Dir: Simon Hesera | Cast: Peter Sellers, Mark Burns, Beatie Edney, Fiona Lewis, Maurice Reeves | Comedy Drama 93′
This far less glamorous version of La Feu Follet remains the joker in the pack of the careers of both producer Roman Polanski (who wrote the script and cast two veterans of Dance of the Vampires, and Peter Sellers.
Shelved for over twenty years before it finally emerged, the film is set in an incredibly bleak out of season seaside resort and filmed in Denmark. It remains to this day the most mysterious title in Peter Sellers’ filmography.
Sellers’ role (listed in the end credits as played by someone called ‘A. Queen’) is confined to a malevolent cameo alongside regular foil Graham Stark as one of a sinister pair who preside over a gift shop. The lead is actually played by a young actor called Mark Burns as a crapulent boor who spends the entire film rubbing people up the wrong way, notably Bergman veteran Eva Dahlbeck as a cafe proprietress. A young Beatie Edney steals the film in her debut billed as ‘Beatrice’. @RichardChatten
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