That's right, yeah. 

394
00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:13,720
And in Lovesick, they kind of 
try and repeat that, but what 

395
00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:17,000
they do is instead of giving him
one elderly actor to work with, 

396
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:19,920
they give him 2 because he ends 
up with Alec Guinness and John 

397
00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:22,520
Houston. 
So I just imagine like someone 

398
00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:25,280
that whoever produced it kind of
going like, oh, that really 

399
00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:26,640
worked in Arthur. 
Let's do it again. 

400
00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:29,040
But let's do 2. 
Let's give him, let's give him 

401
00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:32,040
two elderly actors to be these, 
these kind of father figures. 

402
00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:34,800
Was it? 
Wasn't John Houston meant to be 

403
00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:37,920
a nightmare, though? 
Yeah, yeah, to work. 

404
00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:40,600
With as a either as a director 
or an actor. 

405
00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:43,680
John, John, John, John. 
Interesting. 

406
00:21:43,680 --> 00:21:44,800
An actor. 
I worked with Frank. 

407
00:21:44,800 --> 00:21:49,320
He had a meeting with John 
Houston back in the day, because

408
00:21:49,360 --> 00:21:50,960
John Houston lived, used to live
in Ireland. 

409
00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:53,840
He had this big house and he was
always telling the Irish Film 

410
00:21:53,840 --> 00:21:57,320
Board that, oh, I'm going to be,
I will make it. 

411
00:21:57,360 --> 00:22:00,880
Was Joyce's The Portrait of an 
Artist as a young man. 

412
00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:02,680
I think I was going to make this
film. 

413
00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:05,440
So Frank gets invited to his 
house. 

414
00:22:06,080 --> 00:22:07,720
He goes to the door and knocks 
on the door. 

415
00:22:08,080 --> 00:22:10,440
First person to open the door. 
He goes, oh, Mr. Houston, it's 

416
00:22:10,440 --> 00:22:12,520
lovely to meet you. 
The guy goes, no, I'm the 

417
00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:13,880
Butler. 
Mr. Houston will be coming, 

418
00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:17,000
cutting down at the moment. 
Then John Houston appears at the

419
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:18,800
top of the steps and they have 
dinner. 

420
00:22:19,760 --> 00:22:23,360
And during the dinner, Houston 
goes, I wasn't her. 

421
00:22:23,360 --> 00:22:27,640
Frank, what do you as an actor, 
what's the best, you know, 

422
00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:33,280
medium measured film or theater?
And Frank is kind of like Frank.

423
00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:36,120
It just had a big success for a 
play called About Brendan Dean. 

424
00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:40,600
Oh yeah. 
And he goes, oh, you know, Frank

425
00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:44,040
at all, you know, John, you 
know, theatre is the only medium

426
00:22:44,040 --> 00:22:47,480
for an actor, only place for an 
actor, film, film, you know, 

427
00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:49,840
films, all bullshit. 
And all this again, very young 

428
00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:52,400
man. 
And he's in front of me and I, 

429
00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:54,200
we've had dinner a couple of 
years ago. 

430
00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:56,640
And he goes, Patrick, I'm 
sitting here now. 

431
00:22:57,160 --> 00:23:00,000
Is he not year old man? 
I was sitting in front of the 

432
00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:02,600
man who directed Humphrey 
Bogart, Walter Houston, 

433
00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:05,080
Katherine Hepburn, and I'm 
telling him like it's all a load

434
00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:05,680
of show. 
He doesn't. 

435
00:23:07,200 --> 00:23:10,120
I could go back in time, but 
again, I think yeah, Houston 

436
00:23:10,360 --> 00:23:11,800
was. 
But again, he did a lot of these

437
00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:15,960
projects as an actor just to to 
the fundest films really. 

438
00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:17,600
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 
But then again, he would also 

439
00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:20,920
take directing jobs just to fund
his other movies. 

440
00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:23,040
I think there's a movie called 
The Mackintosh Man. 

441
00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:25,480
Oh, I've seen it. 
Yeah, with Paul Newman. 

442
00:23:25,640 --> 00:23:27,840
Yeah, Paul Newman, But 
apparently Houston didn't really

443
00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:29,560
direct it. 
Apparently when you'd walk on 

444
00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:31,280
set. 
So the second AD would be 

445
00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:34,120
directed and Houston would just 
be in a phone booth putting his 

446
00:23:34,120 --> 00:23:39,120
bets on for the day. 
OK, You mentioned John Houston 

447
00:23:39,120 --> 00:23:45,000
there wanting to make a was it 
make a film of Portrait of an 

448
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:50,360
Artist, the artist. 
And you also mentioned Alec 

449
00:23:50,360 --> 00:23:54,080
Guinness. 
Now, combining those two themes,

450
00:23:55,880 --> 00:24:00,560
there was talk of a film of 
Ulysses with Sellers as Leopold 

451
00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:01,760
Bloom. 
Yeah, yeah. 

452
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,120
And. 
Alec Guinness was going to be in

453
00:24:04,120 --> 00:24:06,400
that and Jack Cardiff would have
directed it. 

454
00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:08,200
Yeah, yeah. 
That never came to pass. 

455
00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:10,720
I couldn't find much about that 
much information. 

456
00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:13,920
Again, there is there is an 
adaptation with Milo O'Shea. 

457
00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:17,800
Again, I might not have been the
same project, but the film does 

458
00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:20,520
come around sort of the late 
1960s. 

459
00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:22,960
Yeah. 
So it does get, it does get 

460
00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:25,840
eventually adapted and made, but
I'm not sure if that was the 

461
00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:29,800
same projects that they were. 
Involved in and Speaking of 

462
00:24:29,800 --> 00:24:30,920
Bloom. 
Bloom. 

463
00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:32,160
Yeah, it's not. 
It's not the only bloom we 

464
00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:33,320
turned down. 
No. 

465
00:24:34,560 --> 00:24:37,200
And and this is what you, you 
kind of think. 

466
00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:40,600
I, I, I haven't found any 
evidence of Sellers on record 

467
00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:42,880
saying it was one of his 
greatest regrets. 

468
00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:49,040
But he turned down the producers
and and yeah, Mel Brooks wanted 

469
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:53,920
him to play Leo Bloom. 
And Sellers apparently loved the

470
00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:57,400
script when it was shown to him.
But but getting him to commit 

471
00:24:57,400 --> 00:25:00,320
was another was another matter. 
Yeah, I think the original 

472
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:01,840
script was called Springtime for
Hitler. 

473
00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:05,760
Right, OK, OK. 
And the story is that Brooks 

474
00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:08,560
trailed around after him while 
he while Sellers was shopping in

475
00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:10,600
Bloomingdale's, trying to pitch 
the film to him. 

476
00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:13,760
And, but obviously Sellers had 
this reputation. 

477
00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:16,160
He was difficult to pin down. 
And he was quite, as I said 

478
00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:19,000
before, he's very fickle. 
And he also lost interest in 

479
00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:23,200
things very, very quickly. 
He got bored with with things 

480
00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:26,520
very quickly. 
And so he initially said he'd do

481
00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:28,520
it. 
And then and then he just wasn't

482
00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:33,560
returning Mel's calls. 
And in the end, was it Dennis 

483
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:37,600
Salinger, Seller's agent, 
basically had to tell Mel Brooks

484
00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:40,280
that this is not the right time 
to approach him. 

485
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:44,640
Both new material. 
So what what? 

486
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:47,720
What happens? 
Mel Brooks, he turns to Gene 

487
00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:48,840
Wilder. 
Yeah. 

488
00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:51,280
And the rest is film history. 
And. 

489
00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:53,240
And. 
But obviously, as we know, the 

490
00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:55,960
film became an obsession of 
Sellers later on. 

491
00:25:55,960 --> 00:25:58,960
Yeah, also he he became it's 
biggest champion. 

492
00:25:58,960 --> 00:26:01,880
Yeah, I don't think the film was
because again, it's on the set 

493
00:26:01,880 --> 00:26:06,120
of Alice B Talklers, where he 
wants to see a Fellini film and 

494
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:08,640
they don't have a copy of it, 
but we have a copy of something 

495
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:11,200
else and they play it for him. 
And I think it's a film that 

496
00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:13,360
wasn't getting any distribution 
at the time. 

497
00:26:13,360 --> 00:26:15,440
Yeah. 
And so he takes out an article 

498
00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:17,240
in, I think it's the New York 
Times. 

499
00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:20,720
So yeah, he takes out that 
article in Variety. 

500
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:24,640
But it's interesting because Mel
Brooks was interviewed recently 

501
00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:27,600
and he kind of said he was our 
biggest champion, but he was 

502
00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:33,560
also, it also worked against us 
as well because it was sort of 

503
00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:35,880
Sellers saying this movie is 
brilliant and you must think 

504
00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:37,720
it's brilliant. 
And he said a lot of the 

505
00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:40,440
reviewers at the time started 
going like, wow, we'll see for 

506
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:42,480
ourselves if we think this is 
so. 

507
00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:44,720
A lot of reviewers started 
reviewing it badly. 

508
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:47,560
The kind of 1 was combat against
Sellers is over. 

509
00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:49,760
Yeah. 
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

510
00:26:50,360 --> 00:26:55,360
He played there was a painter 
for you paint an entire apt 2 

511
00:26:55,360 --> 00:27:06,750
coats one afternoon. 
You're listening to this from 

512
00:27:06,750 --> 00:27:11,360
the horse now. 
Hitler had more hair than 

513
00:27:11,360 --> 00:27:14,560
Churchill, he told Funnier. 
Jokes. 

514
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:18,400
And he could dance the pants up 
of Churchill. 

515
00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:21,880
Churchill couldn't even say 
nothing. 

516
00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:28,320
That is my favorite bit of 
dialogue from and a plug for 

517
00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:31,120
good old Mel Brooks and the 
producers in springtime for 

518
00:27:31,120 --> 00:27:33,840
Hitler and Germany. 
I shared your admiration 

519
00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:36,040
actually for that for. 
That film, they're great film, 

520
00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:38,040
very underrated. 
I don't know why people, they 

521
00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:40,120
didn't push that, Yeah. 
Well, you know why they didn't 

522
00:27:40,120 --> 00:27:41,880
push it is what's wrong with the
movie, basically. 

523
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:43,400
Isn't it absolutely right. 
We might talk. 

524
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:45,480
We'll talk about that. 
Later, Gene Wilder. 

525
00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:48,880
Later Gene Wilder was looking to
make the adventures of Sherlock 

526
00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:50,600
Holmes's smarter brother. 
Yeah. 

527
00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:52,400
Yeah. 
And he was asking Sellers for 

528
00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:57,600
sort of tips on comedy. 
Ask him how he should make it. 

529
00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:02,000
Yeah, Sellers have. 
No, Wilder went to Sellers for 

530
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:03,800
advice. 
But there's a time when Sellers 

531
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:07,840
went to Wilder looking for a 
recommendation because he'd been

532
00:28:07,840 --> 00:28:12,400
offered a role in a film called 
The California Dolls being 

533
00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:15,920
directed by Robert Aldrich. 
Again, it's a film about female 

534
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:19,680
wrestling, and he was up for the
part of the coach. 

535
00:28:20,560 --> 00:28:23,720
And so apparently, and this 
appears in Wilder's by 

536
00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:27,520
autobiography Kiss Me Like a 
Stranger and he recalls that 

537
00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:31,480
Sellers calls him looking what 
is what? 

538
00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:34,120
How is Aldrich as a director as 
he just worked with him on the 

539
00:28:34,120 --> 00:28:37,080
film called The Frisco Kid 
starring him in Harrison Ford? 

540
00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:39,440
OK, Yeah. 
And what was so he? 

541
00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:43,320
Well, it goes, yeah, I know he's
a great action comedy director. 

542
00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:47,600
So apparently then Sellers asked
the question like, oh, OK, well,

543
00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:50,360
the film we're making, the film 
he's proposing to me is more of 

544
00:28:50,800 --> 00:28:54,800
a comedy farce. 
Would you vouch for him as a 

545
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:57,840
farcical director? 
And while there was quite 

546
00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:00,200
honest, he said, look, I 
actually can't vote for him in 

547
00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:04,120
that regard because, you know, 
my or the type of film I made 

548
00:29:04,120 --> 00:29:08,640
with him was different. 
So apparently a few days later, 

549
00:29:08,680 --> 00:29:13,040
Wilder gets a phone call from 
Aldrich's daughter and going, 

550
00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:14,840
how could you? 
How dare you? 

551
00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:17,480
He's like, what, what? 
What have I done? 

552
00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:19,360
What have I done? 
He went like, Sellers has 

553
00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:21,840
dropped out of the project. 
The project's probably not going

554
00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:25,720
to happen, you know, because you
probably the the, the message 

555
00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:29,400
that was sent back from sellers 
agent was that I've heard from 

556
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:32,240
Gene Wilder that Aldrich is not 
a very good director and has I 

557
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:36,120
won't project. 
So Barney Wilder held on to that

558
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:38,280
for a while. 
Just he was he can see reading 

559
00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:40,120
his biography. 
He's just like very confused. 

560
00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:43,360
I mean, kind of acts like it was
a betrayal from sellers. 

561
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:46,840
But again, it kind of comes back
to, we mentioned earlier that 

562
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:51,320
sort of using excuses because 
anyone kind of giving him any 

563
00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:54,400
sort of leeway to lead the 
project, he took it. 

564
00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:56,600
Well, put a pin in that. 
Put a pin in that for a moment. 

565
00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:58,600
I just want to briefly mention 
you. 

566
00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:06,320
You mentioned Robert Aldrich at 
one point in 5859 was attached 

567
00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:12,400
to direct a film version of 
Brouhaha, which was the rather 

568
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:15,680
disastrous play that Sellers was
appearing in at that time. 

569
00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:23,200
Oh yeah, yeah. 
That never happened, but getting

570
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:26,920
getting back to you said about 
sellers looking for excuses to 

571
00:30:27,920 --> 00:30:32,560
to drop out of films. 
The one that springs to mind is 

572
00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:35,480
for me is great film. 
Love it. 

573
00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:38,960
Top Carpie. 
Oh yeah, yeah. 

574
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:45,840
Which famously people now say 
about that film that so Sellers 

575
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:51,520
was offered a part in the main 
part in Top Carpy and Peter 

576
00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:54,600
Ustinov was offered the Cluso 
role in the Pink Panther. 

577
00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:58,800
And then they they Sellers 
turned down Top Carpy, Ustinov 

578
00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:01,680
turned down Pink Panther. 
Ustinov went on to win. 

579
00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:05,040
I think he won. 
Yeah, best supporting best. 

580
00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:07,680
Supporting actor for his role as
what was his name? 

581
00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:11,600
It's a great film, Arthur. 
He plays a character called 

582
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:12,080
Arthur. 
Anyway. 

583
00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:17,120
Anyway, and yeah. 
And Sellers, obviously. 

584
00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:19,120
Well, need I say any more about 
Sellers? 

585
00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:22,840
He he went on to do Cluso. 
Inspector Cluser was originally 

586
00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:26,480
Peter Ustinov and did you ever 
see Top Copy? 

587
00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:28,920
Yes. 
Well I was originally the taxi 

588
00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:34,680
driver and Peter Ustinov left 
the Pink Panther and I left Top 

589
00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:37,160
Copy. 
So we switched over and I took 

590
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:41,000
Inspector Cluser and he took the
taxi driver. 

591
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:42,680
That's how it came about. 
That's true. 

592
00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:46,440
Sellers use the excuse that he 
didn't want to work with 

593
00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:51,480
Maximilian Shell, who was also 
cast in Top Carpe. 

594
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:57,360
Sellers told the the director 
Jules Dassin, who I think he 

595
00:31:57,360 --> 00:32:02,000
made Rafifi as well, didn't he? 
He told Jules Dassin that he 

596
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:04,920
heard that. 
Believe it or not, he is ironic.

597
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:08,240
He'd heard that Shell was 
unprofessional on movie sets, 

598
00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:13,080
but I'll. 
Call it kettle black there but. 

599
00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:17,480
Yeah, but I think it's more 
likely that he was jealous 

600
00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:20,800
because Maximinian Shell was a 
good looking man and who'd also 

601
00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:25,040
recently Co starred with Sophia 
Loren in a film called The 

602
00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:28,760
Condemned of Altova. 
But yeah, he just made the 

603
00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:32,240
excuse that Shell was 
unprofessional and that's why he

604
00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:34,160
didn't want to want to make top 
copy. 

605
00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:37,960
Well actually interesting 
because I read a story about the

606
00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:42,080
actor Peter Bull actually got 
cast in the film to enticed 

607
00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:45,120
Sellers to do the project 
because he had worked with him 

608
00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:47,120
on Doctor Strangelove. 
Apparently they go on quite 

609
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:50,360
well. 
So they apparently cast Peter 

610
00:32:50,360 --> 00:32:53,400
Bull in the rule that eventually
was given to Robert Morley. 

611
00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:58,160
Yeah, because according to Peter
Bull, once seller said no. 

612
00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:00,320
Then they got rid of Peter, him 
and him as well because they 

613
00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:02,320
were like oh I don't need you 
anymore because you can use a 

614
00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:04,160
bargaining chip to get him on 
the. 

615
00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:06,840
Project, Yeah. 
The only thing I don't like 

616
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:10,160
about Top Carpie is is Robert 
Morley, so I was. 

617
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:12,800
About I was about to say because
I saw your tweet the other day 

618
00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:14,240
and I I do actually agree with 
you. 

619
00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:17,520
Robert Morley is one person that
is never ever, in my opinion, 

620
00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:19,840
apart from fear of a blood, has 
never been in agree. 

