Oklahoma native William Blake Crump, known better to the world as Blake Edwards, was one of the premiere comedy directors of the second half of the 20th century. From Breakfast at Tiffany'sandPeter Gunn to The Pink Panther and Victor/Victoria, Edwards' cv reads like a greatest hits compilation. Edwards began his career in the 40s as an actor before moving into writing and eventually directing, a one-two punch he found packed more of a wallop for him personally and professionally than acting ever did.
Like so many writer/directors, Edwards had a deep and abiding love for character, creating all incidents and set-pieces around his characters,with a deep, abiding love for them that could instantly get an audience on their side. From Peter Sellers' bumbling Inspector Clouseau and Audrey Hepburn's free-spirited Holly Golightly to Dudley Moore's harangued composer in 10and even Burt Reynolds' aging lothario in his remake of The Man Who Loved Women, Edwards loved flawed characters. Even more, though, he loved exploiting those flaws, pushing them to their extremes in order to break throughand provide them withsatisfactoryresolutions.
Unfortunately, Edwards also acquired a reputation for excessive spending on his films. Beginning with 1965's The Great Race, the most expensive comedy ever made at the time, Edwardswas spending a lot of money on his films at a time when the studio system was on the brink of collapse. The box office failure of his mega-budget 1970 musical Darling Lili was a huge part of the reason Paramount Pictures was sold to Gulf + Western,ushering in the era of corporate control of the studios. While Edwards was far from the only culprit in this area, he spent the 70s rehabilitating his image through smaller budgeted films much more likely to turn a profit.
Edwards loved sexual politics and the notion of disguising your true self in order to woo the lover of your dreams. As the Hays code began to wane and finally disappear, Edwards was one of the first major directors to make use of the newly loosened restrictions on content in film. Edwards' films certainly became less wholesome, but they were finely honed weapons of disruption aimed at the status quo. As the 60s turned to the 70s and eventually the 80s, Edwards' films became much more "adult" in the sense that their content reflected the situations and lives of the average adult filmgoer—albeit with incredibly heightened comedic sensibilities.
Gunn (1967)
Since Blake Edwards was the man who created the hit TV series Peter Gunn in the late 50s, he was the natural choice to bring the suave spy to the big screen in 1967. By this point in time, Edwards had abaker's dozen feature films to his name, including the first two Pink Panther films, so this seemed like a no-brainer for Paramount. Scripted with frequent collaborator and future Exorcist scribe William Peter Blatty, the film essentially reworks the pilot episode of the TV series into a feature length, more adult oriented adventure.
The Hays Code was on its way out the door and adults were demanding adult fare, so Edwards was a natural choice to be one of the first Hollywood directors to employ nudity. Like your typical Bond adventure, there's a femme fatale of sorts that the hero must sleep with in the first act, only for her to turn up dead in the second. Here that role is filled by the lovely Sherry Jackson, who greets the hero—played by series star Craig Stevens, the only original cast member to return for the film—in his bed, in the altogether, giving us a quick look at her beautiful breasts...
We also get an encore from her left breast when she gives Gunn a good morning hug as he shaves...
Darling Lili (1970)
Edwards' biggest misfire, commercially anyway, couldn't have come duringa more crucial time in his career. 1970's Darling Lili was greenlit in the wave of big budget, studio-bankrupting musicals that swept the country in the late 50s and early 60s. Made on a budget of $25 million—over $165 million in 2019 dollars—this project was the first professional pairing of Edwards and his new wife, Oscar-winner Julie Andrews. The two met when Andrews became attached to the project in 1967 and romance bloomed between the seemingly unlikely pair.
While it was mostly ignored by critics at the time, being far too focused as they rightly were on the film's extravagant spending, the film is actually a rather charming deconstruction of both the musical and the spy genre. Andrews is radiant in the title role, a British cabaret singer during WWI who isactually a German spy, tasked with seducing and ultimately destroying aceAmerican pilot William Larrabee (Rock Hudson). Of course, she ends up falling for him, which only complicates matters.
Andrews' first flash of flesh came in this flick, where she wows the crowd with a burlesque routine, her right nipple briefly popping out of her top, which in turn pops an aristocrat's monocle right out of his eye...
