h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You referred in your "Something Wild" posting to the fact that you always associated him with Dudley Moore.You'd know, of course, that for years, beyond the point when Moore had a Hollywood career, that they were a double act - "Pete 'n ' Dud". I watch clips of their '60's shows being played on T.V., and even when I don't get all of the references, I still find it quite funny. The one that is played most often is a set - up on a park bench, where Moore's character (as usual) is receiving the benefit of Cook's wisdom, and Moore starts "corpsing"; to cover this up, he takes more and more mouthfuls of his sandwich to the point where he is ramming the bread into hsi mouth.
I liked Peter Cook a lot. He kicked over the traces regularly with the establishment, and you need people like that.

I never actually saw any of Peter Cook's British TV shows, but I loved his American one, called "The Two of us," where he was appparently some kind of butler for a family in Mid-Manhattan.

There was some kind of TV special in which Peter Cook and Dudley
Moore did some comedy routines--probably reprises of things they had done for British TV. They worked off each other awfully well, especially in the "Frog and Peach" skit. Also, I think (but am not sure) that the two of them were in "The Wrong Box."

You can tell when two performers have been working together for a long time. It just shows.

They were in "The Wrong Box" together, as well as "Monte Carlo or Bust" and the original "Bedazzled".

Most of the British comedy films from the sixties that I've seen were ones that had Peter Sellers in them. Some had other notable British actors/comedians as well. Thus, "After the Fox," "The world of Henry Orient," "Casino Royale," etc. I liked "Casino Royale" a lot (all the more so, because it was the only Woody Allen movie that I had never seen ). I also liked "Doctor Strangelove" a lot.

I considered Peter Sellers a comic genius. Forget the Pink Panther moviesm which were mostly fluff. Sellers' Doctor Strangelove was awesome, as was his Chance the Gardener ("Being There") It's a pity that the movie industry squandered his talents in second-rate films like "The Fiendish Plot of Fu Manchu."

But I seem to have topic-drifted away from Peter Cook, whose talents were wasted even more than those of Sellers.

Peter Sellars was a fantastic comic actor; before he went to Hollywood, he did some marvellous films in Britain, including "I'm All Right, Jack" and "Two - Way Stretch". You're absolutely right about his talents being squandered, although from what I have read about the man, he probably helped the process. He was part of the team that gave British radio "The Goons", which was way ahead of its time in terms of being subversive and surreal. Spike Milligan, one of his fellow "Goons", described being woken once by Sellars in the middle of the night; Sellars was standing at his front door, wearing nothing but a bowler hat and his socks and shoes. Sellars then politely asked for directions to a good tailor...

Sometimes naked is the best disguise.

I have mixed feelings about the "Pink Panther" movies. On the one hand, I never get tired of watching them, because they go down easy.
On the other hand, most of them don't break any new ground. They got made because Peter Sellars or Blake Edwards were running low on cash, and knew the studios and public would go for them.

I've heard some recordings of the Goon Show. It's good, delightful fun. Harry Secombe was a member of that group too, wasn't he? He had a beautiful voice. He played Mr. Bumble in the film version of "Oliver," which had one of the most tuneful scores ever.

I rather enjoy some of the more offbeat British films, like "A Chorus of Disapproval," or even "Calendar Girls." Bill Forsythe's "Gregory's Girl" and "Local hero" are also delightfully unique. Or "Truly, Madly, Deeply." I enjoy movies in which you can't really guess what's going to happen next, because they aren't enslaved by the need to follow some kind of formula. Sure, some loose ends are likely to get tied up at the end, but the route that's taken is unpredictable.

Have you checked out some of the old Ealing comedies? "The Lavendar Hill Mob", "The Man in the White Suit", "The Smallest Show On Earth", and especially the original "Ladykillers" with Herbert Lom, Alec "Obi -Wan" Guinness and P. Sellars? Far darker than anything the Coen boys could manage. It seems to me that the restrictions on what the censors allowed the filmmakers to show in the 50's and 60's, gave them the chance to be more adult, darker and more unpleasant than if those restrictions had been lifted - if you understand what I mean. The power of suggestion is extremely powerful, if done right. Sir Harry Secombe was a national treasure - a mad Welshman, who seemed completely sincere about his faith, and yet who was capable of a well - timed raspberry.