621
00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:22,640
Yeah, I'd agree. 
That's that's that's where he's.

622
00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:24,280
Like, oh, this is going down 
there. 

623
00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:26,720
Where he's eating his dogs. 
Yeah, yeah. 

624
00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:31,920
Well, yeah, no, apparently Peter
Bull was used as a bargaining 

625
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:33,360
chip to get him onto the 
project. 

626
00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:36,600
Yeah, I think also where Sellers
was in his career, because I was

627
00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:39,080
obviously like a sort of a 
supporting character role. 

628
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:42,560
And I think he saw himself more 
as a leading man by that point. 

629
00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:46,200
So maybe that's another. 
Well see I rewatched it 

630
00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:47,520
recently. 
I've seen it probably about 8 

631
00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:50,600
times over the years. 
I love it and and Houston off is

632
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:53,720
the lead. 
Yeah, yeah. 

633
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:57,400
The it's a grey area maybe. 
And again, I think that comes 

634
00:33:57,400 --> 00:34:00,680
back to, you know, even again, 
there's the films that he made 

635
00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:03,520
but then turned down rules of in
the film, you know, the 2 great 

636
00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:06,200
examples being the two way 
stretch and the wrong arm of the

637
00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:09,320
law. 
You know, he's offered both his 

638
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:12,600
role and you know, he's given a 
choice between that and I know 

639
00:34:12,639 --> 00:34:17,440
Jeffrey parts and he chooses the
the the Pearly Gates and Dodger 

640
00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:19,880
Lane. 
And on both occasions he ends up

641
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:21,320
going I should have done your 
part. 

642
00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:24,960
Yeah, and then and then he ends 
up resenting Lionel Jeffries. 

643
00:34:25,159 --> 00:34:27,800
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 
But it's been that ridiculous 

644
00:34:27,800 --> 00:34:32,760
part in The Prisoner of Zender. 
Yeah, well, they kind of he he 

645
00:34:32,760 --> 00:34:35,560
kind of made-up with. 
Well, it is it is headed made-up

646
00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:38,639
with Lionel Jeffries. 
Or at least all sins were 

647
00:34:38,639 --> 00:34:41,239
forgiven as far as sellers but. 
I always kind of feel when I 

648
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:43,199
watch that film, I I'm not sure 
if it's Lionel. 

649
00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:45,639
It's just it's a very subdued 
performance from Lionel 

650
00:34:45,639 --> 00:34:47,560
Jeffries. 
It's very uninteresting 

651
00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:50,120
performance and I'm not really 
sure why, because I think he was

652
00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:51,520
a brilliant actor. 
Oh, he was. 

653
00:34:52,920 --> 00:34:55,480
I think he's the greatest talent
in Two Way Stretch. 

654
00:34:55,800 --> 00:35:00,600
Yeah, yeah, just on Jeffrey's. 
Then can we go to another film, 

655
00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:05,000
The Spy with a cold nose? 
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. 

656
00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:08,160
Have you seen that? 
I haven't because that's a very 

657
00:35:08,160 --> 00:35:11,360
hard I I I've always. 
Again, it gets mentioned in the 

658
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:15,920
Roger Lewis biography quite a 
bit, and again it's written by 

659
00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:19,000
Clements and the Three. 
No, no, Galton and Simpson. 

660
00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:21,800
Galton and Simpson, all right. 
I thought it was I thought it 

661
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:23,560
was a champs from Porridge, but 
it's Galton and Simpson. 

662
00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:28,000
Well, they, they'd they'd 
written with John Entropist the 

663
00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:33,720
wrong arm of the law And and 
Sellers like, you know, like 

664
00:35:33,720 --> 00:35:35,280
their work. 
Yeah, Yeah. 

665
00:35:35,280 --> 00:35:38,640
He, he was recovering from his 
heart attack in 64. 

666
00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:41,200
He asked and he approached 
Galton and Simpson and asked 

667
00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:43,320
them to write him another film. 
Yeah, Yeah. 

668
00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:46,760
Alan Simpson said that they that
the two of them were invited to 

669
00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:52,320
his and and Britt's home in in 
Elstead and they had the script 

670
00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:56,640
and they said they showed him 
the script and he fell about 

671
00:35:56,640 --> 00:36:00,920
laughing, which I find hard to 
believe. 

672
00:36:00,920 --> 00:36:03,040
I've never seen anyone thought 
thought about laughing Auntie. 

673
00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:05,920
Find amusing, you know. 
Comic Sans. 

674
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:09,040
And they said he was laughing so
much they were fearful of 

675
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:13,440
another heart attack. 
And the reason I mentioned 

676
00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:16,520
Lionel Jeffries, Sellers 
obviously proposed himself as 

677
00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:22,120
the the the doctor in it, and he
wanted Lionel Jeffries cast as 

678
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:24,920
well. 
I've not seen the film, so I'm 

679
00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:27,280
not sure. 
That's because the film was made

680
00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:29,080
and Jeffries is in it. 
Yeah. 

681
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:31,240
But I'm not sure what part he 
played and. 

682
00:36:31,240 --> 00:36:34,320
Interestingly, it then has 
Lawrence Harvey plays the 

683
00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:35,400
operation. 
That's right. 

684
00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:37,400
Oh, again, going back to 
Espresso Bongo. 

685
00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:40,000
Absolutely. 
All these things connected and, 

686
00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:42,680
and Golden Simpson was he kind 
of strung them along. 

687
00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:45,400
Seller strung them along for 
about 3 weeks and then he pulled

688
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:48,680
out because he he, he was 
already under contract to make 

689
00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:54,160
What's New Pussycats and he he, 
he declined to mention that. 

690
00:36:56,800 --> 00:36:59,360
Again, but I, I, again, I've 
never seen the film, but I, I, 

691
00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:01,800
I've always been fascinated by 
it just because of the title, 

692
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:05,080
because obviously it's around 
the same time of Le Carre, the 

693
00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:06,640
The Spy Who Came in from the 
Cold. 

694
00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:10,120
I thought that was an genius 
title, but I don't, I don't 

695
00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:12,480
think it's ever been released. 
I think you could find like an 

696
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:16,320
old VHS, you know, tape off 
YouTube, which is why I've 

697
00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:18,360
probably never watched it 
because I thought you're barely 

698
00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:21,920
going to see it. 
No, that's, that's fascinating, 

699
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:24,640
you know? 
OK, so next film. 

700
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:26,760
So what film would you like to 
throw into the mix? 

701
00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:32,040
Well, again, because we were all
sort of on it, sort of Gene 

702
00:37:32,040 --> 00:37:33,400
Wilder chart, there's Willy 
Wonka. 

703
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:36,640
Of course, of course, yes. 
And again, you kind of suppose 

704
00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:39,160
some Milligan is up for this 
role as well, apparently off his

705
00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:41,920
beard for the audition 
especially did. 

706
00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:51,160
He glue it back on afterwards. 
So yeah, apparently from what I 

707
00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:55,000
from what I know, Roald Dahl was
a big fan of both Sellers and 

708
00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:58,520
Milligan, and that was the first
proposal to the producers. 

709
00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:02,960
I want Milligan or Sellers. 
And I think from my 

710
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:06,640
understanding, no to Milligan 
because Milligan wasn't, you 

711
00:38:06,640 --> 00:38:09,880
know, you know, film star. 
Yeah, he was never bankable. 

712
00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:13,840
And I think at this point, 
Sellers again, was bankable but 

713
00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:16,800
was no longer considered 
bankable. 

714
00:38:17,240 --> 00:38:19,720
And so that's the reason he gets
turned down and then in part 

715
00:38:19,720 --> 00:38:22,280
goes to Gene Wilder and the the 
rest is history. 

716
00:38:22,320 --> 00:38:25,080
Yeah, yeah. 
See, it's it's funny to me that 

717
00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:30,280
Roald Dahl wanted Sellers 
because I don't know the exact 

718
00:38:30,280 --> 00:38:32,920
relationship, whether it was 
strained or not, between Roald 

719
00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:35,760
Dahl and his daughter Tessa. 
Oh yeah, yeah. 

720
00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:40,400
But Tessa Dahl, as a teenage 
late teenager I must taste and 

721
00:38:40,400 --> 00:38:42,240
mention, had a fling with 
Sellers. 

722
00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:45,440
Yeah, yeah. 
And I, I, I I do believe he 

723
00:38:45,440 --> 00:38:47,920
treated her rather shabbily. 
Well, again, that's kind of like

724
00:38:47,920 --> 00:38:50,360
sort of the main theme, as you 
were sort of saying there about 

725
00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:54,000
Golden Simpson again, you know, 
the sort of boredom that he 

726
00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:55,480
would get. 
And again, it came with people, 

727
00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:57,880
came with lovers, and it came 
with film projects as well. 

728
00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:01,000
And, you know, it seems you're 
saying, like, rolling around 

729
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:04,120
laughing after reading the 
script. 

730
00:39:04,160 --> 00:39:06,320
And again, John Cleese and 
Graham Chapman tells similar 

731
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:08,760
stories, you know, one minute 
laughing his head off, the next 

732
00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:10,440
minute he tells a joke to his 
milkman. 

733
00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:12,800
And the milkman doesn't laugh. 
And he no longer wants to do the

734
00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:16,400
script. 
Yeah, you mentioned John Cleese 

735
00:39:16,400 --> 00:39:19,440
and Chapman. 
Do you know about this film that

736
00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:22,680
Sellers wanted them to write for
him called The Future Began 

737
00:39:22,680 --> 00:39:24,280
yesterday. 
No, I don't. 

738
00:39:24,280 --> 00:39:29,040
Actually, no. 
OK, so from what I can piece 

739
00:39:29,040 --> 00:39:35,720
together 1967 around that time, 
God, where do I start? 

740
00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:38,760
Are you aware of the writer 
Primo Levy? 

741
00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:42,080
Yes, yes. 
I think he was at Auschwitz, 

742
00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:44,600
wasn't he? 
And he wrote If This is a Man, 

743
00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:52,800
which very harrowing memoir, but
he, under a pseudonym, wrote a 

744
00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:57,600
series of short stories called 
Story Naturally or natural 

745
00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:02,240
Stories, and one of them's 
called Angelica Butterfly. 

746
00:40:02,560 --> 00:40:07,560
And in this story, a man uses 
advanced technology to duplicate

747
00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:10,640
his wife. 
But as you can imagine, things 

748
00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:16,600
go rather awry and and it it it 
asks questions of identity, 

749
00:40:16,600 --> 00:40:19,720
intimacy, and the consequences 
of perfecting or replicating 

750
00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:20,800
loved ones. 
Right. 

751
00:40:21,640 --> 00:40:26,920
And and sellers sent. 28 
photocopied pages of this story 

752
00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:31,520
translated into English and and,
and an accompanying note sent it

753
00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:35,880
to Gleason Chapman saying, my 
dear John and Graham, please 

754
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:38,560
read these beautiful things. 
What is here for your 

755
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:41,680
commentaries and love with the 
compliments of Peter Sellers. 

756
00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:47,400
And that's in February 1967. 
OK, and there's But there's no 

757
00:40:47,400 --> 00:40:52,600
evidence that they ever ended up
writing anything, although John 

758
00:40:52,600 --> 00:40:57,320
Cleese years later in an 
interview, mentioned that he'd 

759
00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:02,080
found a pristine copy of a movie
script that he and and Chapman 

760
00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:06,040
had written in 1967 in a storage
unit in Santa Barbara. 

761
00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:08,720
Yeah, yeah. 
Although we have no idea if it's

762
00:41:08,720 --> 00:41:11,040
that film future began 
yesterday. 

763
00:41:11,040 --> 00:41:12,440
Could be could have been 
anything really. 

764
00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:17,240
Now the the story. 
The film would have been about a

765
00:41:17,240 --> 00:41:19,160
man who's trying to duplicate 
his wife. 

766
00:41:20,120 --> 00:41:22,880
Sellers had a particular actress
in mind to play the wife. 

767
00:41:22,880 --> 00:41:23,840
Who? 
Who do you think that might have

768
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:27,240
been? 
Sophia, Absolutely. 

769
00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:31,560
Who do you want, Peter? 
You could. 

770
00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:33,200
You could have anyone. 
Sophia. 

771
00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:36,880
Yeah. 
Oh, dear. 

772
00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:38,600
Oh, dear. 
And then and then I really 

773
00:41:38,600 --> 00:41:40,080
handle. 
And then I really handle. 

774
00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:45,280
But again, as we were kind of 
saying about the heart attack, 

775
00:41:45,400 --> 00:41:48,680
again, obviously the spy Nicole 
knows and what's new because he 

776
00:41:48,680 --> 00:41:52,600
can't come after, but there's 
the project just before gets me 

777
00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:54,840
stupid. 
Now, Hollywood, it doesn't make 

778
00:41:54,840 --> 00:41:57,280
so many pictures today as it 
did, but it still is a very 

779
00:41:57,280 --> 00:41:59,520
powerful movie making center, 
isn't it? 

780
00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:03,040
Yes, I quite agree. 
Do you plan making any pictures 

781
00:42:03,040 --> 00:42:06,840
in Hollywood this year or next? 
Well, most certainly next year 

782
00:42:07,080 --> 00:42:09,320
I'm going to make the film with 
Billy Wilder there. 

783
00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:11,240
A great director? 
Yes. 

784
00:42:11,240 --> 00:42:13,320
A great director. 
I agree with you absolutely. 

785
00:42:13,720 --> 00:42:19,480
And I understand that there will
be Frank Sinatra and Shelley 

786
00:42:19,480 --> 00:42:21,960
McLean in the same film. 
That isn't bad. 

787
00:42:22,040 --> 00:42:26,400
No, it isn't. 
So it's a great thrill to look 

788
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:29,320
forward to that. 
I've not done much research on 

789
00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:32,160
that because again, that could 
be almost an episode in itself. 

790
00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:35,360
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 
But Sellers was working on that 

791
00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:38,040
for a couple of weeks prior to 
his heart attack and like. 

792
00:42:38,560 --> 00:42:40,520
Six weeks on the project. 
Yeah. 

793
00:42:40,520 --> 00:42:43,000
And then subsequently replaced 
by Ray Wollstone. 

794
00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:46,520
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 
Filmed directed by Billy Wilder,

795
00:42:46,520 --> 00:42:49,160
of course. 
And there's this stills of 

796
00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:51,000
Sellers. 
Isn't there still photographs of

797
00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:52,520
him? 
Yeah, with the jumper, with 

798
00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:54,360
can't. 
Remember Beethoven? 

799
00:42:54,600 --> 00:42:55,520
Beethoven. 
Yeah, Yeah. 

800
00:42:56,920 --> 00:43:00,480
And Sellers, when he was 
recuperating, obviously didn't 

801
00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:04,360
end up making the film. 
He was interviewed by Alexander 

802
00:43:04,360 --> 00:43:09,800
Walker back in Britain and I 
haven't got the interview to 

803
00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:12,400
hand, but it was quite scathing 
about well. 

804
00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:15,160
Yeah, How's that phrase I got? 
I got Hollywood in a big way, 

805
00:43:15,160 --> 00:43:19,200
darling. 
The love, yeah, that's it, 

806
00:43:19,200 --> 00:43:22,200
That's it. 
And, and I think Wilder, Kim 

807
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:26,120
Novak, he was on the film Dean 
Martin, They, they wrote this 

808
00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:30,560
open letter to him in one of the
trade papers saying something 

809
00:43:30,560 --> 00:43:33,720
about, of talk about 
unprofessional rat finks. 

810
00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:38,400
Yeah, Well, I, I, I think in the
Xander the Walker interview, he 

811
00:43:38,400 --> 00:43:41,040
mentions, and I think it's 
interesting that because that 

812
00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:44,280
was his first, well, if if he 
had completed the movie, it 

813
00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:47,840
would have been his first 
Hollywood film filmed in Los 

814
00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:50,720
Angeles. 
And what's interesting is I 

815
00:43:50,720 --> 00:43:53,480
think one thing he didn't 
particularly like was the fact 

816
00:43:53,480 --> 00:43:56,080
that at these big Hollywood 
studios, you get tourists, 

817
00:43:56,360 --> 00:44:00,200
people come onto the set and 
watch you doing doing the job 

818
00:44:00,200 --> 00:44:01,920
you do. 
And apparently that was 

819
00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:06,720
something he found very, very 
disconcerting and bewildering. 

820
00:44:07,080 --> 00:44:09,240
I think at one point in the 
interview he started a bags, 

821
00:44:09,280 --> 00:44:11,000
Walker said. 
He started doing a blood knock 

822
00:44:11,000 --> 00:44:13,720
voice and saying get the cannons
ready like the blows. 

823
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:19,960
But again, what's interesting 
about the Wilder thing, and 

824
00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:23,040
again, it does bring us on to 
another project, the Private 

825
00:44:23,040 --> 00:44:28,200
Life of Sherlock Holmes, because
even though they have this this 

826
00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:30,840
falling out during Kiss Me 
Stupid, apparently he is offered

827
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:35,440
the role of Doctor Watson. 
But what's interesting on A and 

828
00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:40,920
again, I went to, so the BFI did
a screening of what they're 

829
00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:43,760
doing, a top five Billy Wilder 
films. 

830
00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:46,360
And something that was kind of 
pointed out to me, which I 

831
00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:48,760
thought interesting is that on 
Billy Wilder movies, when you 

832
00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:51,920
look at the credits, you know, 
most movies you have a script 

833
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:54,520
supervisor. 
On a Wilder film, you would have

834
00:44:54,520 --> 00:44:57,280
a dialogue supervisor and a 
script supervisor. 