At the end of her routine, she ditches her top entirely and we can briefly see her entire left breast as she makes a quick exit...
The film's dismal box office returns—it grossed only $5 million worldwide, one-fifth of its budget—thankfully didn't hurt Edwards' prospects too much as he already had his next film, the William Holden-starring western Wild Rovers ready to go. That film, like Darling Lilibefore it, was ultimately wrested away from Edwards and re-edited by the studio when he refused to meet their demands. Afterhis next epic love story with Andrews, 1974's The Tamarind Seed, turned a modest profit, Edwards returned to the world of unfettered creative control, heading back to the franchise he just couldn't escape.
The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)
Although released only a year after1975's Return of the Pink Panther, this fourth Peter Sellers as Closeau adventure is set three years after the events of the previous film. It basically involves Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) trying to kill Closeau for ruining his livelihood in the last flick, while Closeau attempts to track down a missing professor. The later Pink Panther sequels aren't much on plot, though not for lack of trying. It's just that the plots are often so convoluted, all you really retain are a handful of sight gags that really kill.
Even with the restrictions of the Hays Code gone, Edwards still tried to keep these mostly family comedies, so the emphasis was almost never on sex or nudity, and when it was, it was often played for a laugh. Like the series' first nude scene, courtesy of the lovely Lesley Anne-Down (future star of Death Wish V, I might add). As the seductiveOlga Bariosova, Lesley strips out of her clothes and slides into bed with a sleeping Closeau, giving us a quick look at her right breast as she does...
We also get a quick look at her left breast as she and Closeau have a chat after she startles him awake...
While it's damn near impossible to pick a "favorite" moment from this franchise, I think the scene that makes me laugh the hardest is in this flick. The first confrontation between Closeau and his servant Cato (the late, wonderful Burt Kwouk) as Dreyfus spies on them from the empty apartment below. Anytime they go into slow motion, I begin Dom Deluise-wheeze laughing...
Perhaps Edwards' most fruitful professional collaboration was with composer Henry Mancini, who composed the scores for most of Edwards' films, creating such legendary tunes as "Moon River" and the legendary "Pink Panther Theme," my personal pick for the single best musical theme in film history.
Also, one last thing I can't help but mention is that the middle Pink Panther sequels and Halloween sequels share an identical naming progression from Return to Revenge to Curse of both the Pink Panther and Michael Myers. Just something to think about, and yes, I'm aware there are other Pink Panther sequels in between, thanks for bringing that up.
10 (1979)
While 1979's 10 may not be the single defining film of Edwards' career, it certainly sent him down a path that he traveled many times over the course of his remaining film career. The film centerson the comical mid-life crisis of composerGeorge Webber (Dudley Moore), as he suffers through a series of misfortunes stemming from his inability to stop thinking with his dick. He's in a seemingly committed relationship with actress Samantha (Julie Andrews), who shows some pokies while sitting on the bed chatting with him...
From his balcony,George watches as the world around him seems to be having a much better time having a lot more sex than him. The first woman we seem him spy on is a topless Constance Money, who plays pool with her money bags out...
Nearly thirty minutes later, he spies another sexy fun party he's not at where Annette Haven is among the topless women in attendance...
A series of miscommunications causes Samantha to want to take a break from the increasingly manic George, and he lives it up with gorgeous nude babes like Dorothy Le May...
Throughout the first half of the film, George is also obsessively stalking a woman named Jenny (Bo Derek) whom he is told is the daughter of a prominent dentist. George basically begins borderline stalking her, eventually stumbling on her wedding—to future Flash Gordon star Sam Jones—and then spontaneously decides to follow them on their honeymoon to Mexico. Here he hooks up with an old flame, played by Dee Wallace-Stone, who shows off her ass after sex with Dudley...
But George has only got eyes for Jenny, especially once he sees her on the beach in her iconic gold swimsuit and cornrows, in a moment that has become among the most legendary and parodied moments in cinema...
Finally catching on to George's game, Jenny decides to seduce him with Ravel's classic composition "Bolero," a piece of music with which Bo Derek is forever associated not just because of this film, but also thanks to the film Bolero directed by her husband John Derek. Deciding he's finally hit the jackpot, George fulfills his fantasy of sleeping with Jenny, with Bo showing off her boobs and buns in a dimly lit scene...
