He's a conman serving his sentence, visited by preacher Wilfred Hyde White on the pretense of saving his soul, and finding himself involved in a breakout attempt (only overnight you see.) to aide his old partner (White!) in completing a robbery, obviously establishing alibis, and foolproof. There's a delightful slyness to this British prison comedy that fools its audience from the start by having Peter sellers playing a character who looks like Peter Sellers! This is the first time where I see him looking and acting like he might on a daily basis, that is if he weren't well, Peter Sellers. The bottom line is that the script is just lovely and it's no wonder that the film works so well. There's a lot more to the film than this, but I don't want to spoil it. They are ready to abandon their plans when they realize that they can get past Jeffries-it will just take a lot more patience and planning.

All looks like it will go like clockwork until the head guard is replaced by a martinet played by Lionel Jeffries. In fact, it's so lax there that when an old partner (Wilfrid Hyde-White) of Sellers arrives (disguised as a minister), Sellers and his friends agree to sneak out of prison a day before their discharge to commit a crime and then sneak back-guaranteeing them the perfect alibi. Colonel Klink of 'Hogan's Heroes' did a much better job of running a tight prison compared to the Governor (Maurice Denham)! Despite being a con-man and habitual crook, Sellers is made a trustee and practically every sort of vice occurs right under the guards' noses. The film begins with Sellers and his buddies incarcerated in one of the worst prisons in the UK. This isn't bad, however, as the film is a very low-key comedy and many of the supporting actors help out quite a bit with the comedy-particularly Lionel Jeffries, who plays a rather uptight guard.

Instead, while a comedy, he plays his part of a prisoner rather straight. Unlike so many of these little films, however, Sellers plays a role that is relatively 'normal'-without the odd accents or flamboyant acting. Thankfully, THE FIENDISH PLOT OF FU MANCHU is seldom seen on American television (uggh). Most were made before the Panther movies and sadly, other than Panther films, most of what we do seem to see here are his lesser films from the 60s and 70s. It's rather sad that all Sellers is known for today, for the most part, are the Pink Panther movies, as he made many lovely small-time movies in the UK that are hardly ever seen in the United States.

This is a not particularly famous comedy starring Peter Sellers.

Two way stretch 1960 movie