835
00:44:57,880 --> 00:45:01,480
And people were always kind of 
saying that's Wilder was so 

836
00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:05,360
specific about you could not 
change a comma in a Wilder 

837
00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:07,160
script. 
And apparently that's one of the

838
00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:10,080
reasons why Sellers was so 
unhappy on the project as well, 

839
00:45:10,080 --> 00:45:14,040
because he was used to being 
allowed to improvise multiple 

840
00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:16,680
ticks. 
Wilder was very different from, 

841
00:45:16,680 --> 00:45:19,720
you know, the example being 
Kubrick really, in terms of 

842
00:45:19,720 --> 00:45:22,160
allowing him to to flow with his
creator. 

843
00:45:22,160 --> 00:45:24,400
You know, that what did Cuber 
call it? 

844
00:45:24,400 --> 00:45:27,680
The comic ecstasy? 
I think that was being very much

845
00:45:27,680 --> 00:45:31,320
stifled on the set of Kiss in in
Sellers point of view. 

846
00:45:32,240 --> 00:45:34,920
But then, yeah, as you said, 
then what I find interesting is 

847
00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:37,800
regardless of, you know, the 
open letter and all this, he is 

848
00:45:37,800 --> 00:45:40,720
off for the rule of Doctor 
Watson in the private life of 

849
00:45:40,720 --> 00:45:42,720
Sherlock Holmes. 
And I'm assuming that his reason

850
00:45:42,720 --> 00:45:45,160
for turning it down was his 
prior experience on Kiss Me 

851
00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:48,720
Stupid. 
Well, it's interesting, I asked 

852
00:45:48,720 --> 00:45:50,280
Jonathan Coe. 
You know the novelist. 

853
00:45:50,560 --> 00:45:53,440
Yes. 
Who's huge fan of the film 

854
00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:58,160
Private Life of Sherlock Holmes?
And I asked him if he had any 

855
00:45:58,160 --> 00:46:00,440
any information about Sellers 
involvement or proposed 

856
00:46:00,440 --> 00:46:02,600
involvement. 
And he said he said, I don't 

857
00:46:02,600 --> 00:46:04,880
think Sellers was ever 
officially attached to private 

858
00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:08,000
life. 
And any involvement was 

859
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:10,360
certainly curtailed by the fact 
that he'd fallen out with Wilder

860
00:46:10,360 --> 00:46:13,400
on the set of Kiss Me Stupid 
even before his heart attack. 

861
00:46:13,720 --> 00:46:16,360
Do you know the interview he 
gave to Alexander Walker of in 

862
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:19,080
the wake of that experience, 
I've had Hollywood love. 

863
00:46:19,480 --> 00:46:21,640
OK. 
And then he says, Nicholas 

864
00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:24,360
Palais, who's just finished 
writing a book about Private 

865
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:26,600
Life of Sherlock Holmes. 
You almost certainly have more 

866
00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:28,680
info. 
Unfortunately, I didn't have 

867
00:46:28,760 --> 00:46:32,560
time to contact Nicholas Blay, 
but I will certainly be getting 

868
00:46:32,560 --> 00:46:34,280
that book whenever it's 
published because that sounds 

869
00:46:34,280 --> 00:46:36,360
fascinating. 
I love the film, the film, and I

870
00:46:36,360 --> 00:46:38,720
know you've got something to say
about that film. 

871
00:46:38,720 --> 00:46:41,560
Oh yeah, yeah, no, because the 
actor then who is cast? 

872
00:46:41,640 --> 00:46:43,480
Colin Blakely. 
Him and my grandmother, they 

873
00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:48,600
used to court. 
Luckily he wasn't successful 

874
00:46:48,600 --> 00:46:51,200
because I always joke if he was 
I would have ended up five foot 

875
00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:53,920
5. 
Oh yeah, it was. 

876
00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:54,880
Yeah, they. 
Yeah. 

877
00:46:55,000 --> 00:46:58,720
And again, interestingly. 
So can I just say Colin Blakely?

878
00:46:58,720 --> 00:47:00,920
I watched it again the other 
night because I love it so much.

879
00:47:00,920 --> 00:47:03,680
And just to prepare for this 
all, sort of that's my excuse. 

880
00:47:04,160 --> 00:47:07,480
Colin Blakely is stand out in 
that. 

881
00:47:07,600 --> 00:47:09,880
If I didn't know you're better, 
I might suspect you're taking 

882
00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:12,440
advantage of the young lady. 
As a matter of fact, I did take 

883
00:47:12,440 --> 00:47:14,360
advantage of her. 
Would you hand me the butter 

884
00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:19,280
knife, please? 
Of course you did. 

885
00:47:19,280 --> 00:47:21,920
What? 
Thank you, Holmes. 

886
00:47:21,920 --> 00:47:25,040
This is reprehensible. 
Where are your professional 

887
00:47:25,040 --> 00:47:26,920
ethics? 
Have you no sense of decency? 

888
00:47:26,920 --> 00:47:29,040
No shame? 
None whatsoever. 

889
00:47:29,240 --> 00:47:31,960
If you must know, I found her 
body quite rewarding. 

890
00:47:33,600 --> 00:47:34,200
You can't. 
Again. 

891
00:47:35,080 --> 00:47:37,840
He was one of Pinter's top 
actors. 

892
00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:40,640
I'd always forget that. 
But he's in the The Pink Panther

893
00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:42,680
strikes again as the police 
boss. 

894
00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:46,120
Is he reporting to Leonard 
Rossiter? 

895
00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:48,120
Yeah. 
Dudley Sutton as well. 

896
00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:50,240
Yeah, that's right. 
Yeah, I, Dudley was a chap I 

897
00:47:50,240 --> 00:47:51,920
used to know, passed away years 
ago. 

898
00:47:51,920 --> 00:47:55,000
And I always, you know, I, I 
always kept forgetting Dudley 

899
00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:57,920
was in that film and I should 
have asked him about his 

900
00:47:57,920 --> 00:48:00,720
experience. 
He was always too busy telling 

901
00:48:00,720 --> 00:48:02,120
me how much he hated Ian 
McShane. 

902
00:48:04,400 --> 00:48:07,080
But yeah, Tinker. 
Yeah, yeah, he's Tinker. 

903
00:48:07,600 --> 00:48:08,880
But yeah, I always, I always 
regret. 

904
00:48:09,200 --> 00:48:10,840
Yeah, he passed away quite a few
years ago. 

905
00:48:10,840 --> 00:48:13,400
And I I always forgot he was in 
that film because there were. 

906
00:48:13,400 --> 00:48:16,280
The three of them are brilliant.
And yeah, I always just forget 

907
00:48:16,280 --> 00:48:18,680
all three of them are in that 
movie because, yeah, like I 

908
00:48:18,680 --> 00:48:19,800
should have asked him while he 
was alive. 

909
00:48:19,800 --> 00:48:23,000
It's one of my regrets. 
Well, you mentioned Leonard 

910
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:24,440
Rossiter. 
I mentioned Leonard Rossiter. 

911
00:48:25,560 --> 00:48:28,600
He, he made a couple of films 
with Stanley Kubrick, as you 

912
00:48:28,600 --> 00:48:33,000
know, as did Sellers. 
What a segue this is. 

913
00:48:35,120 --> 00:48:38,040
Sellers obviously famously made 
Doctor Strangelove, but also 

914
00:48:38,040 --> 00:48:41,720
Lolita, which you and I have 
discussed at length. 

915
00:48:43,600 --> 00:48:49,000
And there was talk, well as far 
as Sellers was concerned of 

916
00:48:49,000 --> 00:48:51,120
another collaboration between 
him and Kubrick. 

917
00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:55,480
So while while Sellers was 
making the Optimists of Nine 

918
00:48:55,480 --> 00:49:02,920
Elms in early 1973, he was 
interviewed and on set, and he 

919
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:06,520
said about Kubrick, he said, 
we're going to do another film 

920
00:49:06,520 --> 00:49:08,600
together. 
He's working on it now, but 

921
00:49:08,600 --> 00:49:11,000
Stanley doesn't want to mention 
what it's going to be about. 

922
00:49:11,480 --> 00:49:14,840
Stanley would say it's very, 
very different. 

923
00:49:14,840 --> 00:49:17,520
Gee, you've really got to see 
it, right? 

924
00:49:18,320 --> 00:49:21,360
And that's all he, that's all he
said about it. 

925
00:49:22,120 --> 00:49:23,320
I've looked and looked and 
looked. 

926
00:49:23,320 --> 00:49:28,600
There's very little else that I 
can find that corroborates this.

927
00:49:29,000 --> 00:49:30,480
Yeah. 
And again, Kubrick at that time 

928
00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:32,920
was working on his Napoleon 
project. 

929
00:49:32,920 --> 00:49:34,680
You know, that was kind of his 
name. 

930
00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:36,880
Barry Lyndon. 
Barry Lyndon. 

931
00:49:36,880 --> 00:49:40,280
Yeah, well, Barry Lyndon's the 
project that end up ends up he 

932
00:49:40,440 --> 00:49:43,320
does after abandoning Napoleon 
using most of the research he 

933
00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:44,600
used on it. 
Right. 

934
00:49:44,680 --> 00:49:48,120
OK, yeah, yeah. 
The only thing I could find 

935
00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:52,200
there was a route and I can't 
remember where I read this 

936
00:49:52,200 --> 00:49:55,120
actually. 
Damn it all, but there was a 

937
00:49:56,160 --> 00:49:59,440
right. 
Surely this film would be the 

938
00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:01,760
film that could absolutely not 
have a sequel. 

939
00:50:01,920 --> 00:50:05,680
But there was talk at some point
of a A Strangelove 2. 

940
00:50:05,880 --> 00:50:11,000
Yeah, yeah, no, I said I read 
ABFII wasn't about it, but it it

941
00:50:11,000 --> 00:50:13,640
gets mentioned ABFI article, I 
think it's sort of floats 

942
00:50:13,640 --> 00:50:15,240
around. 
I think it even was still 

943
00:50:15,240 --> 00:50:18,200
floating around in 1992 from 
what I understand. 

944
00:50:19,120 --> 00:50:22,000
Right Again, if if ever a movie 
had an ending without. 

945
00:50:22,960 --> 00:50:24,480
Absolutely I. 
Mean in many ways. 

946
00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:26,680
I'd say The Bedsitting Room is 
the sequel to Doctor Strange. 

947
00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:31,800
Yeah, now you mentioned to me 
before we started recording 

948
00:50:31,800 --> 00:50:35,160
about our chat about Lolita. 
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

949
00:50:35,160 --> 00:50:38,800
So I spend quite a bit of time 
here in Barcelona. 

950
00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:41,600
I'm a partner here, Miriam 
Cannon. 

951
00:50:41,600 --> 00:50:43,440
She's a writer. 
We're doing our book launch 

952
00:50:43,440 --> 00:50:44,520
tonight, actually. 
Plug. 

953
00:50:45,480 --> 00:50:51,160
But what I was going to say is 
our episode of Lolita has become

954
00:50:52,040 --> 00:50:54,680
recommended listening on one of 
their courses at the Bloom 

955
00:50:54,680 --> 00:50:58,200
School in Barcelona because they
do a a course on Nabokov. 

956
00:50:58,560 --> 00:50:59,560
Wonderful. 
Use. 

957
00:50:59,680 --> 00:51:02,280
Use it in terms of the idea of 
adaptation. 

958
00:51:03,040 --> 00:51:07,400
So, so this podcast or an 
episode of this podcast is being

959
00:51:07,400 --> 00:51:09,720
used in academia. 
Yeah, yeah. 

960
00:51:09,720 --> 00:51:15,600
Wow, you finally meet. 
Yeah, yeah. 

961
00:51:15,680 --> 00:51:18,360
Again, what was I? 
What was I going to mention? 

962
00:51:18,960 --> 00:51:23,920
So this is one that, and I think
this appears in Rogersburg, the 

963
00:51:23,960 --> 00:51:27,560
Phantom versus the 4th Reich. 
That intrigues me. 

964
00:51:27,560 --> 00:51:29,440
I don't know much about it. 
Go on, tell me about that. 

965
00:51:29,720 --> 00:51:30,960
So the Phantom versus the first,
right? 

966
00:51:30,960 --> 00:51:32,840
It's the, you know, the, the 
comic book character, the 

967
00:51:32,840 --> 00:51:34,680
Phantom. 
It gets me into a film with 

968
00:51:34,680 --> 00:51:36,480
Billy Zane in the 90s. 
Yeah, yeah. 

969
00:51:36,760 --> 00:51:40,520
Apparently this was a project. 
It was written by Philip Mora, 

970
00:51:41,080 --> 00:51:44,320
who does Mad Dog Morgan with 
Dennis Hopper. 

971
00:51:44,320 --> 00:51:48,120
He also directs what I consider 
the worst, best film of all 

972
00:51:48,120 --> 00:51:52,880
time, Holding to your your your,
your Sister is a Werewolf. 

973
00:51:53,480 --> 00:51:56,040
It's got Christopher Lee giving 
probably one of the most phoned 

974
00:51:56,040 --> 00:51:58,560
in performances I have ever, 
ever, ever seen. 

975
00:51:59,320 --> 00:52:04,280
But so apparently this project 
was going to be produced by King

976
00:52:04,280 --> 00:52:08,800
Features Syndicate, who were the
publishers of The Phantom. 

977
00:52:09,080 --> 00:52:10,440
Yeah. 
And which I find quite 

978
00:52:10,440 --> 00:52:12,560
fascinating because this is the 
early 1970s. 

979
00:52:12,560 --> 00:52:15,400
And obviously nowadays we're 
very used to, you know, Marvel, 

980
00:52:15,400 --> 00:52:19,880
DC, these comics being added, 
being made into made into films.

981
00:52:19,880 --> 00:52:21,800
It's common. 
It's big part of the film 

982
00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:23,360
industry. 
Yeah, I don't like it myself, 

983
00:52:23,400 --> 00:52:25,080
but yeah. 
Yeah, I know, same, but sorry. 

984
00:52:25,160 --> 00:52:26,200
Tim. 
Yeah. 

985
00:52:27,480 --> 00:52:31,280
But I think what's interesting 
is this is this was an attempt 

986
00:52:31,280 --> 00:52:36,200
by a publishing house to make a 
film of the Phantom in 1970. 

987
00:52:37,240 --> 00:52:40,680
And the idea is that Sellers was
cast in three rules. 

988
00:52:40,680 --> 00:52:41,880
He was going to play the 
Phantom. 

989
00:52:42,280 --> 00:52:45,200
He was going to play Hitler and 
Hitler's son Heinrich. 

990
00:52:46,160 --> 00:52:48,240
Apparently Sellers was 
interviewed at the time going. 

991
00:52:48,240 --> 00:52:50,720
I know Hitler didn't have a son,
but if he did, he'd be called 

992
00:52:50,720 --> 00:52:52,640
Heinrich. 
I'm not sure where he got that 

993
00:52:52,640 --> 00:52:56,560
information from. 
So what's interesting is I came 

994
00:52:56,560 --> 00:52:59,200
across. 
So it's yeah, it gets announced 

995
00:52:59,200 --> 00:53:03,920
in a magazine which is called 
Monster Magazine in 1970. 

996
00:53:04,760 --> 00:53:07,000
And I just, I'm just going to 
read this out because I find 

997
00:53:07,000 --> 00:53:12,440
this hilarious. 
Adolf Hitler alive with son, yet

998
00:53:12,560 --> 00:53:15,920
both played by Peter Sellers, 
putting it against the famous 

999
00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:18,120
jungle hero, the Phantom. 
That's right. 

1000
00:53:18,120 --> 00:53:21,520
In the new King features flick 
The Phantom versus the 4th Reich

1001
00:53:21,880 --> 00:53:26,080
film roles in July in London. 
All I can say is right on. 

1002
00:53:27,760 --> 00:53:31,760
Jesus, right? 
So, yeah, so again, it gets 

1003
00:53:31,760 --> 00:53:33,560
mentioned. 
Actually it's in Alexander 

1004
00:53:33,560 --> 00:53:36,680
Walker's biography, the one that
gets published in 1982. 

1005
00:53:38,120 --> 00:53:42,440
So apparently, like Sellers, God
had photographs of himself taken

1006
00:53:42,440 --> 00:53:45,200
as a love Hitler to kind of 
create funding for this movie 

1007
00:53:46,240 --> 00:53:48,400
while they were getting filled. 
Apparently taken, he goes, they 

1008
00:53:48,400 --> 00:53:50,200
should have had a Eurovision 
Hitler contest. 

1009
00:53:51,160 --> 00:53:52,560
Yeah. 
So again, this is a project 

1010
00:53:52,640 --> 00:53:57,400
falls through because the head 
of the publishing house passes 

1011
00:53:57,400 --> 00:53:59,320
away. 
I think he's in a skiing 

1012
00:53:59,320 --> 00:54:01,680
accident. 
And whoever takes over decides 

1013
00:54:01,680 --> 00:54:05,040
that this is not a project that 
we should we should go forward 

1014
00:54:05,040 --> 00:54:07,720
with. 
But interesting like Philip 

1015
00:54:07,720 --> 00:54:13,360
Moro, he gets interviewed in 
1976 about the projects and I 

1016
00:54:13,360 --> 00:54:17,640
don't know why but he gets he 
made a movie called Eagle and he

1017
00:54:17,680 --> 00:54:20,560
they asked him where the idea of
Eagle come about and he 

1018
00:54:20,560 --> 00:54:23,800
mentioned this movie. 
So apparently the Phantom versus

1019
00:54:23,800 --> 00:54:26,480
the 4th Reich, which was a black
comedy about the Phantom, the 

1020
00:54:26,480 --> 00:54:29,360
comic strip character tracking 
down Hitler in South America. 

