ACCESSIBLE DESCRIPTIVE TRANSCRIPT
[Visual and audio descriptions: Mellow music chimes as the PBS logo appears on screen. Jazzy music begins. On-screen text: American Masters. Blake Edwards. American Masters is made possible with support from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting. The Rosalind P. Walter Foundation. Sue And Edgar Wachenheim III. Seton J. Melvin. Lillian Goldman Programming Endowment. The Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation. Koo And Patricia Yuen. Thea Petschek Iervolino Foundation. The Philip And Janice Levin Foundation. Vital Projects Fund. The Marc Haas Foundation. Judith And Burton Resnick. Ellen And James S. Marcus. The Ambrose Monell Foundation. The André And Elizabeth Kertész Foundation. Blanche And Hayward Cirker Charitable Lead Annuity Trust. Kate W. Cassidy Foundation. Anita And Jay Kaufman. The Charina Endowment Fund In Memory Of Robert B. Menschel. Support For Blake Edwards: A Love Story In 24 Frames Provided By The Leslie And Roslyn Goldstein Foundation. Burton P. And Judith B. Resnick Foundation. And Public Television Viewers Like You. Thank You. This program includes scenes from Blake Edwards’ films that contain derogatory stereotypical depictions of fictional characters that are discussed in historical context. Viewer discretion is advised. Next, panning footage of lush green mountains under a blue sky. A quaint village dots the mountainside. In a garden, a sculpture of a sitting duck nests in a patch of purple flowers in bloom. Julie Andrews begins her narration.]
Julie Andrews: In a far off land, in a magical village, there is a most peculiar bird. This whimsical fellow was created by my husband, Blake Edwards. Blake was best known for being a writer and a film director, but he was also a gifted sculptor. So, if you really want to learn about my husband and the life we built together, allow me to suggest that you begin with this silly, but somehow elegant waterfowl. Look closely. Everything you could ever want to know is right here.
[Jazzy music begins. A burst of light brings a new scene, a white duck in a vintage animation style. Mischievous, he quirks his eyebrows before pulling letters onto screen spelling EKLAB. An animated Blake Edwards arrives in a submarine, fixing the letters to spell “BLAKE.” An explosion reveals: BLAKE EDWARDS: A love story in 24 frames. Animated hijinx continues, revealing featured names and glimpses into Blake’s iconic work. Featuring Julie Andrews, Jay Chandrasakar, Bo Derek, Geoffrey Edwards, Jennifer Edwards, Paul Feig, Rian Johnson, Larry Karaszewski, Scott Alexander, Leonard Maltin, Monica Mancini, Rob Marshall, Patton Oswalt, Robert Wagner, and Lesley Ann Warren. Director Of Photography Larry Herbst. Editor Michael Mayhew. Executive Producers Lisa Lautenberg Birer, Jay Firestone, Michael Kantor, Lou Pitt. Co-Producers Robyn Bliley, Frankie Montiforte. Written by Danny Gold, Michael Mayhew. Produced and Directed by Danny Gold. In a new scene, black and white photos appear of Blake Edwards, a middle-aged white man with light hair, dark eyebrows, low-set ears, and sunglasses. He kisses and embraces Julie Andrews, a white woman with short hair and long eyelashes. Low instrumentals begin as various interviewees are shown.]
Bo Derek, Actor, Producer, “10”: I didn’t know a lot of couples like Blake and Julie that were so equal.
Lesley Ann Warren, Actor, “Victor/Victoria”: It was kind of like royalty. [Laughs] I mean, that’s how I felt.
Paul Feig, Director, Writer, Producer, “Freaks and Geeks”, “Spy”, “Bridesmaids”: It’s a fascinating pairing. I remember as a kid finding out they were married. It’s like, “What? How’s that possible?” She’s from “Sound of Music” and he’s this comedy guy.
[Photos continue of Blake and Julie through the years. Now, Geoffrey Edwards, Director, Writer, and Blake’s son.]
Geoffrey Edwards: They seem to work so well together on and off screen.
Rob Marshall, Director, Producer, Choreographer, “Chicago”, “Victor/Victoria” Broadway: Blake was working to do was take Julie out of that mold that everybody had put her in. Sort of this idea that she’s the nanny, she’s Mary Poppins.