Georgeis ultimately repulsed, however, whenJenny takes a call from her husband after sex and informs him of what she and George have just done. Realizing he's not ready for a truly open relationship, he returns home to reconcile with Samantha, and the two have sex in full view of peeping neighbors!
The film was an unqualified box office smash, raking in $75 million at the box office against a budget of only $7 million—2019 equivalents being $265 million gross on a $25 million budget. With the death of friend and longtime collaborator Peter Sellers the following year, it would make Edwards' path forward in the industry crystal clear as he was now the go-to guy for films about wealthy middle aged men wanting to bang women half their age.
S.O.B. (1981)
Edwards' mid-life crisis genre takes a detour into the sublimely wacky with this incisive dig at the industry in which Edwards made his livelihood. The crisis character this time around is frazzled movie producer Felix Farmer (Richard Mulligan), whose most recent film was a disaster and caused him to have a complete mental breakdown. After trying and failing several times to kill himself—in increasingly comedic fashion—Felix eventually determines that the lack of sex and nudity is what caused his last film to fail. He now becomes resolved to mount the sexiest film of his career, a softcore musical extravaganza, at great professional and personal risk.
While the film has a ton of inside baseball-type Hollywood humor, it's also drawn in broad enough strokes that your average audience member will hang with the references. Like all of Edwards' mid-life crisis movies, this one is chockablock with skin! The film marks the third film appearance of Rosanna Arquette, who whips off her top, exposing her breasts and starting her down a long and fruitful career going nude on film...
At a party around midway through the film, the gorgeous Gisele Lindleygets the party going by smoking a joint, blowing the smoke into bubbles for others to enjoy, and doing it all while topless...
The smoldering beauty Marisa Berenson, from such flicks as Cabaret and Barry Lyndon, also makes a topless appearance here, smoking a cigarette topless in bed while Robert Vaughn goes down on her...
Circling back to the film's plot, Felix's big coup is going to be convincing his movie star wife Sally (Julie Andrews) to shoot a topless scene for his new film. This is despite the fact that—much like Andrews herself—Sally'sentire career is built around a squeaky clean and wholesome image that a topless scene would surely shatter.
Much of the film's tension revolves around whether or not she's going to do the topless scene, but Felix is finally able to convince her that the film will flop without it. On the day the scene is to be shot, Sally hits her mark and whips off her top, giving the audience the double thrill not only of the payoff for the character, but also the fact that those are Mary Poppins' tits!
Curse of the Pink Panther (1983)
In 1982, Edwards embarked on a journey to make a Pink Panther flick without any participation from Peter Sellers' Inspector Closeau, two of them, in fact. 1982's Trail of the Pink Panther utilized unused footage of Sellers from other Pink Panther adventures, rendering it the worst film in the series by a country mile. Until 1983's Curse of the Pink Panther came along, this is, serving basically as a series reboot with Ted Wass playing ineptNew York City-based Sgt.Clifton Sleigh.
If anything, the film feels like it may as well have been made by anyone else, because it reeks of being a film Edwards would have rejected under any other circumstances. Because it was shot simultaneously with Trail, there's some of that classic Pink Panther mayhem afoot, and it's always fun seeing Herbert Lom degraded beyond recognition as Chief Inspector Dreyfus, but this one is almost a complete and total waste of time.
Thankfully British comedy legend Joanna Lumley is on hand to inject some skin into the film, playingCountess Chandra, who runs a health spa at which Closeau was rumored to be seen. Sleigh visits the spa and talks with Lumley as she emerges topless from a mud bath, her breasts visible as she makes her way to shower off...
Chandra ultimately turns out to be the film's villain,working in cahoots with Closeau (played in an embarrassingly bad cameo by Roger Moore) the whole time! It's kind of a rather big slight to Clouseau's character, setting him up as the villain in contrast to the new guy in town—in much the same way Al Pacino's Marvin Schwarz rather crassly explains to Leo's Rick Dalton in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.At least Trail of the Pink Panther had a sexy young Tasha Yar in a variety of sexy outfits...
This just has that mud bath scene. When doing any sort of franchise rewatch, avoid this one like the plague. Even 1993's Roberto Benigni-starring Son of the Pink Panther is better than this one.