1021
00:54:29,760 --> 00:54:33,080
Hitler was 80 years old and he 
has a 21 year old son called 

1022
00:54:33,080 --> 00:54:36,360
Heinrich Hitler who wore shorts 
and long white socks. 

1023
00:54:36,640 --> 00:54:39,520
Peter Sellers was going to play 
Hitler at 80 Heinrich and the 

1024
00:54:39,520 --> 00:54:42,400
Phantom. 
The interviewer asks who decided

1025
00:54:42,400 --> 00:54:44,640
that? 
He answers Peter Sellers. 

1026
00:54:47,400 --> 00:54:50,280
But I guess, as I said, he's 
almost, we almost had a moment 

1027
00:54:50,280 --> 00:54:55,400
of of Peter Sellers entering the
comic book world in 1970. 

1028
00:54:55,440 --> 00:54:58,520
Yeah, before it was fashionable.
Yeah, exactly. 

1029
00:54:58,520 --> 00:55:02,120
Yeah, yeah. 
I mentioned before about the 

1030
00:55:02,120 --> 00:55:04,080
possibility of Doctor 
Strangelove 2. 

1031
00:55:05,720 --> 00:55:09,200
It reminds me that there was a 
couple of possible sequels to 

1032
00:55:09,200 --> 00:55:14,840
Sellers films that well, there 
were a couple made and there was

1033
00:55:14,840 --> 00:55:16,640
one that was proposed that was 
never made. 

1034
00:55:16,760 --> 00:55:20,320
So I'm all right, Jack Two, 
really. 

1035
00:55:20,480 --> 00:55:22,400
That was suggested at one point,
I think. 

1036
00:55:22,400 --> 00:55:24,320
And people always forget it's a 
sequel itself. 

1037
00:55:24,320 --> 00:55:28,240
To this, absolutely. 
So it would have had the 

1038
00:55:28,240 --> 00:55:32,080
character Fred Kite coming back.
I presume Irene Handel would 

1039
00:55:32,080 --> 00:55:36,520
have been on board as well. 
Never happened, although Sellers

1040
00:55:36,520 --> 00:55:40,320
did reprise the Fred Kite 
character when he was making the

1041
00:55:40,320 --> 00:55:42,280
Sellers Market LP at the end of 
the 70s. 

1042
00:55:42,720 --> 00:55:48,520
Yeah, although though the that 
was cut from the actual album 

1043
00:55:48,520 --> 00:55:50,240
couldn't. 
Do the voice apparently wasn't. 

1044
00:55:50,240 --> 00:55:53,280
The voice wasn't very good and 
also because it was, it was 

1045
00:55:53,280 --> 00:55:55,600
deemed disrespectful to Mrs. 
Thatcher and sellers wanted. 

1046
00:55:55,600 --> 00:55:58,280
To Yeah. 
Was it June Whitfield? 

1047
00:55:58,280 --> 00:55:59,240
Did she? 
Do June Whitfield. 

1048
00:55:59,240 --> 00:56:01,040
That's right, yeah. 
She was doing Thatcher. 

1049
00:56:01,040 --> 00:56:02,000
Yeah, that's. 
Right. 

1050
00:56:02,400 --> 00:56:07,480
And there's a couple of other 
sequels that were made to films 

1051
00:56:07,480 --> 00:56:11,360
that had Peter Sellers in them. 
So it's spectacle. 

1052
00:56:11,360 --> 00:56:14,040
So yeah. 
Yeah, yeah. 

1053
00:56:14,400 --> 00:56:16,640
Which I have. 
It's not a very good film. 

1054
00:56:16,680 --> 00:56:18,440
I love Alan Arkin, but it's not 
very good. 

1055
00:56:18,720 --> 00:56:22,480
I can never finish that film. 
I one of those movies I've tried

1056
00:56:22,480 --> 00:56:27,160
on so many occasions and it's 
it's quite interesting because I

1057
00:56:27,160 --> 00:56:30,800
read an interview from Alan 
Arkin and he mentioned the 

1058
00:56:30,800 --> 00:56:32,720
reason. 
I think they asked him why did 

1059
00:56:32,720 --> 00:56:36,880
you take on this part and he 
said at the time I thought I was

1060
00:56:36,880 --> 00:56:39,440
indestructible. 
Inspector Clouseau taught me I 

1061
00:56:39,440 --> 00:56:42,400
wasn't. 
Well, he'd made one of my 

1062
00:56:42,400 --> 00:56:45,120
favorite films of all time, I 
think the year before. 

1063
00:56:45,600 --> 00:56:48,520
Wait Until Dark with Yeah, 
Hepburn. 

1064
00:56:48,840 --> 00:56:50,400
The Russians are coming. 
The Russians are coming. 

1065
00:56:50,400 --> 00:56:53,000
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can't. 
Remember, it's catch 22 

1066
00:56:53,000 --> 00:56:55,160
afterwards. 
Yeah, I think it was 1970. 

1067
00:56:55,400 --> 00:56:58,160
Yeah, yeah. 
I think the if I remember 

1068
00:56:58,160 --> 00:57:02,760
correctly, the end of Inspector 
Clouseau is Beryl Reed. 

1069
00:57:02,760 --> 00:57:05,760
Try humping him. 
Yeah, like as I said, I've never

1070
00:57:06,520 --> 00:57:08,120
Now, now, now I know I won't 
make it to the. 

1071
00:57:08,120 --> 00:57:15,560
End And of course, there's 
another film which was a sequel 

1072
00:57:16,400 --> 00:57:20,000
that Sellers didn't want 
involvement with, which was you 

1073
00:57:20,000 --> 00:57:22,440
reminded me of today, actually, 
Mouse on the Moon. 

1074
00:57:22,640 --> 00:57:25,440
Yeah, because I watched it 
actually on the flight over to 

1075
00:57:25,440 --> 00:57:29,720
Barcelona on Wednesday. 
Never ever seen it before again.

1076
00:57:29,720 --> 00:57:32,040
But apparently it was, I think 
he was making heavens above at 

1077
00:57:32,040 --> 00:57:34,400
the time. 
So I think it was a scheduling 

1078
00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:38,280
problem as well. 
But what's interesting is I 

1079
00:57:38,280 --> 00:57:41,400
think who they get to play, the 
characters, I would sort of 

1080
00:57:41,400 --> 00:57:43,160
argue, are the people that he 
was impersonating. 

1081
00:57:43,760 --> 00:57:45,680
You know the Grand Duchess is 
Margaret Rutherford. 

1082
00:57:47,000 --> 00:57:49,480
Yeah. 
And then the character he's his 

1083
00:57:49,480 --> 00:57:55,480
character is the, is it was he 
called Sully or so Tully isn't 

1084
00:57:55,600 --> 00:57:59,840
in it, but he kind of replaced 
the Tully character with the son

1085
00:57:59,840 --> 00:58:02,640
of the Prime Minister. 
He gets played by Bernard 

1086
00:58:02,640 --> 00:58:03,800
Cribbins. 
Right. 

1087
00:58:04,480 --> 00:58:07,200
And again, Bernard Cribbins is 
very good and again, I always 

1088
00:58:07,200 --> 00:58:10,320
sort of say the Tully's probably
not one of sellers best 

1089
00:58:10,320 --> 00:58:13,640
performances. 
You know if you had a Bernard 

1090
00:58:13,640 --> 00:58:16,360
Cribbins in that role, it would 
have been a lot, lot better. 

1091
00:58:16,680 --> 00:58:20,800
So it's interesting. 
It is kind of and then the Prime

1092
00:58:20,800 --> 00:58:24,720
Minister is played by Ron Moody.
Does actually really good 

1093
00:58:24,720 --> 00:58:25,840
performance. 
Interesting. 

1094
00:58:25,840 --> 00:58:28,120
Terry Thomas is in it and I 
thought Terry Thomas would have 

1095
00:58:28,120 --> 00:58:31,040
been the Prime Minister when I 
saw the titles. 

1096
00:58:31,320 --> 00:58:35,640
But he plays an MI 6 agent who 
obviously tried. 

1097
00:58:35,960 --> 00:58:38,840
The old Terry Thomas joke tries 
to ingratiate himself, but just 

1098
00:58:38,840 --> 00:58:42,760
comes across as this Englishman,
the bird Birdwatcher. 

1099
00:58:43,560 --> 00:58:46,040
No, the only person who comes 
back is David Kossoff, the 

1100
00:58:46,360 --> 00:58:50,240
professor. 
He's in a weird way, he's kind 

1101
00:58:50,240 --> 00:58:54,040
of the lead in the film. 
Very interesting in terms of the

1102
00:58:54,040 --> 00:58:55,280
lead. 
He's the one who moves the plot 

1103
00:58:55,280 --> 00:58:56,400
forward. 
None of the other characters 

1104
00:58:56,400 --> 00:58:58,520
really move move anything, 
particularly Margaret 

1105
00:58:58,520 --> 00:59:01,120
Rutherford. 
I'm pretty sure, am I right in 

1106
00:59:01,120 --> 00:59:04,920
saying that Sellers pushed for 
Richard Lester to get the 

1107
00:59:04,920 --> 00:59:07,880
directing gig on that? 
And because obviously they they 

1108
00:59:07,880 --> 00:59:10,080
were friends. 
And then I think the next film 

1109
00:59:10,640 --> 00:59:12,840
Leicester made was A Hard Day's 
Night after the well, that's the

1110
00:59:12,840 --> 00:59:14,280
scene. 
Producer Walter Ascension. 

1111
00:59:14,720 --> 00:59:16,280
Oh, there you go. 
Right, Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

1112
00:59:16,280 --> 00:59:19,560
So I think that, yeah, that lays
on to, I think it's got a cameo 

1113
00:59:19,560 --> 00:59:21,400
from Frankie Howard trying to 
use the toilet. 

1114
00:59:23,200 --> 00:59:25,480
Christ. 
OK, You're not selling it to me.

1115
00:59:25,480 --> 00:59:25,960
Yeah. 
Yeah. 

1116
00:59:27,720 --> 00:59:31,920
But then again, moving on from 
that one mentioning Ron Moody, 

1117
00:59:31,920 --> 00:59:36,000
there is Oliver. 
Now, right, So with Oliver, I 

1118
00:59:36,000 --> 00:59:40,000
think I'm right in saying 
because Sellers had set up this 

1119
00:59:40,000 --> 00:59:44,440
production company called 
Brookfield Films in 64, then he 

1120
00:59:44,440 --> 00:59:47,440
has his heart attack. 
He he was meant There's one film

1121
00:59:47,440 --> 00:59:51,200
that he was meant to star in 
which never got made because of 

1122
00:59:51,200 --> 00:59:55,720
the heart attack situation, 
which was Don Quixote. 

1123
00:59:56,280 --> 01:00:00,240
There's a funny thing, because I
would say he has a, because 

1124
01:00:00,240 --> 01:00:04,400
Cluso has a very Quixote, sort 
of, you know, like. 

1125
01:00:05,400 --> 01:00:07,280
I mean, Roger Lewis says this 
very well in this book. 

1126
01:00:07,280 --> 01:00:10,040
You know the whenever you know, 
he, he tries to open the door 

1127
01:00:10,040 --> 01:00:12,160
and the the door handle falls 
off in his hand. 

1128
01:00:12,160 --> 01:00:15,440
There is that little moment 
that's very quiote, that kind of

1129
01:00:15,480 --> 01:00:18,360
the little moment of defeat. 
But getting back to Oliver. 

1130
01:00:18,360 --> 01:00:21,040
So that was originally going to 
be made by Brookfield Films and 

1131
01:00:21,040 --> 01:00:23,200
then legal disputes prevented 
them. 

1132
01:00:23,200 --> 01:00:27,440
So it was made, but not but in a
different, totally different 

1133
01:00:27,440 --> 01:00:29,680
production, wasn't it? 
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

1134
01:00:29,680 --> 01:00:33,200
With Carol Reed directing. 
But again, I think with that 

1135
01:00:33,200 --> 01:00:37,600
one, I'm sort of, I just feel if
he did do that project, he just 

1136
01:00:37,600 --> 01:00:40,840
would have done his Alec 
Guinness impression, which he 

1137
01:00:40,840 --> 01:00:41,760
was. 
He kept doing. 

1138
01:00:42,320 --> 01:00:45,200
Yeah, he kept doing over and 
over again on TV shows. 

1139
01:00:46,440 --> 01:00:49,240
But yeah, but you mean Guinness 
as Fagin, you mean? 

1140
01:00:49,280 --> 01:00:51,160
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 
Because he does sound quite a 

1141
01:00:51,160 --> 01:00:53,440
few like television shows at the
time. 

1142
01:00:53,440 --> 01:00:55,480
He always does the fake. 
Oh, because he always sees the 

1143
01:00:55,480 --> 01:00:57,360
quick change. 
See, I'm not sure about that 

1144
01:00:57,360 --> 01:01:02,080
because from what I read, 
Sellers was anxious to to try 

1145
01:01:02,080 --> 01:01:04,800
and move away from the sort of 
anti-Semitic. 

1146
01:01:05,320 --> 01:01:08,000
Yeah. 
And basically said that he would

1147
01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:13,560
play Fagin just as an old rogue.
Whatever I could do with Fagin 

1148
01:01:13,880 --> 01:01:16,400
would be. 
A copy because Alec. 

1149
01:01:16,400 --> 01:01:19,160
Had done the ultimate, you see, 
there was nothing left to do. 

1150
01:01:19,360 --> 01:01:23,520
He was off the he was one of 
Boss's drawings out of the book,

1151
01:01:23,560 --> 01:01:25,760
out of Dickens books. 
He was Fagin. 

1152
01:01:26,640 --> 01:01:31,760
And to do that, I mean, I would 
have meant, it would have meant 

1153
01:01:31,760 --> 01:01:35,320
copying Alec and I wouldn't want
to do that. 

1154
01:01:36,160 --> 01:01:38,400
But have been a good reuniting 
with Harry Secombe. 

1155
01:01:39,480 --> 01:01:42,280
Yeah, well, if Secombe had been 
attached to that first 

1156
01:01:42,280 --> 01:01:43,600
production, maybe. 
Who knows? 

1157
01:01:43,840 --> 01:01:44,920
But it would have been, wouldn't
it? 

1158
01:01:46,560 --> 01:01:52,920
Around this time as well. 
So that was 64 around this time.

1159
01:01:53,080 --> 01:01:55,840
Are you aware of a comedy film 
called Rotten to the Core? 

1160
01:01:55,840 --> 01:01:59,760
Oh it. 
Rings a bell, but no I I'm not 

1161
01:01:59,760 --> 01:02:02,200
aware of it. 
OK, I only discovered this 

1162
01:02:02,200 --> 01:02:03,400
literally the other day I 
watched. 

1163
01:02:03,400 --> 01:02:07,200
In fact, I watched the film 
again a couple of weeks ago just

1164
01:02:07,200 --> 01:02:08,960
just for for the enjoyment 
factor. 

1165
01:02:08,960 --> 01:02:12,120
I had no idea that sellers there
was a small sellers connection. 

1166
01:02:12,760 --> 01:02:18,800
It's a it's a, it's a British 
crime caper film from 65 Bolton 

1167
01:02:18,800 --> 01:02:23,800
Brothers film. 
And and it also it has Len Heath

1168
01:02:23,800 --> 01:02:29,160
and John Warren as the writers 
now they worked on Two Way 

1169
01:02:29,160 --> 01:02:34,280
Stretch and in in Rotten to the 
Core 1 character's called Jelly 

1170
01:02:34,280 --> 01:02:41,400
Night, which is obviously Dave 
Lodger's character in Two Way 

1171
01:02:41,400 --> 01:02:41,840
Stretch. 
Yeah. 

1172
01:02:41,960 --> 01:02:46,120
Yeah, yeah. 
And there's another character 

1173
01:02:47,480 --> 01:02:52,840
called Anxious O'Toole. 
And if you remember, Wrong Arm 

1174
01:02:52,840 --> 01:02:54,960
of the Law, Bernard Cribbins 
played Nervous O'Toole. 

1175
01:02:54,960 --> 01:02:55,600
Yeah. 
Yeah. 

1176
01:02:57,480 --> 01:03:01,800
I I saw two references to 
Sellers having been cast early 

1177
01:03:01,800 --> 01:03:04,960
on as the lead character called 
the Duke. 

1178
01:03:05,600 --> 01:03:08,360
OK. 
This sort of leader of a gang, I

1179
01:03:08,360 --> 01:03:11,240
suppose, which was Sellers. 
I mean, sellers loved playing 

1180
01:03:11,240 --> 01:03:13,240
those sorts of roles. 
Didn't he look at wrong arm of 

1181
01:03:13,240 --> 01:03:15,320
the law after the fox two way 
stretch. 

1182
01:03:16,920 --> 01:03:20,240
But then, but but then for 
whatever reason, he he didn't 

1183
01:03:20,240 --> 01:03:21,800
end up making it. 
And Anton Rogers. 

1184
01:03:22,600 --> 01:03:24,720
Took me. 
So that would have been an 

1185
01:03:24,720 --> 01:03:28,080
interesting interpretation had 
he had he taken that on. 

1186
01:03:28,800 --> 01:03:31,280
Oh yeah, definitely. 
But again, I think it would have

1187
01:03:31,280 --> 01:03:34,280
been sort of maybe from sellers 
point of view, probably ground 

1188
01:03:34,280 --> 01:03:36,800
already covered. 
Absolutely. 