Jennifer Edwards, Actor, Writer, Blake’s Daughter: Dad knew who she was as a person and that she’s very funny. She swears like a truck driver.
Patton Oswalt, Actor, Writer, Comedian, “Ratatouille”: She clearly was a muse and she clearly was an example of how to live in a very cynical business with a sense of gratitude and optimism.
Feig: She brought class to everything she did. So then you put her in a crazy comedy and she is the grounding force that lets all this other madness go on around her.
Jay Chandrasekhar, Director, Writer, Actor, “Super Troopers”: Blake Edwards must have understood that “If I hire somebody great, they’re going to reflect back on me.” And she’s super funny.
Rian Johnson, Filmmaker, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”: And that works so well in the context of the anarchy and the rawness of the things that he built.
Marshall: You could see they were learning from each other. Julie would bring out the softness in Blake. And then Blake wanted to show her off.
Jennifer Edwards: There was a great trust and admiration for one another.
Geoffery Edwards: A true love affair.
[In archival footage, Blake and Julie laugh and embrace on a beach. An old picture of Radio City Music Hall, then, an older Julie Andrews wearing a red sweater and silver earrings.]
Andrews: My first awareness of Blake was when I went to see “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” at Radio City Music Hall. And I just was in awe of the lovely movie and the talent of the gentleman. Never really put any thought behind the fact that I might meet him.
[Light, jazzy horns begin playing as “1968” appears in large text. Palm trees line a bustling street in Beverly Hills.]
Andrews: But then many, many years later, I was driving in my car. I’d begun some therapy, some analysis, which I really needed at the time since Hollywood was just coming at me from all sides and I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted or needed. My therapist was down Roxbury. And I got to the meridian on Sunset Boulevard and a very beautiful car — I think it was a Rolls-Royce — came into the meridian on the other side of me. So I was heading that way and this car was heading that way. But because of traffic, we landed side by side. I looked across and it was a very handsome fellow. And Blake rolled down his window and said, “You’re Julie Andrews?” And I said, “Yes, I am.” And then he said to me, “Are you going to where I just came from?” And I said, “I think so,” because his analyst was on Roxbury, my analyst in those days, everybody else’s therapist was on Roxbury. So we both understood each other very well. And it wasn’t too long after that that I got a phone call saying he would love to come and talk to me about a project. And I said, “Well, for sure. We could meet at the Beverly Hills Hotel. I don’t live too far away.” And all I got back was, “No, I’ll come to you. You just stay where you are.” And I thought, “That’s a little cheeky, coming straight to my home.” But that night that he came to discuss that movie, we — it was just such a lovely, riveting evening. And then he said, “I just finished a movie called, ‘What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?'” “And I’m having a screening of it for some friends. Would you like to come?” And I said, “You know, I would really love that.”
[Footage from “What Did You Do In The War Daddy?” A soldier runs out onto a grassless field. A man blows a whistle and a lively crowd roars. A volleyball is kicked, and lands on the soldier’s gun.]
Andrews: I heard that he loved the way I laughed so much that he kind of felt “that could be my kind of gal.” From then on, I think we were an item. That’s just all I can say. It was pretty instantaneous. He was…dangerously attractive. But hold on.
[Needle scratches]
Andrews: I think we’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves here. Maybe we should go back a bit.
[Like a film spool rewinding, old footage from various movies plays. Text on screen reads: The Great Race, 1965.]
Actor (in movie): Push the button, Max.
Andrews: No, a bit further.
[Tape rewinds to reveal The Pink Panther, 1963.]
Andrews: A little more.
[Tape rewinds to reveal Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 1961.]
Actress (in movie): How do I look?
Andrews: More. There.
[Tape rewinds again and stops on black and white footage of tumbleweeds blowing over a barren hill. An isolated house appears. Large text on screen: 1922.]
Jennifer Edwards: Dad was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
[Black and white photos of a young Edwards and his family.]
Andrews: He didn’t have an easy life at all. His father left the family, and Blake didn’t see him again for a very long time, which must have been very difficult. He was a very sensitive, smart boy and quite a handful.
Jennifer Edwards: He was very artistic. He loved to paint and draw. His mother, Lillian, brought him out to California. She met Jack McEdward.
