Only Two Can Play

"Only Two Can Play" is a slice of life comedy made in 1962. Based on a novel by Kingsley Amis, it concerns an assistant librarian, John Lewis (Peter Sellars) who has a chance at a better position and a raise, contingent upon him sleeping with the council chairman's wife (Mai Zetterling). He has a beautiful if exhausted wife at home (Virginia Maskell) and children, and the confines of his home are a little tight and chaotic. Lewis attempts to make a go of the affair, with humor and poignancy as the result.

This is a very well acted film, and a very satisfying one. Sellars wasn't a huge star yet, but all the elements are there. Mai Zetterling, primarily remembered today as a director, was a marvelous actress and very sexy. In her book, "All Those Tomorrows" she describes her experiences living with Tyrone Power and being madly in love with him for several years. That was some life she had. This was the last film Virginia Maskell would make for a time - she married after this movie and did very little until 1967. Sellars tried to get her replaced in the film, but the director refused. It seems odd, because she was very good. After the birth of a child in 1967, she became acutely depressed and ultimately overdosed on antidepressants. A sad end for a fine actress. The rest of the cast is excellent as well.

A very good film, well worth seeing.

This is a terrific example of a number of little English gems that Sellers made before his international stardom as Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther. The writing and directing are wonderful as is the great black and white cinematography that captures a dismal Welsh mining town. See it if you can find it.

I remember seeing this on late night when I was about 10 and along with The Mouse that Roared turned me into a Peter Sellers fan for life! I really prefer his early British films, although he was great in Strangelove and as Clouseau. I'm Allright, Jack is a particular favorite, along with The Naked Truth, Heavens Above!, The Smallest Show on Earth, and Carleton Browne of the F.O.

This is a sly, personal film about marriage and infidelity and it was nice to see director Mai Zetterling in a role that suited her. With all the blockbuster junk-filled spectacles, there will always be a place for wonderful little films like this.

Having have lived in the Welsh Valleys for a good while a few years ago, I really feel for this poignant, witty and largely forgotten and unknown little drama about a librarian. And his wife and his little 'adventure' on the side.

It's far sweeter than the average English kitchen sink, is superbly adapted from a Kinglsey Amis novel and features an array of familiar faces, from John Le Messieur and Richard Attenborough with Kenneth Griffith as a rather ridiculed and pathetically nerdy fellow librarian.

Peter Sellers is natural, the accent pitch perfect and his wife and family (great little daughter, full of big-eyed mischief & wonder) believable. His foray into an affair is rather glaringly obvious for a close-knit valley town to realistically withstand though I think there's a good balance between 'nudge-nudge, wink-wink' innuendo, which is usually wittily rather than crudely expressed and the more hum-drum, everyday scenes. Comedy is in there, but as a supporting act, so to speak and is nicely done.

Librarians generally get a rather staid and boring label and it would be far too obvious - and wrong - to have a zany character, or Sellers playing one. But, as in any profession, libraries employ different sorts and get all manner of customers.

Overall there's a warmth and freshness that I find endearing, though I might be a little biased. If you get a chance to see it, go for it. Apart from my originally seeing it on UK TV about 6 years ago, I've not seen that it's been shown since and only now have I been reacquainted with it on DVD. You can find it on The Peter Sellers Collection, included with it are I'm Alright Jack and Heaven's Above along with a disc that features a compilation of Seller's best TV work.

Understated comedic drama stars the sardonic Sellers as a Welsh librarian, bored by the blandness of his job and domestic labours, who develops a pathological weakness for women to fill the void, shamelessly flirting with customers, neighbours teetering on the brink of adultery at virtually every turn. He meets married well-to-do Liz (Zetterling) and the two become embroiled in a relationship that threatens to escalate into infidelity, though neither seem capable of consummating the sexual innuendo that's beckoning a heated interlude.

Virginia Maskell is first-rate as Sellers' stay-at-home wife, chained to the kitchen sink of life with two ankle-biters for whom to care while her husband attends literary parties and engages in dalliances at her expense. Maskell is clearly a cut above the hijinks, though Sellers is equally adept with this type of dry comedy and the two trade some very witty and at times poignant dialogue. It's a shame that Maskell couldn't capitalise on her talent, as she would have been destined for great performances, had she lived longer.

Kenneth Griffith plays Sellers' henpecked friend, while Graham Stark has a small role as an unwelcome library patron whose choice of book and subsequent indulgence ("yes I can see you enjoyed it") places Sellers under a great test of sufferance. That's future "Q" Desmond Llewellyn as a vicar aboard Sellers' daily bus route.

Astute dialogue, both sharp in its observations, and otherwise very witty ("how about the complete history of codpieces"), some sombre and pointed, "Only Two Can Play" is a measured study of unrealised ambition and the weight of everyday domestic pressures. Probably not for the casual Sellers' fan club, but should certainly keep others entertained, whether you're after dry humour or bittersweet drama.