1189
01:03:37,000 --> 01:03:40,360
Similarity as you said there, 
you know, again after the Fox, I

1190
01:03:40,360 --> 01:03:42,960
always kind of say it's like a 
bigger budget version of the 

1191
01:03:42,960 --> 01:03:46,560
wrong arm of the law in some 
respects, but kind of the same 

1192
01:03:46,560 --> 01:03:50,880
sort of comedy caper, but one 
that was going to mention there 

1193
01:03:50,880 --> 01:03:54,200
again. 
Speaking of comedies that did 

1194
01:03:54,200 --> 01:03:57,280
eventually get made, but 
apparently Tootsie was at one 

1195
01:03:57,280 --> 01:04:00,680
point offered to Sellers title. 
Would I lie to you? 

1196
01:04:00,680 --> 01:04:02,520
I. 
Never knew that. 

1197
01:04:02,800 --> 01:04:04,640
Yeah, so it was apparently it 
was a script floating around in 

1198
01:04:04,640 --> 01:04:08,480
the mid 70s offered to both 
Sellers and Michael Keane and 

1199
01:04:08,480 --> 01:04:11,160
only finally kind of comes comes
together like mid 80s with 

1200
01:04:11,280 --> 01:04:13,920
Dustin Hoffman. 
But no, I came across that the 

1201
01:04:13,920 --> 01:04:15,640
other day. 
I love Tootsie. 

1202
01:04:15,920 --> 01:04:18,000
I can't imagine. 
Brilliant film. 

1203
01:04:18,080 --> 01:04:19,880
I can't imagine anyone else 
playing that. 

1204
01:04:19,880 --> 01:04:21,040
Oh. 
No, no, no, no. 

1205
01:04:22,800 --> 01:04:26,840
OK, a couple of mentions of 
films where I don't really have 

1206
01:04:26,840 --> 01:04:31,480
much additional information. 
In 1979 there was there was 

1207
01:04:31,480 --> 01:04:34,360
going to be a film based on a 
long running radio series called

1208
01:04:34,880 --> 01:04:37,680
Chandu the Magician. 
Oh yeah, Chandu. 

1209
01:04:37,720 --> 01:04:39,680
Yeah, yeah. 
Chandu yeah, it's. 

1210
01:04:39,920 --> 01:04:43,400
It was. 
It got a film in from Bela 

1211
01:04:43,400 --> 01:04:45,800
Lugosi in 1930 I believe. 
Right. 

1212
01:04:45,880 --> 01:04:47,960
So he's going to be on that, But
that would have been around the 

1213
01:04:47,960 --> 01:04:51,400
time he was making or made Fu 
Manchu. 

1214
01:04:52,080 --> 01:04:55,360
Yeah, it's quite, Yeah. 
It's very similar to Fu Manchu 

1215
01:04:55,360 --> 01:04:57,440
that's sort of interestingly 
Orient at the time. 

1216
01:04:57,440 --> 01:04:59,720
So he basically he's a magician 
who's a crime fighter. 

1217
01:05:00,080 --> 01:05:02,680
Right. 
OK, he was. 

1218
01:05:02,680 --> 01:05:08,240
He wanted to make a film version
of UNESCU's Rhinoceros, and it 

1219
01:05:08,240 --> 01:05:12,160
was going to be set in Hamburg, 
directed by the man who directed

1220
01:05:12,160 --> 01:05:14,880
him in The Lady Killers, 
Alexandra Mackendrick. 

1221
01:05:16,000 --> 01:05:19,880
There's also there's a couple of
films that Michael Palin 

1222
01:05:19,880 --> 01:05:23,520
mentions in his Diaries. 
He mentions the Graham Chapman 

1223
01:05:23,520 --> 01:05:28,120
film from 1978, The Odd Job. 
Oh yeah, yeah. 

1224
01:05:28,120 --> 01:05:29,600
Which Peter Peter Matic 
directed. 

1225
01:05:31,720 --> 01:05:34,840
Yes, Peter Matic, that who 
directed him disastrously in The

1226
01:05:36,040 --> 01:05:39,600
Ghost in the Noonday Sun. 
Now, apparently, according to 

1227
01:05:39,600 --> 01:05:42,880
Palin, his in his Diaries, 
Sellers wanted to be in the 

1228
01:05:42,880 --> 01:05:46,640
film, but Chapman wanted Peter 
O'Toole. 

1229
01:05:47,640 --> 01:05:49,240
Oh, as as the assassin or as 
the? 

1230
01:05:49,280 --> 01:05:51,440
I guess so, yeah. 
That's all I know. 

1231
01:05:52,000 --> 01:05:54,480
Yeah, 'cause it's eventually 
it's made with Graham Chapman 

1232
01:05:54,480 --> 01:05:56,880
and David Jason replying. 
David Jason from. 

1233
01:05:57,240 --> 01:05:59,280
The six faces of Barker, I think
it's called. 

1234
01:05:59,280 --> 01:06:02,200
Where the show where you did 
like the free the six episodes? 

1235
01:06:02,200 --> 01:06:05,240
06 dates with Barker. 
Yeah, six dates with Barker. 

1236
01:06:05,240 --> 01:06:06,400
That's it. 
Yeah, Yeah. 

1237
01:06:07,600 --> 01:06:09,400
And also so that's that would 
have been intriguing. 

1238
01:06:09,400 --> 01:06:14,760
And also, I think Gillian was 
considering asking Sellers to 

1239
01:06:14,800 --> 01:06:17,480
play the David Warner role in 
Time Bandits. 

1240
01:06:18,640 --> 01:06:20,920
Oh, OK. 
And this was in April 1980, 

1241
01:06:20,920 --> 01:06:22,880
which was three months before 
Sellers died. 

1242
01:06:22,880 --> 01:06:24,000
So yeah. 
Yeah, yeah. 

1243
01:06:25,880 --> 01:06:30,040
And you mentioned Peter Medak, 
there's a there was a novel 

1244
01:06:30,040 --> 01:06:34,960
called Absolute 0 written by 
Ernest Tidyman and it was 

1245
01:06:34,960 --> 01:06:37,880
published in 1971. 
And it's a it's a near future 

1246
01:06:38,040 --> 01:06:42,120
thriller satire. 
The the main character is called

1247
01:06:43,200 --> 01:06:49,440
a True Blessing or Adam True 
Blessing who who establishes 

1248
01:06:49,440 --> 01:06:53,120
this cryogenics firm. 
He and he becomes sort of 

1249
01:06:53,120 --> 01:06:55,880
accidentally involved in 
cryogenics while attempting to 

1250
01:06:55,880 --> 01:06:59,360
preserve his accidentally frozen
dwarf parents. 

1251
01:07:00,640 --> 01:07:02,760
Right. 
A lot of accidents here. 

1252
01:07:04,840 --> 01:07:07,280
And there's a character in it 
called Chicken Charlie, who's a 

1253
01:07:07,320 --> 01:07:10,680
shady, flamboyant figure who's 
kind of a hustler fixer. 

1254
01:07:11,360 --> 01:07:15,640
And he, he sort of does The 
Dirty work for, for, for true 

1255
01:07:15,640 --> 01:07:17,880
blessing. 
Yeah, Yeah. 

1256
01:07:17,880 --> 01:07:19,240
I've never read the book, 
obviously. 

1257
01:07:19,240 --> 01:07:24,000
But Sellers in 1973 says that 
he's he says I'm doing another 

1258
01:07:24,000 --> 01:07:27,680
one in New York called Absolute 
0, written by Ernest Tidyman, 

1259
01:07:27,680 --> 01:07:30,520
who wrote Shaft, apparently. 
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. 

1260
01:07:31,440 --> 01:07:34,160
He said, he said it's an 
hysterical, high farce. 

1261
01:07:34,160 --> 01:07:36,840
It's serious humor, and I love 
serious humor. 

1262
01:07:37,160 --> 01:07:40,440
As Chicken Charlie says, Far 
out, man, Far, far out. 

1263
01:07:42,160 --> 01:07:46,680
And Peter Medek was slated to 
direct that, but in the end he 

1264
01:07:46,680 --> 01:07:49,080
and Sellers went off and made 
Ghost in the New Days. 

1265
01:07:49,080 --> 01:07:49,880
How much? 
We making sense. 

1266
01:07:52,040 --> 01:07:55,720
Well actually well-being on the 
theme of sort of future sci-fi, 

1267
01:07:56,320 --> 01:08:00,680
the alien yes, very interesting 
project. 

1268
01:08:00,680 --> 01:08:04,200
It was meant to be Peter Sellers
and Marlon Brando from the 

1269
01:08:04,200 --> 01:08:08,600
director Sajid Ray. 
Again, this I find this one 

1270
01:08:08,600 --> 01:08:13,720
interesting because it has an 
interesting back story to it 

1271
01:08:13,720 --> 01:08:17,880
because basically it's about an 
alien coming to earth lands in 

1272
01:08:17,880 --> 01:08:22,040
India. 
And sort of basically from what 

1273
01:08:22,040 --> 01:08:26,200
I've read, it's basically ET in 
India, but this is from like 19,

1274
01:08:26,439 --> 01:08:30,000
from the late 1970s. 
And what I find interesting is 

1275
01:08:30,000 --> 01:08:32,800
that was both Sellers and Marlon
Brando were attached. 

1276
01:08:32,800 --> 01:08:37,960
It was via Columbia Pictures and
the reason why he cast Sellers 

1277
01:08:37,960 --> 01:08:40,399
was apparently due to his 
performance in the Millionaire S

1278
01:08:41,520 --> 01:08:45,040
Ray sort of said it's it's not a
great performance, but he always

1279
01:08:45,040 --> 01:08:49,080
thought that Sellers kind of 
captured sort of elements of 

1280
01:08:49,080 --> 01:08:50,880
Indian culture in that 
performance. 

1281
01:08:51,720 --> 01:08:54,000
But that his opinion changed 
very much when he went to go 

1282
01:08:54,000 --> 01:08:57,240
visit him on the set of the 
party, apparently with Blake 

1283
01:08:57,240 --> 01:09:00,720
Edwards, where he considered his
performance becoming very, very 

1284
01:09:00,720 --> 01:09:03,319
broad and over the top. 
Cartoonish. 

1285
01:09:03,399 --> 01:09:04,720
Yeah. 
Cartoonish. 

1286
01:09:05,319 --> 01:09:07,399
But apparently that project 
didn't go ahead. 

1287
01:09:07,439 --> 01:09:10,560
Well, Sellers dropped out. 
The reason? 

1288
01:09:10,560 --> 01:09:13,120
Apparently he did his usual 
thing, sort of kept them, kept 

1289
01:09:13,120 --> 01:09:18,520
them on hook for ages, and then 
finally wrote he gets his agent 

1290
01:09:18,520 --> 01:09:20,840
to write a letter saying, oh, 
sorry, he's been busy with 

1291
01:09:20,840 --> 01:09:23,160
reshoots. 
Oh, so he will only do this 

1292
01:09:23,160 --> 01:09:26,560
project if you expand his part 
and rewrite the entire script, 

1293
01:09:27,000 --> 01:09:31,520
which is his way of saying no? 
I mean, I know who actors and 

1294
01:09:31,560 --> 01:09:34,640
people in the profession think 
that great directors are, but 

1295
01:09:35,000 --> 01:09:37,680
the public, as far as the public
is concerned, I wonder who they 

1296
01:09:37,680 --> 01:09:40,000
think. 
All they know is whether they 

1297
01:09:40,000 --> 01:09:43,200
like a film or they don't. 
So, for example, if I mentioned 

1298
01:09:43,439 --> 01:09:47,720
a famous Indian director like 
Satajit Ray, who probably plays 

1299
01:09:47,720 --> 01:09:50,960
in art houses all over the 
world, which he does, he's never

1300
01:09:50,960 --> 01:09:54,920
become commercial, but he's a 
fantastic director. 

1301
01:09:54,920 --> 01:09:57,760
He's his own camera operator. 
He works his camera himself. 

1302
01:10:00,840 --> 01:10:03,400
I mean, that way he sees exactly
what's happening. 

1303
01:10:05,840 --> 01:10:11,440
But you see, I mean, he's not, 
he's not what you'd call box 

1304
01:10:11,440 --> 01:10:13,320
office. 
I don't know. 

1305
01:10:13,840 --> 01:10:17,280
But he's a great filmmaker. 
And the project doesn't happen. 

1306
01:10:18,160 --> 01:10:21,960
Reason being is because when the
script gets copyrighted, so Ray 

1307
01:10:21,960 --> 01:10:26,160
writes the script, but it gets 
copyrighted by his an executive 

1308
01:10:26,160 --> 01:10:28,520
at Columbia called Michael 
White. 

1309
01:10:29,160 --> 01:10:31,120
And what happened was when 
Michael White copyrighted the 

1310
01:10:31,120 --> 01:10:33,120
script, he put his name on the 
script. 

1311
01:10:33,720 --> 01:10:35,200
So Ray refused to produce the 
film. 

1312
01:10:35,200 --> 01:10:39,880
So it never happens. 
But apparently there's a lot of 

1313
01:10:40,080 --> 01:10:45,200
Hoo ha wants ET and close 
Encounters get released because 

1314
01:10:45,200 --> 01:10:47,920
it was quite apparently the time
it was quite a big script being 

1315
01:10:47,920 --> 01:10:51,600
passed around by quite a few 
studios and apparently there are

1316
01:10:51,600 --> 01:10:55,000
elements from the script that 
are very similar to things that 

1317
01:10:55,000 --> 01:10:56,880
happen in ET and close 
encounters. 

1318
01:10:57,000 --> 01:11:00,880
So Ray, a lot of the time 
accuses Steven Spielberg of 

1319
01:11:00,960 --> 01:11:03,720
stealing some of his ideas or 
some executive at some point 

1320
01:11:03,720 --> 01:11:06,600
taking things from the script 
and passing them on to 

1321
01:11:06,600 --> 01:11:08,880
Spielberg, whether intentionally
or unintentionally. 

1322
01:11:09,640 --> 01:11:12,920
Well, yeah, because Spielberg 
claimed he was still at school 

1323
01:11:12,920 --> 01:11:17,600
when. 
According to Ray, I think he 

1324
01:11:17,760 --> 01:11:21,120
leaves film school in 1965 when 
this script went around. 

1325
01:11:21,120 --> 01:11:24,600
And you know, Spielberg starts 
in the industry quite early on. 

1326
01:11:25,960 --> 01:11:29,680
So yeah, I think that's always 
been Spielberg's defense. 

1327
01:11:29,680 --> 01:11:34,320
But I think our defense is that 
he does leave as UCLAI think, in

1328
01:11:34,320 --> 01:11:37,520
1965 and begins to work quite 
quickly after. 

1329
01:11:37,720 --> 01:11:40,200
There's definitely universal 
because he directs some episodes

1330
01:11:40,200 --> 01:11:42,600
of The Night Gallery. 
Does he direct the first episode

1331
01:11:42,600 --> 01:11:44,440
of Columbo or he doesn't? 
He directs A Columbo. 

1332
01:11:44,440 --> 01:11:45,840
It's. 
He directs, so there's two, 

1333
01:11:45,880 --> 01:11:49,040
there's 2 pilots of Columbus. 
Well, there's there's ATV movie 

1334
01:11:49,200 --> 01:11:52,960
prescription Murder in 68, and 
then there's a pilot called 

1335
01:11:53,040 --> 01:11:55,080
Ransom for a Dead Man. 
Yeah, Yeah. 

1336
01:11:55,320 --> 01:11:58,920
And he, Spielberg directs the 
first episode proper, if you 

1337
01:11:58,920 --> 01:12:02,200
like. 
And just on that, actually, 

1338
01:12:04,960 --> 01:12:07,360
Peter Faulk wanted Sellers to 
appear as a villain in an 

1339
01:12:07,360 --> 01:12:13,160
episode of Columbo in 1974, 
specifically the episode 

1340
01:12:13,160 --> 01:12:17,280
Negative Reaction, in which a 
famous photographer kills his 

1341
01:12:17,280 --> 01:12:20,080
wife. 
I mean, that's yeah, that's that

1342
01:12:20,200 --> 01:12:23,120
makes sense. 
Sellers would have loved that, 

1343
01:12:23,360 --> 01:12:25,160
but apparently Sellers was far 
too expensive. 

1344
01:12:25,160 --> 01:12:29,640
He asked for $360,000, which was
nearly 20 times what was on 

1345
01:12:29,640 --> 01:12:30,560
offer. 
Wow. 

1346
01:12:32,240 --> 01:12:39,080
I mean 7074. 74 Did I mention it
was Dick Van Dyke he ended up 

1347
01:12:39,080 --> 01:12:41,640
playing. 
Prior is that before or? 

1348
01:12:41,920 --> 01:12:43,960
Yeah, that would have been the 
year of the release of Return of

1349
01:12:43,960 --> 01:12:48,920
the Pink Panther. 75 S OK. 
That's interesting. 

1350
01:12:49,000 --> 01:12:52,520
Sellers was still in a bit of 
wilderness period at this time. 

1351
01:12:52,520 --> 01:12:54,640
That's quite interesting. 
He would turn down what was 

1352
01:12:54,640 --> 01:12:57,840
quite a high profile. 
You know, we at the time he's 

1353
01:12:57,840 --> 01:13:02,520
appearing in those with those 
adverts for Transworld Service. 

1354
01:13:02,560 --> 01:13:05,160
And also films like the Block 
House that don't don't even get 

1355
01:13:05,160 --> 01:13:07,440
proper release. 
I find that quite interesting. 

1356
01:13:07,440 --> 01:13:09,280
Or maybe he would have 
considered it like a step down 

1357
01:13:09,280 --> 01:13:11,760
I. 
I think it was more that the TV 

1358
01:13:11,760 --> 01:13:13,400
element maybe, yeah. 
Yeah, Yeah. 