Geoffrey Edwards: Jack was a production manager and a producer.
Jennifer Edwards: And so my dad spent a lot of time on movie lots.
[Desaturated footage shows an old film set recording a movie. A 2010 interview with Edwards.]
Narrator: In Hollywood where 65% of all films are produced.
Blake Edwards: Occasionally, I used to climb the fence with other kids on the block. We’d play in the various sets. It was great for kids.
Jennifer Edwards: So it just seemed like a natural thing for him to go into the business.
Leonard Maltin, Film Critic, Historian, Author: He came up through the old studio system, first as an actor in the ’40s.
[Sepia footage of a young Edwards standing in a bar in a Western film, then Edwards from an interview in 2000.]
Actor: You better sit down, sonny.
Edwards: I wasn’t an actor for very long.
Actor: Sit down.
[Suspenseful music begins as Edwards’ character is thrown to the ground. He stands up and smashes a bottle in his hand.]
Edwards: I wasn’t very good. Even while I was acting, I was beginning to write and that’s what I wanted to do.
Maltin: His first real taste of success came in a medium that people don’t talk about much anymore, which is network radio.
[An old wooden radio with an orange tinted analog display is shown.]
Voice over radio: My name is Diamond and I’m in business for a very simple reason: I like money.
Maltin: He created, wrote and sometimes directed a popular radio show called “Richard Diamond.” It was the foundation of his success.
[1948 appears on screen in large text. A film projector spins a reel.]
Andrews: Blake had a friend and they decided they could write as good a western as the one they just saw.
Edwards: We saw some western. I criticized the hell out of it. And then we decided we would just write our own screenplay.
[Scenes from a western film in sepia.]
Narrator: This is the thrill-swept story of John Sands.
Andrews: I think that first piece was called “Panhandle.” It turned out to be not too bad.
[Fast-paced western music plays while two men shoot at each other in a duel.]
Edwards: I got to learn a little bit about the business. One thing I got to learn is that it was a director’s medium. I watched him work and I thought, “Boy, he’s having a good time.” And it’s very creative, and most importantly, nobody fools around with the script. So I thought, “Well, I’ll be a director and then I’ll control whatever it is I write.”
[Operation Petticoat appears on screen in large text. Fish swim underwater through the lens of a submarine periscope.]
Edwards: “Operation Petticoat” with Cary Grant was a big step in my career.
[A scene from the 1959 movie Operation Petticoat. Two men walk together outside as many others are working on machinery around them. Commentary splices between character lines.]
-Have you ever been in a submarine before, Mr. Holden?
-No, sir.
-We could use a good torpedo and gunnery officer. Any experience along those lines?
-Guns? I’m afraid not, sir. No.
Maltin: “Operation Petticoat” is light. It’s bright. There’s very little serious about that movie.
[A man looks out the submarine’s periscope while men work behind him.]
-Stand by two, three.
-Stand by two, three.
Maltin: It’s sexist by today’s standards.
[A woman enters the scene.]
-Oh, Captain, it’s time for your vitamin pill.
-Lieutenant, get below. Damn it, get below!
[The woman rushes off, a missile launches out of the ship.]
Maltin: But I think it still plays.
[The missile hits a truck onshore and it explodes.]
-What happened, sir?
-We sunk a truck!
Maltin: Blake created a private-eye series for television and called it “Peter Gunn.” And he set it in a jazz club, which required more than incidental music.
[Peter Gunn, ‘58-’61 appears on screen while a man smokes a cigarette on a city street. A full jazz club in black and white is shown, with upbeat jazz music playing.]
Maltin: And Henry Mancini suggested to him.
Monica Mancini, Singer, Henry Mancini’s Daughter: Blake had seen Dad’s work in “Touch of Evil” and he thought that would be the right vibe. And he said, “Would you like to score a TV show?”
Andrews: Hank said, “Would it be okay if I wrote a jazz score?” Blake said, “By all means.” And the first day that he heard that famous Peter Gunn theme, he said he just about fell down with delight.
[The mysterious and dark sounding “Peter Gunn Theme” plays over the opening title of the show.]
Maltin: “Peter Gunn” became a hit in large part because of its theme song, and thus began a long, almost record-breaking collaboration.
[Music continues over a montage of title cards spotlighting Henry Mancini’s music credits.]
