Peter Sellers: MGM Movie Legends Collection

Peter Sellers: MGM Movie Legends Collection

MGM, $39.98

The "comic genius" phrase so often tagged onto Peter Sellers' lapel came about largely from the British character-actor's ability to play widely disparate roles throughout his career, sometimes juggling multiple characters within the same film. If only Sellers had shirked showbiz and instead taken up the "world's oldest profession": He would have come up to your motel room and offered not to be whomever you wanted him to be but everyone you wanted him to be.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's latest Movie Legends Collection comprises The Pink Panther (1963), What's New, Pussycat? (1965), Casino Royale (1967), and The Party (1968). While certainly not the "ultimate" Peter Sellers collector's edition MGM purports, these four films complement one another in terms of goofiness and hilarity. Sellers was arguably best known for his role as Inspector Clouseau, forever loved for his portrayal of a gracefully uncoordinated, successfully incompetent detective. However, Blake Edwards' The Pink Panther does not glean all of its charm from Sellers' Austin Powers-inspiring act but also from the performances of equally sexy David Niven and Capucine. What separates The Pink Panther from the others is its charming, nicely wrapped ending.

What's New, Pussycat?, a chuckle-worthy movie directed by Clive Donner, written by Woody Allen, and starring quite the A-list – Allen, Peter O'Toole, Capucine, Paula Prentiss, and Romy Schneider – delivers wholeheartedly but explodes into that Sixties' brand of chaotic frenzy, where everything falls apart and the actors trip over one another for a good 15 minutes. James Bond spoof Casino Royale and Blake Edwards' The Party, in which Sellers plays an Indian idiot savant, similarly devolve into these hysterical, absurd endings, but, fortunately, the silly, dragged-out scenes always involve sparsely dressed, highly attractive actresses.

Where the box set falls short is in the special-features department: In all but one of the DVDs, only trailers and language selections are offered. Casino Royale, which is worth it for the Orson Welles scene alone, provides an informative making-of featurette, hosted by Val Guest, one of the film's five directors, as well as the original, made-for-TV version.

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