1359
01:13:13,440 --> 01:13:15,560
No, I thought that's quite, no, 
that's quite because again, as I

1360
01:13:15,680 --> 01:13:18,240
said, that would have been quite
a, you know, when you look at 

1361
01:13:18,240 --> 01:13:20,000
the things he was doing at the 
time, that would have been quite

1362
01:13:20,000 --> 01:13:23,440
a high profile project. 
Well, there's another film. 

1363
01:13:23,480 --> 01:13:25,880
Well, that's obviously ATV show.
Yeah, yeah. 

1364
01:13:25,920 --> 01:13:31,040
There's a film around that time,
similar time that he turned down

1365
01:13:31,800 --> 01:13:34,880
a, albeit A relatively small 
part, but it would have done his

1366
01:13:35,240 --> 01:13:38,200
career, would have been a shot 
in the arm if he if he'd done 

1367
01:13:38,200 --> 01:13:40,760
it. 
Coppola wanted him to play Hyman

1368
01:13:40,760 --> 01:13:43,840
Roth in The Godfather 2. 
Really. 

1369
01:13:43,880 --> 01:13:48,200
I've never heard of that. 
I think it was Lee Strasberg 

1370
01:13:48,360 --> 01:13:50,440
ended up taking the role. 
Yeah, yeah. 

1371
01:13:50,680 --> 01:13:53,160
Yeah, and I don't have any other
information other than seller's 

1372
01:13:53,160 --> 01:13:57,080
just turned it down in favour of
doing soft beds hard battles. 

1373
01:13:57,320 --> 01:14:01,120
Oh gosh. 
But could you imagine him and 

1374
01:14:01,120 --> 01:14:04,320
the Godfather too? 
That is fascinating. 

1375
01:14:04,520 --> 01:14:07,680
I'd, I'd never, yeah, I never, I
never. 

1376
01:14:07,680 --> 01:14:10,720
I remember Orson Welles, but 
Barry lobbied Francis Ford 

1377
01:14:10,720 --> 01:14:14,000
Coppola to be the godfather and 
they got photographs taken and 

1378
01:14:14,000 --> 01:14:15,920
stuff like that. 
Yeah, I could see that maybe. 

1379
01:14:16,000 --> 01:14:19,440
Yeah, Well, I think I could see 
it, but I would be a very. 

1380
01:14:19,960 --> 01:14:21,720
And again, it's sort of what 
we've sort of been broaching on.

1381
01:14:21,720 --> 01:14:24,680
We would have been a very 
different film with Wells as 

1382
01:14:24,680 --> 01:14:26,640
opposed to Brando. 
There's sort of that difference 

1383
01:14:26,640 --> 01:14:28,600
between an actor and a 
performer, if you know what I 

1384
01:14:28,600 --> 01:14:31,040
mean. 
I always feel like Wells wasn't 

1385
01:14:31,040 --> 01:14:34,920
very much, you know, he was not 
the actor that Brando was. 

1386
01:14:34,920 --> 01:14:37,080
No, at times he was more a 
performer. 

1387
01:14:37,240 --> 01:14:39,040
And I'm sure he would have spent
most days trying to work out 

1388
01:14:39,040 --> 01:14:43,440
which nose to have, as was his 
won't. 

1389
01:14:44,560 --> 01:14:48,520
But I can also done another film
is the contest from Hong Kong 

1390
01:14:48,520 --> 01:14:52,320
Chaplain's last movie. 
His name gets mentioned for the 

1391
01:14:52,880 --> 01:14:59,680
Patrick Cargill part. 
The Hudson no the Butler again I

1392
01:14:59,760 --> 01:15:02,000
think. 
I think both him and Noël Coward

1393
01:15:02,000 --> 01:15:04,640
are mentioned as possible 
possible Hudson's. 

1394
01:15:05,240 --> 01:15:08,320
But I think the reason in the 
end they don't get cast is it 

1395
01:15:08,320 --> 01:15:11,520
was already decided the film was
already top heavy with Marlon 

1396
01:15:11,520 --> 01:15:14,880
Brando and Sophia Loren. 
So they decided to go with a 

1397
01:15:14,880 --> 01:15:17,720
lesser name, probably a cheaper 
name so that Patrick Cargill 

1398
01:15:17,720 --> 01:15:22,400
gets cast instead, which I think
for Sellers was probably a good.

1399
01:15:22,480 --> 01:15:24,600
I'd say working with Chaplain 
probably would have been very 

1400
01:15:24,600 --> 01:15:26,400
similar to working with Billy 
Wilder. 

1401
01:15:27,040 --> 01:15:29,200
Sticking to the script, no 
improvisation. 

1402
01:15:29,200 --> 01:15:32,240
And again, Brando has, you know,
it's quite famous, Brando having

1403
01:15:32,240 --> 01:15:35,240
a horrible time on the set of 
that film. 

1404
01:15:36,160 --> 01:15:38,280
It would not have been healthy 
for Sellers to be on a film set 

1405
01:15:38,280 --> 01:15:42,320
with Sophia Leverett, Lorraine. 
There's also there was talk 

1406
01:15:42,640 --> 01:15:46,440
again years before the Richard 
Attenborough film, of Sellers 

1407
01:15:46,600 --> 01:15:49,120
starring as Chapman in a biopic 
of Chaplin. 

1408
01:15:49,120 --> 01:15:51,720
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 
Because yeah, yeah. 

1409
01:15:52,040 --> 01:15:54,080
It was a bit like Gandhi. 
It's one of those projects that,

1410
01:15:54,080 --> 01:15:56,240
well, I think it was Brian 
Forbes wrote the script, didn't 

1411
01:15:56,240 --> 01:15:57,760
he? 
Did he right? 

1412
01:15:57,840 --> 01:15:59,960
Yeah, yeah, he's, he is. 
Again. 

1413
01:16:00,360 --> 01:16:03,560
I'm not sure. 
Yeah, No, I think I remember 

1414
01:16:03,560 --> 01:16:06,480
reading this. 
Brian Forbes is credited for, 

1415
01:16:06,480 --> 01:16:09,240
you know, the film that gets 
made in 1992, I believe, with 

1416
01:16:09,240 --> 01:16:10,040
Robert Downey. 
OK. 

1417
01:16:10,400 --> 01:16:11,120
Yeah. 
And. 

1418
01:16:11,360 --> 01:16:14,520
Forbes does have a credit, but I
think it's one of those credits 

1419
01:16:14,520 --> 01:16:18,720
where he wrote a script 20, you 
know, 20-30 years ago. 

1420
01:16:19,720 --> 01:16:21,560
His name was always sort of 
attached to it, had been 

1421
01:16:21,560 --> 01:16:24,880
rewritten quite a few times. 
But he's still, you know, the 

1422
01:16:24,880 --> 01:16:26,920
Writers Guild were still like, 
no, no, you're still using 

1423
01:16:26,920 --> 01:16:30,640
elements of the script he wrote.
So his name remains. 

1424
01:16:30,920 --> 01:16:33,040
So that may have been a 
connection why Sellers was 

1425
01:16:33,040 --> 01:16:34,680
involved as well. 
Anne Forbes. 

1426
01:16:34,960 --> 01:16:40,400
Yeah, yeah, There's a film 
called Bless You Mr. Rosewater 

1427
01:16:40,400 --> 01:16:43,920
or Pearls Before Swine. 
Pearls before swine. 

1428
01:16:44,880 --> 01:16:47,760
Which was based on a Kurt 
Vonnegut novel and it was to be 

1429
01:16:47,760 --> 01:16:50,960
directed by Blake Edwards, but 
instead he and Sellers made the 

1430
01:16:50,960 --> 01:16:52,760
party. 
OK. 

1431
01:16:54,920 --> 01:16:57,480
There's a film called The Fixer.
Frankenheimer. 

1432
01:16:58,240 --> 01:17:02,920
Yeah. 
And, and The MGM wanted Sellers 

1433
01:17:02,920 --> 01:17:08,280
to star in the film. 
So it's about a Jewish handyman 

1434
01:17:08,280 --> 01:17:12,280
in Czarist Russia who becomes 
the victim of a false accusation

1435
01:17:12,280 --> 01:17:14,520
and is imprisoned. 
And it's like, it's kind of like

1436
01:17:14,520 --> 01:17:16,760
a Kafkaesque trial thing going 
on. 

1437
01:17:17,080 --> 01:17:19,400
And MGM wanted Sellers to be to 
star in it. 

1438
01:17:19,640 --> 01:17:22,600
Frankenheimer didn't want him. 
He wanted Richard Burton. 

1439
01:17:22,600 --> 01:17:24,200
And eventually they got Alan 
Bates. 

1440
01:17:24,520 --> 01:17:27,520
Why did you? 
Turned down John Frankenheimer's

1441
01:17:27,520 --> 01:17:30,400
invitation to do the fixer. 
There was no precedent there was

1442
01:17:30,400 --> 01:17:33,160
an original novel by. 
Now that was for a different 

1443
01:17:33,160 --> 01:17:35,560
reason. 
That was because I I didn't 

1444
01:17:35,560 --> 01:17:39,320
think it was a suitable subject 
to be made at that time. 

1445
01:17:40,320 --> 01:17:45,800
I may say I was proved right and
I think Frankenheimer was wrong 

1446
01:17:45,800 --> 01:17:49,760
to embark on it. 
And after Lexie walks along the 

1447
01:17:49,760 --> 01:17:54,720
Via Appia in Rome, we spoke of 
it. 

1448
01:17:55,640 --> 01:18:00,120
I, I said that I, I really 
didn't feel that I should do it.

1449
01:18:00,120 --> 01:18:03,040
And you know, I'm, I get very 
worked up about these things and

1450
01:18:03,040 --> 01:18:06,720
I, I'm very interested in the 
films all together and every, 

1451
01:18:06,840 --> 01:18:10,240
every part of it, of the, of the
film making process. 

1452
01:18:10,520 --> 01:18:12,280
And I suggested that he gave it 
up too. 

1453
01:18:12,280 --> 01:18:15,440
I'll try and do humour. 
Just staying on the the Russian 

1454
01:18:15,440 --> 01:18:20,480
theme, there was going to be a 
film version of the wonderful 

1455
01:18:20,480 --> 01:18:23,280
Michael Fraine's novel The 
Russian Interpreter. 

1456
01:18:25,320 --> 01:18:28,920
I love Michael Frayn. 
He obviously wrote some some 

1457
01:18:28,920 --> 01:18:31,040
wonderful novels. 
He also wrote the screenplay for

1458
01:18:31,160 --> 01:18:35,160
Clockwise for for John Cleese. 
Oh, yes, yes. 

1459
01:18:36,240 --> 01:18:42,240
And in 1967, he'd, he'd, he'd 
had a relatively successful 

1460
01:18:42,240 --> 01:18:44,360
novel called The Russian 
Interpreter published. 

1461
01:18:45,000 --> 01:18:48,920
And Michael Powell, the great 
Michael Powell wanted to make a 

1462
01:18:48,920 --> 01:18:50,880
film of it and he wanted Sellers
to get on board. 

1463
01:18:51,360 --> 01:18:53,840
And there's a whole story. 
So Michael Powell's a bit of a 

1464
01:18:54,720 --> 01:18:58,040
although a great film maker, 
although he'd he'd made Peeping 

1465
01:18:58,040 --> 01:19:03,040
Tom a few years before and his 
career had been damaged, but bit

1466
01:19:03,040 --> 01:19:05,200
of a ludicrous character, 
Michael Powell in some respects.

1467
01:19:05,640 --> 01:19:08,440
And he his pitch for this film 
that it would be Chekhov fire, 

1468
01:19:08,440 --> 01:19:13,720
Billy Wilder apparently. 
And Sellers kind of toyed, toyed

1469
01:19:13,720 --> 01:19:16,080
with him a little bit, Michael 
Powell and said, yeah, I'll do 

1470
01:19:16,080 --> 01:19:17,280
it. 
But he toyed with him for some 

1471
01:19:17,280 --> 01:19:21,440
time, and eventually, in a 
meeting, Sellers told Powell 

1472
01:19:22,000 --> 01:19:25,000
that he wasn't the right 
director for his own project. 

1473
01:19:25,160 --> 01:19:26,320
I know. 
I've Yeah, I've heard this. 

1474
01:19:26,360 --> 01:19:31,560
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 
And, and there's a theory one of

1475
01:19:31,560 --> 01:19:34,400
the reasons that they that 
Sellers might have had a been 

1476
01:19:34,400 --> 01:19:37,760
his bonnet about Michael Powell 
is that 10 years earlier, 

1477
01:19:38,560 --> 01:19:43,600
Sellers had auditioned for a for
a role in Powell's film I'll Met

1478
01:19:43,600 --> 01:19:45,840
by Moonlight. 
Oh yes, with dark. 

1479
01:19:46,680 --> 01:19:50,000
Don't Bogart again, yeah. 
He gets me into a goon that is 

1480
01:19:50,080 --> 01:19:52,120
ill, ill lit by moonlight. 
Ill. 

1481
01:19:52,120 --> 01:19:54,680
By Goon Light, Ill. 
Lit by goon light, yeah. 

1482
01:19:55,600 --> 01:19:59,360
And, and he didn't get the role.
And Michael Powell apparently at

1483
01:19:59,360 --> 01:20:02,120
the time describes Sellers as 
looking like an India rubber 

1484
01:20:02,120 --> 01:20:07,320
owl, right. 
So anyway, so sellers just sort 

1485
01:20:07,720 --> 01:20:11,080
of toyed with him like a, like a
cat does with a, with a mouse. 

1486
01:20:11,400 --> 01:20:13,760
You know, there was a, there was
a. 

1487
01:20:14,360 --> 01:20:17,480
Point where when Sellers was 
making I love you LSB talk last 

1488
01:20:17,480 --> 01:20:20,960
that he discussed with the 
screenwriters Larry Tucker and 

1489
01:20:20,960 --> 01:20:25,200
Paul Mazursky that that the they
make they form their own 

1490
01:20:25,200 --> 01:20:28,000
production company and make a a 
version of the Russian 

1491
01:20:28,000 --> 01:20:32,640
interpreter that never happened,
but that's intriguing. 

1492
01:20:33,440 --> 01:20:36,160
Well, yeah, also it shows that 
sort of petty side to Sellers. 

1493
01:20:36,160 --> 01:20:39,520
You know, 10 years earlier you 
turned me down for a film that's

1494
01:20:39,600 --> 01:20:43,360
actually by being really in a 
very poor movie, Probably the 

1495
01:20:43,360 --> 01:20:46,040
weakest Paulo and Pressburger 
movie in my opinion. 

1496
01:20:46,080 --> 01:20:47,960
I couldn't get through it. 
Yeah, I see. 

1497
01:20:48,080 --> 01:20:50,280
It's a bit like Inspector Clues.
Oh, I can never get. 

1498
01:20:50,720 --> 01:20:53,840
And Dirk Bogart is very, very 
poorly cast in that film. 

1499
01:20:54,360 --> 01:20:59,480
But but still on the theme of 
Russia, Mel Brooks as the 12 

1500
01:20:59,480 --> 01:21:02,760
chairs who's originally offered 
the Dom de Luise, part of the 

1501
01:21:02,760 --> 01:21:04,640
preacher, the father. 
Oh, OK. 

1502
01:21:04,880 --> 01:21:08,440
He turned down and then Dom 
Deluise is cast and then 

1503
01:21:08,440 --> 01:21:11,240
obviously Dom Deluise has a very
it's the first film that Dom 

1504
01:21:11,240 --> 01:21:14,120
Deluise does with Mel Brooks and
obviously ends up with a very 

1505
01:21:14,120 --> 01:21:17,720
fruitful career afterwards work 
at being one of his 

1506
01:21:17,800 --> 01:21:20,800
collaborators on silent movie, 
history of the world, etcetera 

1507
01:21:20,800 --> 01:21:22,000
of. 
Course and and of course, 

1508
01:21:22,200 --> 01:21:24,360
Blazing settles. 
Yeah, yeah, of course. 

1509
01:21:24,840 --> 01:21:30,120
That steam escaping. 
No, no, no, they're doing the 

1510
01:21:30,120 --> 01:21:34,240
French mistake. 
Voila, there's a film that came 

1511
01:21:34,240 --> 01:21:35,840
across. 
Again, this is the only 

1512
01:21:35,840 --> 01:21:39,360
information I have about it, but
again, just an interesting 

1513
01:21:40,560 --> 01:21:42,680
because it connects back to 
Never Let Go. 

1514
01:21:42,760 --> 01:21:45,880
The production team, Leslie 
Parkin and Julie and Wintle. 

1515
01:21:46,720 --> 01:21:49,360
Apparently around the time of 
Heavens Above, there was going 

1516
01:21:49,360 --> 01:21:53,000
to be another film he was going 
to do with them called The 

1517
01:21:53,000 --> 01:21:56,000
Innocent Gunman. 
Again, I couldn't find any 

1518
01:21:56,000 --> 01:21:58,840
information on the book, but 
apparently they were going to. 

1519
01:21:59,280 --> 01:22:01,280
It was a screen version of this 
book which they were going to 

1520
01:22:01,280 --> 01:22:04,040
rename to Uncle With Love. 
Right. 