Mancini: They rarely did any projects that weren’t with each other. It speaks to their relationship and how much they adored each other and how much they understood each other.
[A french horn plays a somber melody as Henry’s Grammy awards are shown.]
Johnson: You can feel when a great director finds a great composer that they click with because it’s like two hands clasping together and they complement each other so well.
[Strings begin to crescendo, an Oscar award stands next to a copy of sheet music for “Moon River” by Mancini.]
Andrews: Hank was so happy at being creative in a free space and knowing that we adored him and he could do no wrong.
[Text on screen: 1961. A woman stands at a store window and eats bread from a paper bag in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.]
Mancini: “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” was probably them at their best. Audrey, for one thing, has become just this icon.
[A scene from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. A woman walks into a room wearing a large black hat and puts on an earring. Commentary splices between characters’ lines.]
-How do I look?
Mancini: People still talk about that movie to me and “Oh, my God, that’s my favorite movie. I named my daughter Holly because of that movie.”
[Text: Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 1961. The same woman talks from behind a white curtain.]
-The thing is, I have the most terrifying man downstairs. I mean, he’s sweet when he isn’t drunk, but let him start lapping up the vino, and oh, golly, quel beast.
Marshall: Audrey Hepburn is so perfect as Holly Golightly because she’s this artificial person that she’s created and underneath there’s such sadness. A lot of his films are about sort of taking that mask away and revealing the real person underneath.
[A man and a woman stand next to each other on a stairwell, both wearing beige-gray overcoats.]
-So, my darling Fred, I have tonight made a very serious decision.
-And what is that?
-No longer will I play the field.
Edwards: Audrey and I just got along. Super lady. Just the best.
[Julie watches the film, a cat jumps onto a man in the scene while indistinct conversations happen around him.]
Andrews: Blake had just an idea about this. He felt that it needed to be the best party ever.
[Trumpets and piano play in an upbeat, bossa-nova feel while people dance inside of a crowded house.]
Edwards: And it would be a shame not to make the party a character. And I said, “There must be a whole lot of actors out there that aren’t working that could have a good time.” So, we brought champagne, people drank, and we had a party. And I just turned them loose. And they led me into inspirational kind of moments.
[Andrews watches the party scene on a TV screen in the room.]
-Who are all these people anyhow?
-Who knows? The word gets out.
Andrews: Oh, she looks so gorgeous. He wasn’t a bad hunk either, was he?
[Scenes from Breakfast at Tiffany’s continue as Marshall watches. A woman softly plays “Moon River” on a fire escape with a classical guitar.]
Hepburn: ♪ Moon river, wider than a mile ♪
Marshall: This song, I mean, it’s the most beautiful song I think ever in film.
Hepburn: ♪ Oh, dream maker ♪
Andrews: God Almighty, is that a beautiful song or what? Lyrics by Johnny Mercer.
Hepburn: ♪ You heart breaker ♪
♪ Wherever…♪
Marshall: He understood the power of music. People are so afraid of it, I think, now.
Hepburn: ♪ Two drifters ♪
♪ Off to see the world ♪
♪ There is such a lot of world to see ♪
Johnson: And the degree to which falling in love with her is the key to this film. And this song is the key to falling in love with her. It’s intangible, it’s perfect. And it’s just kind of one of those things like lightning striking.
Hepburn: ♪ Waitin’ ’round the bend ♪
Andrews: Waiting ’round the bend, my huckleberry friend.
Hepburn: ♪ My huckleberry friend ♪
Andrews: Lovely lyrics.
Hepburn: ♪ Moon river ♪
Marshall: That’s just movie magic right there.
Hepburn: ♪ And me ♪
Feig: But there are problematic things that happen in comedy and Blake has his share of them.
[In a scene, Mickey Rooney, a white man, plays a character named Mr. Yunioshi, outfitted in Asian stereotypes: Dark hair, a darker complexion, squinted eyes, and large teeth. He runs out of a room and grabs a wooden railing, yelling downstairs.]
Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi: Mr. Golightly!
Maltin: A film that people just cherish is marred by the repeated appearances of Mickey Rooney as the worst kind of stereotype. It was controversial even then because it was so extreme.
