Only Two Can Play (1962)

Director:  Sidney Gilliat

Writers:  Bryan Forbes, Kingsley Amis

Composer:  Richard Rodney Bennett

Starring:  Peter Sellers, Mai Zetterling, Virginia Maskell, Kenneth Griffith, Raymond Huntley, David Davies, Maudie Edwards, Meredith Edwards, John Le Mesurier, Richard Attenborough

More info:  IMDb

Tagline:  Peter Sellers' Newest Record-Breaking Comedy That's Rocking All England With Laughter!

Plot:  John Lewis is bored by his librarian's job and henpecked at home. Then Liz, wife of a local councillor, sets her sights on him. But this is risky stuff in a Welsh valleys town - if he and Liz ever manage to consummate their affair, that is.

My rating:   7/10

Will I watch it again?   Probably not.

As a big fan of British comedy TV and movies, I find a majority of the films to be amusing while the TV shows are often knee-slappers.  This is especially true with Peter Sellers pictures.  I don't think I laughed out loud once at this picture but it was charming and amusing.  Sellers is in fine form here as John, a conflicted family man whose eyes stray frequently with all the pretty girls that surround him.  It's cute at first until you get some hints dropped by his wife, Jean (wonderfully played by Virginia Maskell), that he's cheated on her several times before.  With that new information, I'm looking at John a lot less favorably and I don't like him.  It's a Peter Sellers flick so you're expecting some slapstick and he delivers.  The physical gags are pretty run of the mill and don't add all that much to the entertainment value.  What I did enjoy from Sellers was watching him work his way into and out of awkward situations.  He's masterful at that.

 

It's also a joy seeing Sellers simply being a charming person.  He was a talented actor that rarely made movies that truly showed his abilities.  Anyway, Mai Zetterling (as Liz, the object of John's affection) is delightful and fun.  Always the optimist, she knows what she wants and she always gets it.   Her and John are well-written characters and they have the benefit of being handled so beautifully by Zetterling and Sellers.  I've got to get back to Virginia Maskell as John's wife, Jean.  She's fabulous and she plays Jean with such depth and character.  She's not just playing what would usually be a thankless role.  There's some genuine chemistry between her and the camera.  At an hour and forty-six minutes long, you'd think it would wear out its welcome after a while but it doesn't.  It's exactly as long as it needed to be.  It also didn't hurt to show a little skin to break up, uh, the, um, amusement.  Yeah, that's it.  Amusement!

 

And there's just one more thing to mention that MUST be mentioned and that's Richard Attenborough as the annoying artist playwright, Gareth L. Probert.  He's fucking hysterical and the tit-for-tat between he and John is worth the price of admission.