Product Details

• Actors: Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price
• Directors: Alvin Rakoff, Basil Dearden, Jeffrey Dell, John Boulting, Robert Day
• Writers: Alan Hackney, Ernest Gebler
• Format: Box set, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 6
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
• DVD Release Date: January 21, 2003
• Run Time: 592 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00007AJEC
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #32,245 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Comedy > Comedy Stars > Peter Sellers

• For more information about "Peter Sellers Collection (I'm All Right Jack/Heavens Above!/Hoffman/Two-Way Stretch/The Smallest Show on Earth/Carlton-Browne of the F.O.)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Peter Sellers Collection includes six British comedies in which Sellers plays leading or supporting roles. The Smallest Show on Earth (1957) is among the run of gentle British comedies in the 1950s in which outmoded and broken-down local institutions were saved by collections of committed eccentrics. Aspiring novelist Bill Travers and his wife Virginia McKenna inherit a cinema from a hitherto unknown uncle and discover that it isn't the sumptuous modern Grand, but the decrepit Bijou, with a drunken projectionist played by Sellers.

In 1959's I'm All Right Jack, Sellers plays both Sir John Kennaway and, unforgettably, the trade union leader Fred Kite. The result is laugh-out-loud comedy with a satiric edge, lampooning the then-burning issue of industrial relations. The brothers John and Roy Boulting also directed and produced such British classics as Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959), in which Seller's unscrupulous prime minister is upstaged by Terry-Thomas as the idiot son of a great ambassador, and Heavens Above (1963), in which Sellers gives an unusually low-key performance as a young vicar whose tendencies to interpret Christian doctrines in his own individualistic way, rather than conform to church traditions, leads to all kinds of chaos.

The great crime comedy Two Way Stretch (1960) is about imprisoned crooks who hatch a scheme to pull off a heist with a perfect alibi by breaking out, doing the job, and then breaking back in to serve out their sentences. Sellers, usually an eccentric support in these things, takes a rare lead as cocky mastermind Dodger Lane.

Hoffman (1970) gives Sellers a lot of funny business, acid lines, and whimsical turns. Secretary Miss Smith (Sinéad Cusack) is blackmailed by meek, middle-aged Mr. Hoffman (Sellers) into spending a week of domesticity with him in his flat. At first, the tone is creepy, but it becomes more poignant as both characters learn to see each other as people.

Product Description

Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 11/11/2008 Rating: Nr

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Caveats, November 11, 2003

By A Customer

Peter Sellers, often written off as a talented mimic, was actually a superb actor, if he found his character's "voice". He's been unfortunately typecast (I have a friend who thought he was French!) as Clouseau, and he may actually be the finest slapstick comedian after the end of the silent era. This collection is a treasure trove for anyone who wants to see him in early or obscure work, but the movies are ineven in quality and tone. Also of interest in that all these movies he plays a single character (even in the early, unincluded, "Only Two Can Play" he lapsed into multiple accents. CARLTON-BROWNE OF THE F.O. is really a Terry-Thomas vehicle with Sellers in support. Like all Cold War comedies its plot (such as it is, about the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. all trying to discover the secrets of a small island under British protection) is quaint and hardly funny, but there are enough bright spots to recommend the movie as a whole (the scenes between Terry-Thomas and Thorley Walters are invariably delightful). THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH has a young Sellers, again in a supporting role, playing the aged projectionist in a run-down theatre; again, the bright spots are scattered but for anyone who likes old movies and quiet humor will find enough not to have wasted his time with it. HEAVENS ABOVE, a satire on Communism, using the Church as a vehicle for its representation, has Sellers in the lead as a mis-appointed Anglican clergyman who turns his parish on its head; but the movie eventually plays against itself with its serious undertones. TWO-WAY STRETCH is an out-and-out farce with Peter Sellers as a prisoner who plots a crime that will give him a perfect alibi -- he's in jail; but a martinet new guard (Lionel Jeffries, the grandfather "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang") may ruin his plans. "I'M ALL RIGHT, JACK" has Sellers in support again, in a star-studded farce about labor vs management, with Selelrs as Hitleresque shop steward and labor leader Fred Kite (a breakthrough role for Sellers). HOFFMAN is the odd man out in this box, as it comes later in Sellers' career, and the character he plays isn't comic, just unpleasant. Why "Hoffman" was included -- why it's even on DVD -- I can't even pretend to speculate. A more fitting addition to the collection would have been "The Wrong Arm of the Law", another crime caper. The poignant comedy-drama "The Dock Brief", with Richard Attenborough as the confessed wife murderer and Sellers as the barrister determined to get him off despite his own protests, would have rounded the box off nicely. The perfect addition would have been the hilarious "The Naked Truth", where Sellers and Terry-Thomas (again) plot to do away with a scandal-sheet publisher (Dennis Price) who threatens to expose their secrets (Sellers' jolly television host character is actually a slumlord). Even the much less funny "Only Two Can Play" would've been an improvement. Why they stuck on "Hoffman" -- unless it was simply dirt cheap to add -- boggles the mind. If you don't mind paying the freight for five comedies that range from middling to pretty-good-for-its-time, just to see early Sellers in some forgotten roles, this is the set for you. Just bring along a shovel to bury "Hoffman" and you'll be fine.

5.0 out of 5 stars 6 of Sellers' lesser known works on one awesome box from Anchor Bay!!!, December 20, 2008

By	Jason Pumphrey (Falls Church, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

If your a Sellers fan you should give this a try,this stuff is not as well known as the Pink Panther stuff,or of his Kubrick work,but still these are smallhard to find British gems nonetheless,a great companion piece to Anchor Bay's Alec Guinness Collection!!! This was a quite the bargain at just $13.99 new when amazon ran a sale(I just hate paying full retail price for stuff),considering a few years ago this same collection had a price yag well over $50.00!!! Like I said befor a great Sellers collection from the folks at Anchor Bay,get it before it goes out of print(Anhor Bay DVD's seem to do just that) and the price skyrockets!!!