1521
01:22:04,280 --> 01:22:06,400
Which I think is a film title 
that we give you 5 to 10 

1522
01:22:06,400 --> 01:22:10,320
nowadays. 
But but it is just came up in 

1523
01:22:10,560 --> 01:22:14,080
this the Mr. Topaz article. 
And apparently at the end, at 

1524
01:22:14,080 --> 01:22:16,160
the end of the article, he says,
oh, so him and Sir Gallic 

1525
01:22:16,160 --> 01:22:18,160
Guinness continue to search for 
a subject they can film 

1526
01:22:18,160 --> 01:22:21,400
together. 
But I feel like that was kind 

1527
01:22:21,400 --> 01:22:24,480
of, and I, and again, you 
mentioned this earlier with 

1528
01:22:24,480 --> 01:22:30,040
Stanley Kubrick, I always feel 
like Sellers tended to fabricate

1529
01:22:30,040 --> 01:22:32,640
a lot when he was spoken to, you
know, in terms of a lot of 

1530
01:22:32,640 --> 01:22:34,840
interviews, like bringing up, 
because he always kept 

1531
01:22:34,840 --> 01:22:36,760
mentioning that. 
I think you always mentioned 

1532
01:22:36,760 --> 01:22:39,200
that he was going to be working 
on another project with Kubrick.

1533
01:22:39,760 --> 01:22:43,040
And when you look at the Kubrick
archives or anything like that, 

1534
01:22:43,040 --> 01:22:46,280
there's not really anything to 
imply there was any truth in 

1535
01:22:46,280 --> 01:22:48,480
this. 
I do sometimes think Sellers 

1536
01:22:48,480 --> 01:22:52,080
was, you know, wee bit of a. 
Fantasist. 

1537
01:22:52,400 --> 01:22:55,240
Yeah, a bit of a fantasy, sort 
of picking himself up and like 

1538
01:22:55,240 --> 01:22:57,680
all things, you know, like any 
publicist, you know, like any 

1539
01:22:57,680 --> 01:23:00,200
publicity meeting, you're trying
to make yourself, as I know, as 

1540
01:23:00,200 --> 01:23:02,400
an actor myself, you're trying 
to make yourself some more busy 

1541
01:23:02,400 --> 01:23:07,480
than you are on many occasions. 
Yes, he obviously in 62, he was,

1542
01:23:07,520 --> 01:23:09,600
he was making Lolita with James 
Mason. 

1543
01:23:10,760 --> 01:23:15,080
And Sellers around this time 
told a journalist that he and 

1544
01:23:15,080 --> 01:23:17,520
Mason wanted to go to again back
to Russia. 

1545
01:23:17,520 --> 01:23:24,120
They wanted to go to Russia to 
make a film of Hassan, which was

1546
01:23:24,120 --> 01:23:29,880
a 1923 play by James Elroy 
Flecker set in Baghdad during 

1547
01:23:29,880 --> 01:23:35,520
the golden age of the caliphate.
And it's about Hassan of 

1548
01:23:35,680 --> 01:23:40,000
Baghdad, who's a confectioner 
whose quiet life is upended when

1549
01:23:40,000 --> 01:23:43,720
he's drawn into the intrigues of
Princess viziers and courtesans.

1550
01:23:44,120 --> 01:23:46,480
And he So Sellers would have 
played Hassan and Mason would 

1551
01:23:46,480 --> 01:23:50,160
have played the the powerful 
Khalif, the ruler of Baghdad. 

1552
01:23:50,520 --> 01:23:51,400
Oh wow. 
OK. 

1553
01:23:52,320 --> 01:23:58,520
Again, never never happened. 
Listen here, Khalif, where's my 

1554
01:23:58,520 --> 01:24:01,800
daughter? 
I. 

1555
01:24:03,280 --> 01:24:06,800
Was going to I was going to 
mention Oh yeah this is 1 you 

1556
01:24:07,080 --> 01:24:10,080
brought up so I'm assuming and I
couldn't find that but waiting 

1557
01:24:10,080 --> 01:24:13,040
for Godot talking about double 
axe. 

1558
01:24:16,560 --> 01:24:18,560
Do you get any more information?
On that well. 

1559
01:24:19,160 --> 01:24:23,440
Project. 
Well, I I I do and I don't. 

1560
01:24:24,880 --> 01:24:28,360
Yes, he was. 
He was the actor and good friend

1561
01:24:28,360 --> 01:24:33,120
of Sellers Kenneth Griffith, the
Welsh actor He wanted to to make

1562
01:24:33,120 --> 01:24:34,960
waiting for got it but it but on
radio. 

1563
01:24:35,280 --> 01:24:37,600
Oh, yes, yes, yes. 
There there is quite a bit of 

1564
01:24:37,600 --> 01:24:39,520
information about that in the in
the Lewis book. 

1565
01:24:39,520 --> 01:24:43,520
I didn't make a note because 
it's a radio rather than film. 

1566
01:24:43,720 --> 01:24:46,000
And again, I, I, I just, even 
though that was a radio, I 

1567
01:24:46,000 --> 01:24:48,800
always feel like that was sort 
of a missed opportunity to work 

1568
01:24:48,800 --> 01:24:51,920
with Beckett cause Beckett was 
such a, a big admirer of the 

1569
01:24:51,920 --> 01:24:55,160
Music Hall Oddville. 
And you know, some of the, you 

1570
01:24:55,160 --> 01:24:56,920
know, he worked with Buster 
Keaton on film. 

1571
01:24:56,920 --> 01:25:00,800
He also worked with Max Wall. 
And yeah, just because you 

1572
01:25:00,800 --> 01:25:02,720
mentioned that projects 
probably, I always thought that 

1573
01:25:02,720 --> 01:25:04,760
was a wee bit of a missed 
opportunity the sellers never 

1574
01:25:04,760 --> 01:25:06,440
worked with. 
Absolutely I'd love to see I'd 

1575
01:25:06,440 --> 01:25:10,160
love to see waiting for God I 
was sellers and in any format 

1576
01:25:10,160 --> 01:25:13,080
really or hear him and. 
Again, that's a project that's 

1577
01:25:13,080 --> 01:25:16,080
very open to, I mean, I think it
was a Steve Martin and Robin 

1578
01:25:16,080 --> 01:25:19,680
Williams did it on Broadway in 
the 90s under Mike Nichols, and 

1579
01:25:19,680 --> 01:25:21,520
then Ed Edmondson and Rick Nail 
did it. 

1580
01:25:21,520 --> 01:25:24,480
Absolutely yes they did around 
the time they were making 

1581
01:25:24,480 --> 01:25:26,400
bottom. 
Yeah, yeah, Bill and Ted are 

1582
01:25:26,400 --> 01:25:29,200
doing a nine on Broadway. 
Really. 

1583
01:25:29,400 --> 01:25:32,880
Yeah, yeah, yeah. 
Keanu Reeves and Alex. 

1584
01:25:33,280 --> 01:25:36,040
Oh, I can't pronounce his. 
Last Alex, not winter is. 

1585
01:25:36,360 --> 01:25:38,520
It winter, that's it. 
I was thinking of someone else 

1586
01:25:38,520 --> 01:25:39,640
which had a more complicated 
name. 

1587
01:25:41,480 --> 01:25:43,720
Yeah, I know they're, they're 
about to appear on appear on 

1588
01:25:43,720 --> 01:25:47,240
Broadway with it. 
So yeah, again, I, I, I just 

1589
01:25:47,240 --> 01:25:49,800
want to bring it up because I 
thought just knowing his 

1590
01:25:49,800 --> 01:25:53,440
connections with these, you 
know, Music Hall vaudeville 

1591
01:25:53,440 --> 01:25:57,040
performers and that being very 
much part of Sellers background,

1592
01:25:57,360 --> 01:25:59,840
I think it's just a bit of a 
shame they never had any, any 

1593
01:25:59,840 --> 01:26:02,840
collaboration. 
Yes, indeed, indeed. 

1594
01:26:03,680 --> 01:26:08,720
Now again, no information other 
than I I There was a suggestion 

1595
01:26:08,720 --> 01:26:11,600
that he was asked to play Caesar
in Cleopatra. 

1596
01:26:12,000 --> 01:26:15,600
Oh, wrong. 
Which obviously Burton ended up 

1597
01:26:15,600 --> 01:26:16,440
doing, didn't he? 
Oh. 

1598
01:26:16,800 --> 01:26:18,080
No, Rex. 
Rex Harrison. 

1599
01:26:18,080 --> 01:26:19,120
Oh, Rex. 
Sorry, Rex Harrison. 

1600
01:26:19,120 --> 01:26:21,640
Richard Burton is Marc Anthony. 
Of course, yes, yes. 

1601
01:26:21,640 --> 01:26:23,680
But again, that was I think 
because originally it was Peter 

1602
01:26:23,680 --> 01:26:28,520
Finch and Stephen Boyd until the
production got moved to Italy. 

1603
01:26:28,960 --> 01:26:30,720
Oh, OK. 
And all the sets get used for 

1604
01:26:30,720 --> 01:26:32,160
carry on Clio when they get 
abandoned. 

1605
01:26:32,240 --> 01:26:33,360
That's right. 
That's right. 

1606
01:26:34,920 --> 01:26:37,960
Now there's a film that never 
was called. 

1607
01:26:37,960 --> 01:26:43,440
Pardon me, Sir, Is My eye 
hurting Your elbow subtitled. 

1608
01:26:43,440 --> 01:26:46,000
We would like to thank the 
television industry for making 

1609
01:26:46,000 --> 01:26:47,880
this film necessary. 
Right? 

1610
01:26:49,160 --> 01:26:50,880
Right. 
It was to be directed by Arthur 

1611
01:26:50,880 --> 01:26:55,760
Hiller, apparently, and it was. 
It was going to be like a 

1612
01:26:55,760 --> 01:26:59,360
collaborative script with all 
these great writers like Terry 

1613
01:26:59,360 --> 01:27:04,880
Southern, Peter Cook, Philip 
Roth, Godfried Cambridge, Allen 

1614
01:27:04,880 --> 01:27:08,160
Ginsberg, Paul Krasner and each 
writer. 

1615
01:27:08,240 --> 01:27:11,000
The idea was that each writer 
provides a sketch of between 4 

1616
01:27:11,000 --> 01:27:15,560
to 10 minutes, and the pitch was
that they had to present in 

1617
01:27:15,560 --> 01:27:19,080
scenario form, their view of 
life in America. 

1618
01:27:19,120 --> 01:27:22,040
No holds barred. 
Write about anything that 

1619
01:27:22,040 --> 01:27:25,560
bothers you, OK? 
And apparently there was a 

1620
01:27:25,800 --> 01:27:32,680
finished script around 1964 and 
a budget of $750,000 and Sellers

1621
01:27:32,680 --> 01:27:34,440
was attached to the project at 
one point. 

1622
01:27:34,440 --> 01:27:36,480
He would have played nine parts 
in it. 

1623
01:27:38,320 --> 01:27:43,000
It was never made. 
And the only bit of it that 

1624
01:27:43,000 --> 01:27:49,200
really exists that there was a a
book that comes out in 1968 with

1625
01:27:49,200 --> 01:27:53,040
the script in which was 
basically just 9 or 10 sketches 

1626
01:27:53,120 --> 01:27:56,640
really. 
But again, intriguing if that 

1627
01:27:56,640 --> 01:28:01,760
had if that had been made. 
There's a film also called 

1628
01:28:02,400 --> 01:28:05,280
Arigato, which I don't think got
made. 

1629
01:28:06,800 --> 01:28:09,040
It's based. 
There's a Richard Condon novel 

1630
01:28:09,080 --> 01:28:11,680
called Arigato, which is about a
wine heist. 

1631
01:28:11,800 --> 01:28:13,560
Apparently it's like a comic 
novel. 

1632
01:28:14,360 --> 01:28:20,520
And Peter Sellers, around the 
early 70s, was very impressed by

1633
01:28:22,640 --> 01:28:24,800
the work of the director Hal 
Ashby. 

1634
01:28:27,400 --> 01:28:30,520
Did Hal Ashby do Harold and 
Maude? 

1635
01:28:30,800 --> 01:28:31,760
Yes, he did. 
Yeah, Yeah. 

1636
01:28:32,120 --> 01:28:35,080
Yeah, Sellers love that. 
And then and then Ashby's 

1637
01:28:35,680 --> 01:28:38,600
filming the last detail with I 
think that's Jack Nicholson, 

1638
01:28:38,600 --> 01:28:39,640
Jack. 
Nicholson, Yeah. 

1639
01:28:40,120 --> 01:28:44,280
And so he's he's filming the 
last detail and Sellers keep 

1640
01:28:44,280 --> 01:28:48,400
sending him all these scripts 
that he wants Hal Ashby to, you 

1641
01:28:48,400 --> 01:28:51,520
know, to he he basically wants 
to be in a hell Ashby film. 

1642
01:28:51,720 --> 01:28:53,480
Yeah, yeah. 
Yeah, and he sent him a script 

1643
01:28:53,480 --> 01:28:59,800
for this proposed film called 
Arigato, and there was some work

1644
01:28:59,800 --> 01:29:02,000
done on it. 
I think Terry Southern was 

1645
01:29:02,000 --> 01:29:04,160
drafted in to tighten up the 
script of it. 

1646
01:29:04,760 --> 01:29:12,040
And anyway, it never happened. 
In the end, Ashby and Sellers 

1647
01:29:12,040 --> 01:29:14,280
collaborated, of course, on 
being. 

1648
01:29:14,800 --> 01:29:16,400
There, Yeah. 
Oh, yeah. 

1649
01:29:16,400 --> 01:29:18,920
Again, I think that comes back 
to, isn't it? 

1650
01:29:18,920 --> 01:29:24,440
That's all about clout as well 
with Ashby, because they try to 

1651
01:29:24,440 --> 01:29:27,000
get being there made for so many
years and other projects as 

1652
01:29:27,000 --> 01:29:28,400
well. 
But it's only once he's got the 

1653
01:29:28,400 --> 01:29:30,240
pink Pampers going and Ashby's 
done. 

1654
01:29:30,280 --> 01:29:34,160
I think Shampoo was kind of his 
biggest war on BT Once that was 

1655
01:29:34,160 --> 01:29:35,840
done, then the road was open for
them. 

1656
01:29:36,320 --> 01:29:38,040
And again, it's a shame. 
How many more? 

1657
01:29:38,200 --> 01:29:42,560
Well, again, obviously he gets 
funny about the the ending of 

1658
01:29:42,720 --> 01:29:45,080
being there, so I'm guessing 
that probably would not have led

1659
01:29:45,080 --> 01:29:47,040
on to any more collaborations 
after that. 

1660
01:29:48,080 --> 01:29:52,680
Despite that ending, he still 
Sellers still thought it was the

1661
01:29:52,680 --> 01:29:54,000
most wonderful film he'd ever 
made. 

1662
01:29:54,000 --> 01:29:55,160
So I think, oh. 
Yeah, yeah. 

1663
01:29:55,200 --> 01:29:57,320
Well, I think he held up the 
film, but I'm guessing he 

1664
01:29:57,320 --> 01:29:58,920
probably was not the happiest 
of. 

1665
01:29:59,000 --> 01:30:01,400
I think he probably still loved 
the movie, but not Hal Ashby. 

1666
01:30:01,840 --> 01:30:05,560
No. 
We're here, that is to say, Hal 

1667
01:30:05,560 --> 01:30:12,880
and I, Hal Ashby, our director. 
Hal Hello Alice made many, many 

1668
01:30:12,960 --> 01:30:19,080
successful films such as 
Tomorrow's New Yesterday and 

1669
01:30:20,200 --> 01:30:23,480
Back Backwards Before Dawn. 
Backwards Before Dawn was 

1670
01:30:23,480 --> 01:30:28,320
another huge success, yes. 
Now there's a film proposed 

1671
01:30:28,680 --> 01:30:32,240
about Freud's life, isn't there?
Yes, yes. 

1672
01:30:32,240 --> 01:30:34,440
So John, he's I'd wait. 
Going back to John Houston, 

1673
01:30:34,440 --> 01:30:36,840
actually, Yeah. 
Freud, The Secret Passion, which

1674
01:30:36,840 --> 01:30:41,240
was played by Montgomery Cleft. 
So I again, it's one of those 

1675
01:30:41,600 --> 01:30:47,160
again, the film itself, it's a 
biopic of Freud's and again 

1676
01:30:47,560 --> 01:30:50,640
Sellers involvement. 
I'm not never find that much 

1677
01:30:50,640 --> 01:30:54,160
information, but I always from 
what I could kind of gather, 

1678
01:30:54,160 --> 01:30:58,800
there was always this talk that 
when he makes you know, it's 

1679
01:30:58,800 --> 01:31:02,240
sort of his big break in America
in many ways is the most that 

1680
01:31:02,240 --> 01:31:03,680
roared. 
You know, that's the kind of 

1681
01:31:03,680 --> 01:31:05,080
film that gets released and gets
seen. 

1682
01:31:05,520 --> 01:31:08,640
And they sort of talk about how 
at the time he was offered a lot

1683
01:31:08,640 --> 01:31:11,240
of American projects, which he 
turned down. 

1684
01:31:11,880 --> 01:31:14,440
And I believe Freud would have 
been one idea. 

1685
01:31:14,440 --> 01:31:17,320
I believe Freud was one of these
projects that he was asked to do

1686
01:31:17,600 --> 01:31:21,040
and turned down, which again, I 
think probably works out in his 

1687
01:31:21,040 --> 01:31:23,480
favour, kind of going to 
Hollywood more on his own terms 

1688
01:31:23,960 --> 01:31:26,800
with the Pink Panther. 
But yeah, no Freud. 

1689
01:31:26,800 --> 01:31:28,240
It's. 
Yeah. 

