Chatter Box Film

StudiocanalUK releases two Peter Sellers films from his time in the UK, before he went to America and made a big break there.

The two titles being reviewed here are Two Way Stretch (1960) and Heavens Above! (1963).

Two Way Stretch

The first title is a reminder of how good Sellers was at playing villains and small time crooks. Sellers plays Dodger Lane; a robber who is seemingly on easy street in jail with a very friendly relationship with the naive warden. Dodger is approached by the guy who forced him to take the fall last time on a failed job. This time though he has to get out of prison, do the job with his two cell mates and get back inside before anyone knows he has gone.

The film is indebted to the charm and breeziness of the Ealing Studio films from the post-war years, Sellers memorably appeared in The Ladykillers again as a crook. Through years of radio work with the Goons, Sellers was able to pull off any accent or class, and he is very convincing as a working class crook. 

The film has an effortless feel to it which is perfect Sunday afternoon viewing, the cast alone is worth the fee with Brendan Cribbins as a cellmate and the film picks up again when Lionel Jeffries arrives as a stringent strong officer who is on to Dodger and his mates laidback lifestyle.

Jeffries’ performance is one that has been picked at and mimicked for generations since from Porridge to his screeching delivery of the ex-drill sergeant who looks lost in the post-WW2 years and yearns for discipline.

A surprising treat of a film that deserves a wider acclaim and can be spoken of in the same vein as those more illustrious Ealing comedies.

Heavens Above!

The second title, Heaven’s Above! tells the story of Reverend John Smallwood who is mistakenly appointed vicar to a church in a prosperous parish. His revolutionary changes such as food donations to all the town marks him out as a threat to the village’s status quo and he needs to be removed. 

This 1963 reunion with the Boulting brothers (with whom he filmed I’m All Right Jack) in a genuine satire has Sellers as a relative straight man with another great ensemble – Cecil Parker, Ian Carmichael, Eric Sykes – providing comedic bones.

A political film with religion within the Boulting crosshairs, this is a showcase for Sellers dramatic streak and a forerunner to how adept he would be in the next year’s Dr. Strangelove where he played three roles in the one film garnering his first Oscar nomination.

Both sets of Blu-rays feature a plethora of extras and is a welcome addition to the Vintage Classics label from Studiocanal UK – releasing on August 4th.

As well as these releases, a series of Sellers’ work from the Goon Show with Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe, to the Boulting Brothers films to his foray into Hollywood most emblematically as Inspector Closeau are screening in retrospective at the London BFI Southbank throughout August.