The Bobo ** (1967, Peter Sellers, Britt Ekland, Rossano Brazzi) – Classic Movie Review 10,277

Director Robert Parrish’s 1967 The Bobo stars Peter Sellers, who teams with his second wife Britt Ekland in a very minor, deservedly long-forgotten comedy about an inept singing matador called Juan Bautista (Sellers) given three days to woo a Spanish great beauty named Olimpia Segura (Ekland). A Barcelona impresario offers to book him and make him a stage star but only if he seduces Olimpia and spends an hour in her apartment with the lights off.

Sellers goes all out to make it work, even throwing in a bit of singing and being covered in blue dye as the Blue Matador, but it mostly eludes him. A few funny moments and the appealing cast with British cinema stalwarts Hattie Jacques, Ferdy Mayne, Kenneth Griffith, John Wells and Marne Maitland are the pluses.

It was partly made in Spain, in Barcelona, but also in Italy, at Cinecittà Studios, Rome, hence the presence of Rossano Brazzi and Adolfo Celi.

It is the couple’s second and last film together, following After the Fox. They met in a hotel and married after 10 days (19 February 1964 – 18 December 1968) (divorced, one child).

Also in the cast are Hattie Jacques, Ferdy Mayne, Kenneth Griffith, Al Lettieri, John Wells, and Marne Maitland.

It is written and produced by David R Schwarz, based on the 1959 novel Olimpia by Burt Cole, also known as Thomas Dixon. Schwarz wrote a theatre adaptation in 1961 called The Bobo but the play never was produced.

A troubled Sellers allegedly fell out with his friend Kenneth Griffith and Robert Parrish. Sellers insisted on directing some of the film, and originally sought a co-director credit. Sellers and Ekland were having marital problems, and Sellers’s mother died during filming.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,277

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com