A SPLURCH IN THE KISSER w$~~ Ill 1111111111 As eries from Wesleyan University Press Anthony Mann Edited by Jeanine Basinger New and Expanded Edition by Jeanine Basinger The series takes WESLEYAN FILM a back-to-basics approach to the art Irs the Pictures That Got Small of cinema. Books in the series deal Hollywood Film Stars on 19)0STtlevision with the formal, the historical, and Christine Becker the culmral- purting a premium on visual analysis, close readings, and The Films ofSamuel Fuller an understanding oflhe history of lfYou Dit, l'll Kill You! Holl)wood and intemational cinema, by Lisa Dombrowski both anistically and industrially. The volumes are rigorous, critical, and Physical Evidence accessible both to academics and to lay Selected FilmC riticism readers with a serious interest in film. by Kent Jones Series editor Jeanine Basinger, Action Speaks louder Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies Violence, Spectaclt, and tht at Wesleyan University and Founder/ American Action Movie Curator of d1e Wesleyan Cinema Revised and Expanded Edition Archives, is d1e author ofs uch landmark by Eric Lichtenfeld books as TheW orld War II Combat Film: Anatomy ofa Genre, AW oman's View: How Hollywood Ambitions Hollywood Spoke to Women, 1930-t96o, Celebrity in the Movie Age Silent Stars, and The Star Machine. by Marsha Orgeron A Splurch in the Kisstr The Movies of Blake Edwards by Sam Wasson Published by Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT 06459 www.wes leyan.e d uI w es press © 2009 Sam Wasson All rights reserved 54321 Library ofC ongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wasson, Sam. As plurch in the kisser: the mo1•ies of Blake Edwards I by Sam Wasson. p. em. - (Wesleyan film) Includes filmography. Includes bibliographical references and index. 978-o-8195-6915-8 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 1. Edwards, Blake, 1922- Criticism and interpretation. I. Tide. PN1998.3.E33W37 2009 791.4302'33092-dc22 University Press ofNew England is a member of the Green Press Initiative. The paper used in this book meets d1eir minimum requirement for recycled paper. To (in order of appearance) JEANINE BASINGER and DAVID FREEMAN This page intentionally left blank The struggle is less to hold onto our fantasies then to let go of them, to see the world truly and crazily, and master ourseJves by surmounting it. Out oft his struggle, Edwards has fashioned some of the funniest and truest work to emerge from the de.clinin.g years of Hollywood artistry. -Myron Meisel In 1993, the combined decision of the Directors' and the Writers' Guilds gave the Preston Sturges Award to Edwards. There was something so macabre, inappropriate, and inevitable in that decision-somehow the decline of Hollywood had bun encapsulated. -David Thomson This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Acknowledgments xi Matters of Introduction 1 PROLOGUE: BREAKING IN, 1922-1955 21 1 BLAKE BEGINS, 1955-1959 27 Bring Your Smile Along (1955), He laughed Last (1956), Mister Cory (1957), This Happy Feeling (1958), The Peljert Furlounh (1959) 29 2 BLAKE BUILDS, 1959-1962 43 Operation Petticoat (1959) 45 Hinh Time (1960) 51 Brealifast at T!ffany's (1961) 55 Experiment in Terror (1962) 62 Days oJWine and Roses (1962) 68 3 BLAKE BLOSSOMS, 1963-1 968 77 The Pink Panther (1964) 79 AS hot in the Dark (1964) 88 The Great Race (1965) 98 What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966) 109 Gunn (1967) 120 The Party (1968) 129 4 BLAKE BURNS, 1968-1974 143 Darlinn Lili (1970) 145 Wild Rovers (1971), TI1e Carey Treatmrnt (1972) 159 The Tamarind Seed (1974) 168 5 PANTHER PICTURES (BLAKE BANKS) 173 Sellers Lives Return oft he Pink Panther (1975), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), Reuen,ge oft he Pink Panther (1978) 175 Sellers Lives On Trail oJthe Pink Panther (1982), Curse oft he Pink Panther (1983), Son ofthe Pink Panther (1993) r86