Only Two Can Play (1962)

One of my all time favorites.

Memorable, crazy movie

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

This movie is so dated that to watch it nowadays gives you the feeling of watching an early movie, "A Trip to the Moon" --1902-- for example.But "A Trip to the Moon" can be accepted if we place our mind at that time, with that technology, etc. as a museum piece, a curiosity. Not this movie though, where from the initial 1950s title the whole thing is redolent of naphthalene, and that feeling goes on with a sudden close up of Peter Seller (as funny as yesterday morning flat and cold soufflé) and it goes on in a very Kingsley Amis (the author of this book) way, a way as old fashioned as the treatment for this movie.What a turkey! Peter Sellers is totally miscast for this rol, because if we consider that the character, according to the females reaction when seeing him, was an instant turn on, he, obviously, doesn't fit the rol by a long shot (a Sean Connery was needed here).He was SO blah! and the women that were supposed to be bombshells, were totally ruined with that 1950s look --exagerated (ridiculous) pointed bust, waists cinched to death and beehive hairdos-- the only exception being Virginia Maskell (Sellers wife in the movie) a lovely, natural beauty, fortunately without all that paraphernalia that was the last cry for the fashion of that time. Everything is old fashion in this movie, the situations (many of them pathetic), the pacing, the editing, the camera work, the acting. Some comments mentioned "the humor"... I'm flabbergasted... was there humor in this movie? I totally missed it. I don't get it, English movies are usually exceptionally good, but this one in particular is impossibly bad, as bad as Mr. Amis literature.

Having have lived in the Welsh Valleys for a good while a few years ago, I really feel for this poignant, witty and largely forgotten and unknown little drama about a librarian. And his wife and his little 'adventure' on the side.It's far sweeter than the average English kitchen sink, is superbly adapted from a Kinglsey Amis novel and features an array of familiar faces, from John Le Messieur and Richard Attenborough with Kenneth Griffith as a rather ridiculed and pathetically nerdy fellow librarian. Peter Sellers is natural, the accent pitch perfect and his wife and family (great little daughter, full of big-eyed mischief & wonder) believable. His foray into an affair is rather glaringly obvious for a close-knit valley town to realistically withstand though I think there's a good balance between 'nudge-nudge, wink-wink' innuendo, which is usually wittily rather than crudely expressed and the more hum-drum, everyday scenes. Comedy is in there, but as a supporting act, so to speak and is nicely done.Librarians generally get a rather staid and boring label and it would be far too obvious - and wrong - to have a zany character, or Sellers playing one. But, as in any profession, libraries employ different sorts and get all manner of customers.Overall there's a warmth and freshness that I find endearing, though I might be a little biased. If you get a chance to see it, go for it. Apart from my originally seeing it on UK TV about 6 years ago, I've not seen that it's been shown since and only now have I been reacquainted with it on DVD. You can find it on The Peter Sellers Collection, included with it are I'm Alright Jack and Heaven's Above along with a disc that features a compilation of Seller's best TV work.

This is an excellent film which is true-to-life without being showy or melodramatic. Although definitely a comedy it makes great play of the depressing and restricted life of the central character, particularly the crowded and noisy family home and the lack of privacy and comfort resulting from shared bathrooms (Sellers adjustment of the air-freshener when his landlord comes out of the toilet makes any verbal comment redundant).As a librarian myself I can relate to the professional setting and the dull routine of lending and shelving stock. Graham Stark's Mr Hyman is typical of some of the characters public libraries seem to attract. I remember a man like this who used to visit a library I once worked in. His speciality was putting a small mirror on the floor so he could look up women's skirts.The film makes no attempt to make adultery look romantic. Here it is a guilt-ridden farce full of betrayal and exploitation. It's a fine moment when Liz dumps her lapdog on Sellers and he realises he is just another accessory to her lifestyle (her 'bit of rough' to balance Bill's smoothness maybe?).Sellers attempt at adultery is all the worse because his wife is far from unattractive. Tired and worn down by family responsibilities perhaps, but practical and supportive. Virginia Maskell makes Jean's helplessness in the face of Liz's glamour extremely poignant indeed. It's a tragedy that this fine actress would reach a point in her own life when she couldn't see a way out.Sellers himself is still just on the verge of international stardom. He looks like a normal human being, not the stick thin Hollywood type he became (Sellers lost his natural chubbiness throughout his career, as he got thinner he got unhappier). He is also still a character actor, rather than a caricature who says things like 'heump' and 'beumb'. His John Lewis is totally believable.Some critics have ridiculed the idea that Sellers was ever an actor, they say he was only a mimic with a slim talent for funny voices. This film shows how wrong they are.

This an unconsidered little pearl and indicates where British film comedy might have gone in the 60s and 70s had it not tumbled into the abyss of the Carry On series and the Neanderthal Confessions of a Window Cleaner/Driving Instructor etc. The former was bad but the latter made Sid, Kenneth and co look like the RSC. This Sellers vehicle on the other hand, from a book by Kingsley Amis, is tightly written,well acted and genuinely funny. Apart from Sellers, Richard Attenborough is particularly good as Probert the belligerent Welsh bard who in deference to his role model has no intention of going gentle into that good night. His acerbic exchanges with Sellers' librarian are the highlights of the film. And unlike practically( I must exclude Shirley Eaton!) any female who ever appeared in either of the horrendous series mentioned above Mai Zetterling is sexy and believable. A great treat for a rainy afternoon and a chance to reassess whether Sellers' best work was in Strangelove and the Cloiseau films or were some of his earlier more understated characterisations actually superior.