1690
01:31:28,240 --> 01:31:30,560
Again. 
Again, as I said, it got made 

1691
01:31:30,560 --> 01:31:33,840
with Montgomery Cliff directed 
by John Houston, which 

1692
01:31:33,840 --> 01:31:36,240
apparently John Houston was. 
Again, as you mentioned earlier,

1693
01:31:36,240 --> 01:31:38,360
John Houston wasn't the nicest 
of people and apparently wasn't 

1694
01:31:38,360 --> 01:31:41,160
the nicest to Montgomery Cliff 
on that project. 

1695
01:31:41,160 --> 01:31:43,920
I think it was Montgomery Cliffs
last, sort of. 

1696
01:31:44,240 --> 01:31:46,320
It does a couple of more movies 
afterwards, but I think this was

1697
01:31:46,320 --> 01:31:50,000
sort of his last big leading 
role in cinema. 

1698
01:31:50,600 --> 01:31:52,960
Yeah. 
But interestingly, the look of 

1699
01:31:52,960 --> 01:31:57,760
the look of that he has, his 
Freud's Montgomery Cliff always 

1700
01:31:58,000 --> 01:32:01,400
is the look that sort of sellers
has, his Topaz with the beard 

1701
01:32:01,400 --> 01:32:03,640
and stuff like that. 
So again, it's interesting in 

1702
01:32:03,640 --> 01:32:06,040
terms of look, I think he would 
have been able to play the role 

1703
01:32:06,320 --> 01:32:07,800
again. 
I've never seen the film myself 

1704
01:32:07,800 --> 01:32:08,960
again. 
It's never one of those that has

1705
01:32:09,080 --> 01:32:10,480
gone through the cracks of 
cinema. 

1706
01:32:11,280 --> 01:32:14,640
By the way, I rewatched Mr. 
Topaz the other the other day. 

1707
01:32:14,640 --> 01:32:17,960
I watched it. 
I got it on Blu-ray ages ago. 

1708
01:32:17,960 --> 01:32:22,080
I watched it the once and wasn't
that fuss and then I rewatched 

1709
01:32:22,080 --> 01:32:24,520
it after a couple of years. 
I watched it again recently. 

1710
01:32:24,840 --> 01:32:28,120
It's really quite enjoyable. 
I have a lot of time for that 

1711
01:32:28,120 --> 01:32:30,160
film. 
I have a lot, a lot of time. 

1712
01:32:30,480 --> 01:32:33,120
I think 11 last film I met 
because it is a part he 

1713
01:32:33,120 --> 01:32:37,160
technically did play but not in 
the film but The Specialist and 

1714
01:32:37,160 --> 01:32:39,160
Tommy. 
Oh yes. 

1715
01:32:39,800 --> 01:32:41,320
Oh, because he plays it. 
I can't remember. 

1716
01:32:41,320 --> 01:32:44,400
He's in the the Roundhouse 
whenever the state devastation. 

1717
01:32:44,400 --> 01:32:48,240
He plays the specialist. 
Apparently he was up for it in 

1718
01:32:48,240 --> 01:32:51,040
the film version until Ken 
Russell discovered Jack 

1719
01:32:51,040 --> 01:32:53,400
Nicholson was in town. 
I cast Jack Nicholson instead. 

1720
01:32:53,400 --> 01:32:58,520
Oh. 
Dear, All right, I'm sure that 

1721
01:32:58,520 --> 01:33:00,160
didn't put sellers nose out of 
joint. 

1722
01:33:00,160 --> 01:33:01,680
Oh. 
No, no, no, no, no, no. 

1723
01:33:01,720 --> 01:33:06,280
It'd be sanguine about that. 
Something Oliver read blow cigar

1724
01:33:06,280 --> 01:33:10,880
smoke in his face. 
Well, the last film I want to 

1725
01:33:10,880 --> 01:33:14,280
bring up because because we're, 
we're drawing to a close now. 

1726
01:33:16,000 --> 01:33:21,120
Peter Pan 1962. 
He, he told a reporter that he'd

1727
01:33:21,120 --> 01:33:24,640
been asked to play Captain Hook 
in a film of Peter Pan opposite 

1728
01:33:24,640 --> 01:33:28,320
Audrey Hepburn, who would play 
Peter Pan, and Hayley Mills, who

1729
01:33:28,320 --> 01:33:29,840
would play Wendy. 
Yeah. 

1730
01:33:30,760 --> 01:33:33,520
And Seller said, all I've ever 
done is say I like the idea of 

1731
01:33:33,520 --> 01:33:36,280
playing Captain Hook, but I've 
never even seen a script and 

1732
01:33:36,280 --> 01:33:37,800
everyone seems to think it's all
set up. 

1733
01:33:37,840 --> 01:33:39,520
It isn't. 
It's. 

1734
01:33:40,000 --> 01:33:44,040
So he's kind of almost 
dismissing it during this 

1735
01:33:44,040 --> 01:33:46,840
interview. 
And then no, it doesn't end up 

1736
01:33:46,840 --> 01:33:49,480
being made. 
It turns out that Disney put the

1737
01:33:49,480 --> 01:33:53,520
kibosh on it because. 
Because, as you probably know, 

1738
01:33:53,560 --> 01:33:56,880
the Great Ormond St. 
Hospital for Sick Children had 

1739
01:33:56,880 --> 01:33:59,680
the rights to. 
To this very day, still own the 

1740
01:33:59,680 --> 01:34:02,560
rights to. 
Yeah, but I believe Disney kind 

1741
01:34:02,560 --> 01:34:05,520
of put pressure on them to 
refuse to give the rights for a 

1742
01:34:06,240 --> 01:34:08,560
big screen adaptation because 
obviously their film had come 

1743
01:34:08,560 --> 01:34:11,000
out, what, 10 years earlier? 
Yeah, yeah. 

1744
01:34:11,600 --> 01:34:14,800
Well, again, that's again, 
that's a nice kind of connection

1745
01:34:14,800 --> 01:34:17,560
again to sellers because of 
Hayley Mills in because she was 

1746
01:34:17,560 --> 01:34:21,600
offered Lolita. 
The horse was oh, her father 

1747
01:34:21,600 --> 01:34:24,760
John Mills put the kibosh on it.
But in reality, it was Disney 

1748
01:34:25,000 --> 01:34:27,080
because she was under contract. 
That's right. 

1749
01:34:27,280 --> 01:34:28,640
That's right. 
Yeah. 

1750
01:34:29,120 --> 01:34:31,640
Well, so Paddy, I believe or 
not. 

1751
01:34:32,920 --> 01:34:35,920
If anyone finds anything we 
didn't cover, I'll eat my heart.

1752
01:34:39,240 --> 01:34:41,040
I'm sweating buckets. 
But as I said, because I'm under

1753
01:34:41,040 --> 01:34:43,880
this duvet in 30° in Barcelona, 
so. 

1754
01:34:45,240 --> 01:34:47,040
You're suffering for your art. 
Yeah, yeah. 

1755
01:34:47,040 --> 01:34:50,120
Believe it or not, I think we 
have covered at least 50 films 

1756
01:34:50,160 --> 01:34:54,560
and projects there, possibly 
only barely scratched the 

1757
01:34:54,560 --> 01:34:58,760
surface, but I think it was a a 
nice idea to look at what might 

1758
01:34:58,760 --> 01:35:01,160
have been. 
Yeah, where, where his career 

1759
01:35:01,160 --> 01:35:04,800
could have gone, where, you 
know, the films he did made 

1760
01:35:04,800 --> 01:35:06,760
couldn't have made for whatever 
reason. 

1761
01:35:06,760 --> 01:35:08,840
Yeah, I guess as I said, I just 
find that fascinating. 

1762
01:35:08,840 --> 01:35:12,680
The the what ifs and how things 
would have different, how cinema

1763
01:35:12,680 --> 01:35:15,440
would have been different or how
actors would have been kind of 

1764
01:35:16,360 --> 01:35:19,080
perceived. 
And also, you know, how we look 

1765
01:35:19,080 --> 01:35:21,200
at him as an actor. 
We always referred to him sort 

1766
01:35:21,200 --> 01:35:25,640
of as a character actor. 
But then some of these rules 

1767
01:35:25,680 --> 01:35:28,520
that, you know, 10, for example,
would certainly not have been a 

1768
01:35:28,520 --> 01:35:32,160
character part. 
And again, the implication is 

1769
01:35:32,160 --> 01:35:34,480
that, oh, that would have been 
out of his wheelhouse, which I 

1770
01:35:34,640 --> 01:35:37,800
kind of argue would not been 
true because Hoffman and even, 

1771
01:35:38,480 --> 01:35:40,920
what do you call it, a girl of 
my soup is not a character role 

1772
01:35:41,080 --> 01:35:43,920
either, in my opinion. 
No, I I love, I love 

1773
01:35:43,920 --> 01:35:46,800
conversations like this. 
It's just, it opens up a, opens,

1774
01:35:46,800 --> 01:35:49,000
opens up your imagination to a 
lot of things. 

1775
01:35:49,440 --> 01:35:51,040
Absolutely. 
Which of those films that we've 

1776
01:35:51,040 --> 01:35:54,840
mentioned, if you could just 
choose one of them that you wish

1777
01:35:54,840 --> 01:35:56,200
had been made with sellers in 
it? 

1778
01:35:56,200 --> 01:35:58,680
Which which one? 
The Alien. 

1779
01:35:59,440 --> 01:36:01,400
Oh, OK, the alien. 
Aliens. 

1780
01:36:01,400 --> 01:36:03,640
I think that's just it. 
It just sounds like a very 

1781
01:36:03,640 --> 01:36:08,080
fascinating project from and 
again, like before the project 

1782
01:36:08,080 --> 01:36:10,880
kind of gets the coalition 
before Sellers sends a letter, 

1783
01:36:10,920 --> 01:36:13,280
you know, the agent sends a 
letter to Ray. 

1784
01:36:13,880 --> 01:36:16,680
In interviews, he claims that 
Ray, second to Kubrick, is the 

1785
01:36:16,680 --> 01:36:20,160
greatest director on the planet.
His only problem is he doesn't 

1786
01:36:20,160 --> 01:36:22,920
get distribution. 
And this would have been, you 

1787
01:36:22,920 --> 01:36:25,120
know, it was being financed by 
Columbia Pictures. 

1788
01:36:25,120 --> 01:36:31,000
This would have been it kind of 
makes me curious that and again,

1789
01:36:31,000 --> 01:36:34,560
it sort of comes back to Sellers
being sort of very flaky. 

1790
01:36:35,040 --> 01:36:37,200
But there was kind of an 
opportunity to help, you know, a

1791
01:36:37,200 --> 01:36:40,200
very well known filmmaker and, 
you know, one of the best film 

1792
01:36:40,200 --> 01:36:42,360
makers ever. 
But that would have been an 

1793
01:36:42,360 --> 01:36:45,800
opportunity to help that 
filmmaker enter a new arena of 

1794
01:36:45,800 --> 01:36:49,040
filmmaking, you know, going into
Hollywood's and away. 

1795
01:36:49,040 --> 01:36:53,120
Sellers kind of is championing 
it, but at the same time then 

1796
01:36:53,120 --> 01:36:55,240
puts the kibosh on it the same 
way he does with Powell, You 

1797
01:36:55,240 --> 01:36:57,760
know, and again, Paul at that 
point was not at the height of 

1798
01:36:57,760 --> 01:36:59,880
his power. 
And you know, you know, he 

1799
01:37:00,400 --> 01:37:01,680
unfortunately, it would have 
gone along. 

1800
01:37:01,800 --> 01:37:04,720
I, I, I feel quite sorry for 
piling that story because that's

1801
01:37:04,720 --> 01:37:06,960
him trying to get back on his 
feet. 

1802
01:37:06,960 --> 01:37:09,680
Well. 
I'd say of of those films we've 

1803
01:37:09,680 --> 01:37:14,080
talked about, there's the 
obvious one for me would be the 

1804
01:37:14,080 --> 01:37:18,120
Private Life of Sherlock Holmes,
with him as Watson up against 

1805
01:37:18,120 --> 01:37:20,160
Peter O'Toole as as, as Holmes. 
Yeah. 

1806
01:37:20,840 --> 01:37:23,200
Yeah. 
Yeah, but to be honest with you,

1807
01:37:24,000 --> 01:37:27,200
I love Colin Blakely and the. 
Robert Stevens as well. 

1808
01:37:27,200 --> 01:37:30,880
I, I, I have such a yeah, I have
such a, a place in my heart for 

1809
01:37:30,880 --> 01:37:32,040
that film. 
I think it's brilliant. 

1810
01:37:32,160 --> 01:37:34,920
Yeah, so so that film wouldn't 
exist if Sellers and O'Toole. 

1811
01:37:34,920 --> 01:37:39,920
Made it well with O'Toole and 
Sellers, it would be a very, 

1812
01:37:40,720 --> 01:37:43,320
very different film. 
The thing about people like 

1813
01:37:43,320 --> 01:37:45,160
O'Toole and Sellers because 
they're star. 

1814
01:37:45,160 --> 01:37:48,760
And again, I think the example 
being what's new Pussycats? 

1815
01:37:48,960 --> 01:37:50,640
What new Pussycat? 
You know, it's a film written by

1816
01:37:50,640 --> 01:37:52,560
Woody Allen. 
Woody Allen's got one of the 

1817
01:37:52,560 --> 01:37:55,680
lead parts and Sellers comes in,
he's only mental film for two 

1818
01:37:55,680 --> 01:37:58,040
weeks, ends up, you know, 
getting top billing because he 

1819
01:37:58,040 --> 01:38:02,040
flips a coin with Peter O'Toole.
I think that's the one of the 

1820
01:38:02,040 --> 01:38:04,960
interesting things I find with 
these, looking at how different 

1821
01:38:04,960 --> 01:38:08,280
they would be because you've got
an actor who very much put his 

1822
01:38:08,280 --> 01:38:12,040
stamp on films, sometimes in a 
good way and sometimes in a bad 

1823
01:38:12,040 --> 01:38:14,840
way. 
You're very much seen control of

1824
01:38:14,840 --> 01:38:17,640
the project, which Sellers had a
lot of tendency to do. 

1825
01:38:17,960 --> 01:38:20,360
I think sometimes that's why he 
he maybe avoided some of these 

1826
01:38:20,360 --> 01:38:22,680
projects because he knew he 
wouldn't have had that control. 

1827
01:38:23,680 --> 01:38:27,200
Absolutely. 
So I don't know, maybe, maybe, 

1828
01:38:27,200 --> 01:38:32,160
if not the Sherlock Holmes film,
maybe Spy with a cold nose. 

1829
01:38:32,160 --> 01:38:33,720
I'd like to have seen that with 
Sellers in it. 

1830
01:38:34,400 --> 01:38:37,600
See, what he'd have made of that
was up against Lionel Jeffries 

1831
01:38:37,600 --> 01:38:42,080
again, you know so. 
But never to be, was it not? 

1832
01:38:42,240 --> 01:38:44,200
Not to be some. 
Special mention, they see the 

1833
01:38:44,200 --> 01:38:47,080
Phantom and versus I think the 
wildest production is probably 

1834
01:38:47,080 --> 01:38:48,440
the Phantom versus the 40. 
Yeah. 

1835
01:38:48,960 --> 01:38:51,360
So I think I would I would love 
to have seen that. 

1836
01:38:51,360 --> 01:38:53,960
Just as interesting it had it 
helming it. 

1837
01:38:53,960 --> 01:38:58,360
They had Ted Kocher who did 
Rambo and Weekend with Bernie's.

1838
01:38:59,000 --> 01:39:02,040
And wake and fright. 
Oh, yes, Wake and fright. 

1839
01:39:02,040 --> 01:39:02,640
Yeah. 
Oh. 

1840
01:39:03,040 --> 01:39:08,920
Dear, let's not talk about that.
Patty, listen, Thank you so 

1841
01:39:08,920 --> 01:39:10,600
much. 
Tyler, always a pleasure. 

1842
01:39:10,960 --> 01:39:13,160
I hope that listeners have 
enjoyed our conversation. 

1843
01:39:13,160 --> 01:39:17,360
Please do, you know, comment on 
the usual in the usual channels,

1844
01:39:17,720 --> 01:39:20,680
let us know if we've missed any 
out, if there's any glaring 

1845
01:39:20,680 --> 01:39:24,160
emissions, if there's any 
glaring errors in what we've 

1846
01:39:24,160 --> 01:39:27,760
said. 
But yeah, always, always welcome

1847
01:39:27,760 --> 01:39:34,680
feedback, constructive feedback.
So and yeah, Paddy, look, the 

1848
01:39:34,680 --> 01:39:37,440
door's always open for you to 
return and talk about maybe, 

1849
01:39:37,440 --> 01:39:39,720
maybe come back and talk about 
that I romance of the Pink 

1850
01:39:39,720 --> 01:39:43,520
Panther or yeah, piss me stupid 
or something in more detail. 

1851
01:39:43,800 --> 01:39:45,600
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. 
Yeah. 

1852
01:39:45,600 --> 01:39:47,120
No, I'd love, I'd love the cup. 
Yeah. 

1853
01:39:47,160 --> 01:39:49,040
Romance of the ## for it, 
certainly. 

1854
01:39:49,080 --> 01:39:52,000
I mean, bet particularly with 
Stephen Bach's novel, the It's 

1855
01:39:52,000 --> 01:39:54,360
book, the Final Cut. 
There's some fascinating, have 

1856
01:39:54,360 --> 01:39:55,640
you ever read it? 
Final Cut? 

1857
01:39:56,000 --> 01:39:59,040
No thanks, have a read of that 
and we'll have a chat. 

1858
01:39:59,320 --> 01:40:01,840
Done OK. 
All right, Patty. 

1859
01:40:01,960 --> 01:40:04,040
Thank you so much mate. 
All the most, mate.