Tripwire Reviews StudioCanal’s Vintage Classic’s Carlton-Browne Of The FO And Only Two Can Play

Sellers’ Market?

Tripwire’s editor-in-market Joel Meadows takes a look at two of StudioCanal’s Vintage Classics latest addition to their line: Carlton-Browne Of The FO, Only Two Can Play, out now…

Carlton-Browne Of The FO
Directors: Roy Boulting and Jeffrey DellStars: Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Luciana Paluzzi, Ian Bannen, Raymond Huntley

Only Two Can Play
Director: Sidney Gilliat
Stars: Peter Sellers, Virgina Maskell, Mai Zetterling, Kenneth Griffith

So StudioCanal adds to its Vintage Classic line with two films made respectively in 1959 and 1962: Carlton-Browne Of The FO and Only Two Can Play. Both have been restored in 4K but only one is a Peter Sellers vehicle although he is in both of them.

By 1959, Sellers was a star thanks to his turn in Ealing’s The Ladykillers although the actor who gets top billing in Carlton-Browne of the FO is the epitome of British cinema at the time, Terry-Thomas, who plays the eponymous figure, the slightly hapless foreign office mandarin, Cadogan De Vere Carlton-Browne. Here we have a very slight tale of a minor British foreign office official who is drawn into a diplomatic row when a former British colony, the fictional Gallardia, tries to play the country against the Soviets for their own ends. Sellers plays the island’s prime minister Senor Amphibulos and his role is definitely a supporting one. Thomas was obviously a talented comedy actor but Carlton-Browne Of The FO feels dated and outmoded these days and Sellers feels sidetracked here. Bannen raises the bar a little as the young king of Gallardia but Carlton-Browne of The FO is a flimsy comedy, only of interest to those keen to fill in any gaps in Seller’s career or who are British comedy completists.

The extras are decent enough, offering a little context to the film’s production.

Only Two Can Play, directed by Sidney Gilliat, probably best know for working on the successful St Trinian’s series of films, is based on the novel That Uncertain Feeling by Kingsley Amis, which was published in 1955. Sellers plays a librarian in Swansea, who finds himself torn between his wife Jean (Maskell) and glamorous married woman Liz (Zetterling), who wants to have an affair. Sellers was a genius at accents and here he invests John Lewis with real humour and warmth. Both Zetterling and Maskell offer very solid support as the other sides of the love triangle. We even have a cameo from Richard Attenborough as the former rival for Jean’s affections, playing a pompous Welsh playwright.

Only Two Can Play is a very solid comedy drama with Sellers excelling at treading the fine line between the two here. The extras do offer some intriguing background to the film too.

So Carlton-Browne Of The FO is a bit of a historical curio but there’s little to it as a film while Only Two Can Play is a far more accomplished affair, reminding us of just what a huge and versatile talent Peter Sellers was.

Both films are available on Blu-Ray now.