The Fake Mustache of Peter Sellers: (4) The Wrong Man Escaped

Then it is Lolita by Kubrick. Wikipedia says that Peter Sellers plays a small part but “proved a scene stealer”. The opening is the main character Humbert Humbert walks into a big house but it is quite a wreck. He shouts a name, and a chair covered by cloth squirms, a man comes out from the cloth and it is Peter Sellers, playing Clare Quilty.

Quilty was completely drunk. He was so friendly as to ask Humbert to play ping pong as if he didn’t know that Humbert walked in for revenge. Humbert ran out of patience and pulled out a gun, but Quilty didn’t take it seriously until he was shot on the leg. Quilty crawled on the stairs trying to find a place to hide, and found a painting as a shield. Not a good one, obviously. The camera stops at the painting, and we see that the painting is a portrayal of a young woman and the bullet hole was right on her forehead between the eyebrows.

Peter Sellers plays the writer who figured out what happened between Humbert and his stepdaughter. He created opportunities for Lolita to get away from Humbert by choosing her as the leading actress for his play. Humbert got jealous and forbade it. Quilty wore a disguise and pretended to be a German psychoanalyst from the school, threatening Humbert to conduct a survey about Lolita’s family life. Humbert was afraid that the relationship would come to people’s knowledge so he settled with permission for Lolita’s extracurricular activity. Because of this piece, when it came to Dr. Strangelove, the studio funded Kubrick under the condition that Peter Sellers plays multiple roles.

Kubrick is the director who knows how to use Peter Sellers and make him glow. In Lolita Sellers is funny even if it is just a simple dance, but he is able to remain funny without sacrificing a realistic touch. He doesn’t need to be kitsch to by funny.

At last I found After the Fox to recollect the start of the encounter with Peter Sellers. I again got a really good laugh. It’s so bizarre and entertaining! After the Fox didn’t do well on the Box Office, and is never listed as classic or must-see. But it amuses me tremendously a good 40 years later. Peter Sellers’ sister was chasing movie stars and someone in the crowd exclaimed, “Look at the nose, it’s just like Marlon Brando!” Someone asked Sellers who is in the car anyway, and he replied, “Marlon Brando’s nose.”

The next year after Being There, Peter Sellers died at the age of 54. He identifies with the void gardener and his life ended at this role, isn’t it something? No, he made another mediocre movie The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu and that becomes his last movie. Moreover, Blake Edwards used the outtakes and footage of the previous Pink Panther movies to make another one Trail of the Pink Panther. Peter Sellers who hates mediocrity ceases in utmost mediocrity.

His life is exactly the way he tried to avoid. The heritage goes the wrong way, the career ends at outtakes; he was most known for a character unworthy of the fame, and the prize he deserves does not come his way. His life requires a good sense of humor to look at, even his tomb. The inscription reads: “My Darling Husband: I will always love you.”

I like the ending of After the Fox. When it starts, Peter Sellers is a thief in jail. He decided to escape because he learned that his sister didn’t attend school as she should. There was a psychotherapist visiting the prisoners routinely. After the visit, Peter Sellers wore a disguise and tied himself to the bed pretending to be the therapist, and called for help. The guards were fooled and that’s how he was set loose.

At the end he was caught again. He designated a specific date and claimed that he would escape again. This time he tied the therapist in the bed and walked out, and the poor therapist was mocked when he cried for help. The gate closed behind Peter Sellers and he looked into the camera with a conceited smile. He tried to rip off the fake mustache but oops, it didn’t work. He tried again and it didn’t work. Peter Sellers panicked: “Oh my God! The wrong man escaped!”

One is real and the other is fake, one is tied up and the other escaped. “The wrong man escaped” is against logic, hence hilarious. But for Peter Sellers who couldn’t figure out who he is, it might be just the perfect metaphor. Perhaps there was no Peter Sellers ever; there was an evil doctor, stupid inspector, void gardener and Fox the thief, and it is impossible to integrate these fictional characters into a real person. There is only the fake mustache that refuses to go, and the grin under it.

“Some forms of reality are so horrible we refuse to face them, unless we are trapped into it by comedy. To label any subject unsuitable for comedy is to admit defeat.” —Peter Sellers.


Peter Sellers died on 24 July, 1980. The wrong man escaped.

-1962 Lolita
-1964 Dr. Strangelove
-1966 After the Fox
-1968 I Love You, Alice B. Toklas
-1976 Murder by Death
-1979 Being There

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