The Man Who Loved Women (1983)
Since Curse was more or less finished by the time 1983 rolled around, Edwards was free to work on another film, ultimately releasing two films in the same year for the second consecutive year—1982's other release being the skinless Victor/Victoria. For his fourth film in two years, Edwards chose to do an English language remake of François Truffaut's 1977 film The Man Who Loved Women. Edwards had been planning the film for some time, initially offering the lead role to Dustin Hoffman, who turned it down, and then Warren Beatty, who was attached all the way through development before dropping out just prior to shooting.
Edwards ultimately went with Burt Reynolds, who was on the downside ofhaving been biggest box office draw for an entire decade, offering him his meatiest role in years.Edwards did away with Truffaut's framing device of the funeral for the protagonist—Reynolds' sculptor David Fowler here—instead giving wife Julie Andrews amuch expanded role as his psychoanalyst, to whom he spends the film confessing to all of the many affairs he's had over the years. We're privy to quite a bit of his philandering, including a dalliance with Jennifer Ashley that finds her topless in the tub...
The film's legacy, however, lies in the fact that this is the only place you can see Marilu Henner nude, and we mean really nude, completely nude, in bed with Reynolds—her future husband on the 90s TV series Evening Shade. Though she's nude in bed with Reynolds for well over a minute, we don't get our best look at Marilu's best bits until she gets out of bed...
Skin Deep (1989)
Having mastered the rich, white male mid-life crisisgenre, Edwards moved on to flicks like the buddy comedy A Fine Mess and a pair of Bruce Willis vehicles—Blind Date and Sunset—at the start of his film career. With the 90s approaching, Edwards took one last plunge into this genre he helped define with 1989's Skin Deep starring John Ritteras Zach, "a successful author who has a weakness for alcohol and beautiful women" according to the film's own synopsis.
Another brilliant comedic talent taken from us too soon, Ritter is a game leading man, albeit an unconventional one for this sort of movie. Edwards loved the notion of unconventional romantic leads in his films, however, like Dudley Moore in 10, so you could see why Edwards likely thought he could do the same with Ritter, who was mostly floundering as a film star. Sadly the film didn't light the box office on fire, as audiences were clearly growing weary of this particular genre, and it would morph in the 90s into the realm ofmore family-oriented comedy with flicks like City Slickers and Father of the Bride.
Edwards' last stand in the genre finds Ritter bedhopping with a number of beautiful women like Brenda Strong...
Heidi Paine...
and bodybuilder Raye Hollitt, who takes it all off to climb in bed with Ritter—who plays the rather awkward and insensitive scene with the right amount of pathos...
Switch (1991)
Edwards'penultimate theatrically released film is the 1991 body swap comedy Switch, a remake of the 1964 Debbie Reynolds classic Goodbye Charlie,this version starring Ellen Barkin and Jimmy Smits. Hunky TV star Perry King opens the film as misogynistic ad exec Steve Brooks, a womanizer who does and says whatever he feels with no regard for anyone else's feelings—you know, you're typical Blake Edwards protagonist, only more openly repulsive as a human being.
Brooks is summoned to a hot tub party being thrown by three of his exes, played by JoBeth Williams, Lysette Anthony, and Victoria Mahoney!Though all three ladies are supremely sexy, check out Lysette's breasts as she ties King's hands...
The three ladies soon reveal their plan, having conspired to teach him a lesson for the way he's treated women over the years. They attempt to drown him, but ultimately end up shooting him. Sent to Purgatory, he then gets an offer from God to go back to Earth and find one woman that loves him. The catch, of course, is that he goes back in the body of a woman—Ellen Barkin. The moment when Barkin realizes what has happened, we get a quick look at her right breast as she freaks out...
Edwards' last theatrically released film was the aforementioned Son of the Pink Panther, but Edwards stayed active, working on the Victor/Victoria Broadway musical and spending the twilight of his career almost exclusively in the theatre. He and Julie Andrews remained together until his death in 2010, and their love story truly is one that defied a lot of odds. Edwards' impact on the film industry is undeniable and lovers of comedy and just plain old great stories will continue to discover his work for decades to come.
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**Non-nude images courtesy of IMDb
