Review of Only Two Can Play

Mai Zetterling was a member of that very exclusive club - the female actor/director/writer sorority.Her curse - if indeed that it be - was that she possessed great physical beauty as well as intellectual and artistic distinction:and in a society obsessed with physiognomical appearance her other attributes were very often considered to be of secondary importance. It is ironic then,that in "Only two can play",she is cast as by far the strongest and smartest character - Mrs Gruffyd - Williams. Strong,smart and very sexy,she is clever enough to hide the first two and flaunt the third.Mr Peter Sellers as John Lewis the oversexed librarian is in thrall to her from the moment they meet.Imprisoned in a dreary flat and an equally dreary marriage,a victim of his libido,Lewis is desperately seeking a little spice. Rather than a film of the sixties, this is very much a film of the fifties.It negotiates the labyrinthine complexities of post world war two British society skilfully,following the guidelines set down by Kingsley Amis(a determinedly 1950s man) in his novel.Adultery is contemplated,even attempted but never actually committed. Set in Wales,a country that at the time was considered to be even more prudish than middle - England ,the film pokes fun at social and intellectual pretensions as personified by Mr Kenneth Griffith and Sir Richard Attenborough respectively.The social and sexual aspirations of Mr Peter Sellers' character are gently mocked too. It contains a fine portrait of a woman whose life is crumbling round her as she desperately struggles to keep it all together that is worthy of a less light-hearted context.The late Miss Virginia Maskell reminds us with her portrayal of Lewis's wife that adultery may be a game that only two can play,but others are always on the sidelines. Mr Sellers' career went global soon after this,his roles gradually degenerating until they became merely exercises in virtuoso mimicry. I personally found his performances in "Dr Strangelove" detracted from its efficacy,and once he donned the white mac and alpine hat of Inspector Clouseau he never again played a character that was a recognisable human being.The role of John Lewis has a depth and truth he was not to find again,demonstrating the full range of his skills as an actor.It is a matter of regret for me that "Being There" is apparently widely accepted as his best work and "Only two can play " is virtually unknown.In a perfect world the reverse would hold good.