The Battle of the Sexes (1960)

This is not the best film of Peter Sellers! But it is not bad either. Demonstrates here also what subtle actor he was. All the "blame" is on the script which is not great, fuzzy, like those in the Pink Panther series, here we have a simple Scottish story, a little melancholy comedy. The old fox Sellers faces the American Constance Cummings and defeats her in the battle to stay in the 19th century. But, just watch it, is a little dusty but still fun in the scene when visiting her.

I resisted watching this for sometime.. it sounds like a silly sex- com .. and the premise that the female lead is 'wrong' because she is a woman. Yes, some of the set up - that women have no role as leaders is well dodgy by today's standards - (and to be honest even for it's own time)But ignore that.. pretend that the out of touch moderniser is not wrong by virtue of being female.. See her as 'just happens to be' female, and her opponent as 'just happens to be' male.. and there is great fun to be had in this clash of ideals.Compare it to (but admittedly not quite as good as) I'm all right Jack.. where you have differing views of how a work place should be run.Call it ageist .. She is young, he is old.. call it maybe anti American (she is a brash American, he a quiet modest Scott) .. or just see it as differing mind sets battling it out.If you want to try and be clever (and read too much into it) see it as a precursor to Crichton's much later 'Fish called Wanda'.. With Sellers as the John Cleese type v the Constance Cummings character as Wanda...

Contrary to what IMDb shows at the upper-right corner of its page for this movie, there IS a DVD of this film available, in the UK. I recently purchased it from Amazon, there, for 6 pounds. With high hopes, I inserted it into my DVD player and found that the quality of the film-to- digital transfer is nothing short of abysmal. Most of the film's scenes appear almost entirely black on the TV screen, with only a few details, like well-lit faces, shining through. This is a sorry re-release of this movie, which I had read such good things about here and there. From all I can tell, it is a delightful movie, full of wit and good acting and clever dialog. The story centers on a female business consultant from the US trying to whip an old-line tweed making company in Scotland into shape - another post-war British film concerned with the onslaught of American values and speedy lifestyle. (Another example that comes to mind is Ealing Studio's The Maggie, which is happily out on DVD in an optically splendid rendition.) The star, here, is a somewhat mousy Peter Sellers who is, of course, worth watching in almost any movie - especially when you can actually see him! Robert Morley, too, is worth the price of admission - one of my favorite British actors.

British comedy where mild-mannered character played by Sellers is moved to murder when the company he's given his life to is taken over by brash American woman. Due to make-up, Sellers looks the same age as when he played all those Pink Panther movies in the 70's. Cute ending, too.