‘Ghost in the Noonday Sun’: the movie an “insane” Peter Sellers sabotaged
When Peter Sellers arrived in Kyrenia in 1972 to shoot a swashbuckling pirate comedy, few could have imagined the debacle that was about to unfold. Sellers had convinced pals Peter Medak to direct the film and Spike Milligan to write it, but by the time he touched down on the sandy beaches of Cyprus, he’d seemingly decided he didn’t want to make the movie anymore. Sellers was known for his odd, erratic behaviour and wild mood swings, but his behaviour on this film developed into something no one had seen before. By the time the shoot was finished, he and everyone else involved wanted to delete it from history – and for over a decade, they got their wish.
As Medak has freely admitted over the years, Ghost in the Noonday Sun – based on a 1965 novel – was beset by misfortune right from the start. Much of the action was to be shot on a real pirate ship in Kyrenia’s seventh-century harbour, but the captain charged with delivering the vessel made a bit of a miscalculation. You see, he was so drunk that he crashed the ship into the quay instead of nestling into the nice strip of water reserved for it.
Medak and his cast and crew were soon beset by inclement weather and seasickness while shooting on the ship. According to Medak, in response, “My darling friend Peter Sellers became completely impossible when he realised how difficult it was to make this film on a real boat and he did everything to try to make sure that the film would never be finished.”
In truth, Medak was wary about Sellers from the second he arrived in Cyprus. The iconic Dr Strangelove star had brought 200 suitcases with him to the small villa he’d be staying in, whereupon he rearranged all the furniture and installed a state-of-the-art sound system. He immediately hated the script and then locked himself away in the villa until Milligan arrived to start rewriting it. When Milligan – who wasn’t exactly known for being easy to deal with – outlined his ideas to reshape the film, Sellers reportedly exclaimed, “Everything will be all right now that Spike’s here.” Then he didn’t show up on the first day of filming the new scenes.
Amazingly, though, Sellers was so determined to have the film deleted from history that he actually concocted a plan to get the production shut down. He had already sacked two of the producers on the first day he arrived, which was alarming because, as Medak noted, “Nobody ever fires the producers.” However, Medak told The Guardian in 2003 that Sellers approached him at one point with a far-fetched scheme that would force the studio to take action.
“He arrived in his speedboat, fell into the water as he got out, and walked up the beach, dripping wet,” Medak claimed. “He drew me away from the crew so they couldn’t hear what he was about to say, put his arms round me, and said, ‘Darling, you know what we should do.'” Sellers then suggested Medak quit the film, which would mean he wouldn’t get paid.
However, because Sellers had it stipulated in his contract that he had approval over the director, he’d simply kick up and fuss and refuse every replacement director the studio suggested. In this scenario, Sellers would use his disapproval of any new director as an excuse to also quit the film, which would subsequently have to be shut down. At that point, he’d give half his salary to Medak.
Medak claimed Sellers seemed pleased with his scheme, and asked him, “What do you think, darling?” However, he saw a crazed look in his friend’s eye and decided he’d had enough. Medak pointed to the longsuffering crew members and raged, “You see all those poor fuckers? They’ve been building the camera tracks since five this morning in the baking sun, no shade. You turn up four hours late, and you don’t even have your makeup on. You’re soaking wet, totally out of your mind, and you make this proposal.”
To Sellers’ dismay, Medak steadfastly refused to go along with his cockamamie plan, and told him, “You are the one that got me into this fucking film, and the only way you’ll get me out of it is to put on your wig, your false teeth and your costume and let’s shoot it.”
Ultimately, Sellers made the rest of the shoot a living nightmare for Medak, even refusing to speak to him for three weeks at one point. Medak was adamant, “He destroyed the whole film,” and added, “As an artist, he was a genius. As a person, he was insane.” Indeed, Sellers almost got his wish of the film being deleted from history, because Columbia Pictures shelved the movie after a dismal test screening. In the end, it wound up being unseen by the public until 1985 when it was unceremoniously released on VHS.
