Six Definitive Films: The ultimate beginner’s guide to Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers is undoubtedly among the greatest acting talents of the 20th century. Known for his fantastic collaborations with pioneering directors like Stanley Kubrick and Hal Ashby, Sellers’ illustrious filmography is always a good starting point for aspiring actors.
Born in Portsmouth, Sellers was involved in the performing arts from a young age but received mixed feedback from his parents. Influenced by radio comedy, Sellers participated in all kinds of shows during the Second World War before establishing himself as a regular comedy performer in the post-war period.
After being a major part of the iconic Goon Show, he eventually gravitated towards films where he got the space to broadcast his true genius. Ranging from Conan O’Brien to Rowan Atkinson, some of the most influential comedians in the world owe a huge debt to Peter Sellers.
Peter Sellers’ six definitive films:
The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick, 1955)
Featuring Sellers alongside the likes of Alec Guinness and Cecil Parker, The Ladykillers is an interesting British black comedy. It revolves around a gang of tough criminals living with an old lady who doesn’t have any idea about their nefarious activities.
While talking about the project, Sellers admitted: “The first real film I made was The Ladykillers. I used to watch Alec Guinness, who is an absolute idol of mine, do everything, his rehearsals, his scenes, everything. He is my ideal… and my idol”.
I’m All Right Jack (Boulting brothers, 1959)
An important work by the Boulting brothers, I’m All Right Jack is their follow-up to Private’s Progress. It tells the story of a man named Stanley who cannot figure out how to thrive in the job market, which is why his uncle counts on him to mess up.
Sellers delivers one of the greatest performances of his career as the trades union shop steward Fred Kite. He ended up winning the BAFTA for Best Actor, but more importantly, he gave the world a glimpse of his promise as a performance artist.
Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
Stanley Kubrick’s fantastic 1964 satire of nuclear warfare has only gained relevance with the passing years. Peter Sellers is astoundingly good in multiple roles throughout the film, but his most memorable portrayal is of the titular former Nazi.
Kubrick explained: “The atomic bomb is as much of an abstraction as you can possibly have. It’s as abstract as that you know that someday you’ll die, and you do an excellent job of denying it, psychologically. I would say, in the minds of most people, it’s less interesting than city government”.
A Shot in the Dark (Blake Edwards, 1964)
The second part of the famous Pink Panther series, A Shot in the Dark sees Sellers reprise the iconic role of Inspector Jacques Clouseau. This was the film where Sellers started to make the character his own, a bumbling man with a farcical French accent.
“I’ll play Clouseau with great dignity, because he thinks of himself as one of the world’s best detectives. Even when he comes a cropper, he must pick himself up with that notion intact,” Sellers once said. “The original script makes him out to be a complete idiot. I think a forgivable vanity would humanise him and make him kind of touching. It’s as if filmgoers are kept one fall ahead of him”.
Hoffman (Alvin Rakoff, 1970)
While Sellers was mostly known for his comedic turns, Hoffman is a unique exception in his filmography. The film stars Sellers as a lonely businessman who tries to manipulate and blackmail his secretary into falling in love with him.
Sellers hated the film, and Ben Arbeid thought it was because he “was so good, so convincing, he tried to buy the prints and burn them. Not because he was ashamed of the film, but because he’d recognised aspects of the inner man he thought he’d hidden forever”.
Being There (Hal Ashby, 1979)
Hal Ashby’s stunning 1979 satire is both his and Sellers’ magnum opus. A scathing indictment of America’s sociopolitical structure, it features Sellers as a thoroughly incompetent gardener who somehow makes it to the very top of American society.
Judd Apatow famously declared that Sellers delivered “a performance that is unparalleled in modern comedy”. He is definitely right because there’s nothing like Being There out there, and Sellers’ mastery over his craft can never be replicated.
