The years between 1955’s The Ladykillers and 1964’s Dr Strangelove were the years of what Sanjeev Bhaskar recently described as "peak Sellers", a period when the great comic actor rarely seemed to put a foot wrong. Two Way Stretch and Heavens Above! succeed largely because both films feature Peter Sellers alongside talented supporting casts, his performances by necessity subtler and more nuanced.
Two Way Stretch (★★★★★) stands up brilliantly, Robert Day’s compact prison-set comedy, released in 1960, prefiguring La Frenais and Clement’s 70s sitcom Porridge. We first see Sellers’ “Dodger” Lane in the cramped cell he shares with safecracker "Jelly" Knight and pickpocket "Lennie the Dip" (David Lodge and Bernard Cribbins). About to be released, theirs is a fairly cosy existence, the three inmates seen procuring supplies from a milkman parked outside the prison walls and cooking a fried breakfast. They even have a pet cat, named, appropriately, Strangeways. Maurice Denham’s liberal governor believes in rehabilitation rather than punishment, oblivious to the fact that the prison’s classes in basket weaving and carpentry aren’t what they seem and that his cigarette tin is always being raided when he’s not looking. The arrival of Lionel Jeffries’ sadistic prison officer casts a shadow over this idyll, the elaborate jewel robbery committed by Sellers’ crew before they’ve been officially released becoming more fraught as a result.
Jeffries steals the film, with lines like “Silence when you’re talking to me!” and “Frightened of a little bang?” delivered with menacing relish. Sellers is terrific too, his performance full of cocky bravado, though it’s interesting to learn that during filming he felt threatened by Jeffries’ brilliance. Lodge and Cribbins provide wonderful support, the film also featuring star turns from Wilfred Hyde-White, Beryl Reid, Liz Fraser and Irene Handl. The versatile Day directed Tony Hancock in the equally delightful The Rebel just a year later, though Two Way Stretch is tauter, funnier and lasts just 83 minutes. Definitely peak Sellers.
Heavens Above! (★★★) was released in 1963, after Sellers had appeared in Kubrick’s Lolita but before Dr Strangelove and The Pink Panther made him an international star. This is one of the later satirical comedies produced and directed by twins John and Roy Boulting, who’d previously worked with Sellers in Carlton-Browne of the F.O. and I’m All Right Jack. Heavens Above! is an entertaining mess, its targets including organised religion, consumerism, trade unionism and the welfare state. Sellers plays left-leaning prison chaplain John Smallwood (pictured above), mistakenly appointed as vicar in a conservative village and instantly ruffling feathers by appointing a black churchwarden, housing a homeless family in the vicarage and persuading a wealthy parishioner to fund what we’d now recognise as a foodbank. Support comes from, among others, Eric Sykes, Irene Handl (again), Roy Kinnear and Bernard Miles. Pay attention and you might spot the young Steve Marriott, and there’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from Rodney Bewes as a milkman.
Smallwood’s good intentions cause predictable chaos, the community nearly imploding and the villagers turning on him, out for blood. Amongst all the craziness, Sellers delivers one of his most striking performances, his likeable Brummie-accented cleric played dead straight, with utter sincerity. Near the close, Smallwood looks hollowed-out and exhausted, a washed-out shell. If only the Boultings had ended the film there, instead of tacking on a witless coda.
A fascinating, occasionally compelling curio then, and proof of Sellers’ versatility. Studio Canal’s restored prints look and sound immaculate, the bonus features including witty, informative introductions from director Peter Lydon and BFI curator Vic Pratt. Sellers's 100th birthday is in September: celebrate by buying these discs. And, if you’re in London, both films are being screened as part of In Character: The Films of Peter Sellers at the BFI Southbank through August.
Add comment