Chandrasekhar: Look, there’s no doubt that the Mickey Rooney portrayal of the landlord is on its face racist.
Maltin: Every movie is a mirror of its time. And you can debate whether it’s an accurate reflection or not, but more often than not, it is. And if you don’t take that into account, you can’t watch an old movie.
Feig: Honestly, if you lifted all those scenes, the Mickey Rooney scenes, out of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” I don’t think it would affect the movie one bit.
Maltin: Don’t cut. Don’t censor. Show them and discuss them.
[Text on screen: For more on derogatory stereotypes in film history, visit pbs.org/americanmasters.]
Geoffrey Edwards: In later years, my dad expressed regret for the racist tone that was portrayed.
[In the film, an alarm clock goes off and Rooney’s character jolts upwards, hitting his head on a paper lantern. Now, Edwards in a 2006 interview.]
Edwards: Looking back, I wish I had never done it. And I would give anything to be able to recast it. But it’s there, and onward and upward.
[Onscreen, 1963, ‘64, ‘75, ‘76, and ‘78 appear in white text over a red background in the opening sequence for The Pink Panther. A slim animated pink panther smokes a cigarette.]
Johnson: As a kid [Chuckles] nothing better than these opening sequences.
[Paul nods his head along with the Pink Panther theme song, watching the opening on a TV screen in a living room. #AmericanMastersPBS.]
Feig: I remember watching for the first time Clouseau and this dad laughed like he would fall off the couch laughing, literally.
[In an opening sequence, the animated pink panther sits underneath the title and gestures to himself, before getting spooked by the title growing quickly.]
Scott Alexander, Writer, Producer, “Ed Wood”, “Dolemite Is My Name”: Seeing “The Return of the Pink Panther” at the Cinerama Dome when I was 11 years old. At that age, it was the best movie ever made. I absolutely adored it, and those opening credits, Blake Edwards Production. His name is really big. And it really hit me that this guy knows how to make the funniest movies I’ve ever seen.
[A scene from The Return of the Pink Panther, 1975. Clouseu stands in a hallway with a group of officials dressed in uniforms and suits.]
-But our security measures.
-I’m sure your security measures are very good, but [Laughs] obviously not good enough. Let me see.
[An alarm goes off as Clouseu steps forward. An iron wall falls behind him, separating him from the men.]
-Ah!
[Clouseu turns around and smacks the metal wall with his hand, he shakes it in pain. The wall lifts up and he tries to play it cool in front of the others.]
Marshall: The films that you see when you’re young are the ones that stay with you, and those are the ones that leave such an impression and they make you who you are as an artist.
[In Saps at Sea, 1940, a man hangs from a building in black and white footage.]
-Ah! Help! [Grunting]
Marshall: And Blake’s humor revolved a lot around slapstick.
Jennifer Edwards: Laurel and Hardy were basically Dad’s muse.
[A man wearing a bowler hat sits in a car with a mattress in the backseat.]
-Now, don’t drop until I get the mattress underneath ya.
-Well, hurry up! I can’t hold on much longer!
Edwards: Stan and Ollie make me laugh to the point of not being able to recover.
[The man backs his car up to catch the falling man, and drives straight through the building. The man falls to the ground screaming.]
Andrews: He loved the old Laurel and Hardy movies. But he then seemed to expand on it to a great degree.
[A scene from The Pink Panther Strikes Again, 1976. A vibraphone and horn section play a slow, jazzy instrumental. A strange looking man with prosthetic features answers a phone. Hissing is heard in the background.]
Clouseau (in a thick french accent): Yes? This is Chief Inspector Clouseau. Who is speaking?
[The camera cuts to a wider shot where it is revealed that Clouseau’s back is inflating quickly. He begins to float off the ground while still speaking on the phone.]
Johnson: “Pink Panther Strikes Again” was my favorite. And it’s got the goofiest stuff in it. But I mean, I guess now I can appreciate the tradition of physical comedy that’s represented in them.
[Dramatic strings swell as Clouseau floats above a city street. Realizing, he drops his phone, which swings right into the head of another man. The man falls down onto a detonator.]
Clouseau: Wh-Wh-Whoa, whoa, wah-wah!
[The entire building explodes and Clouseau is blown backwards.]
Maltin: He was not just emulating or imitating what had been done. He was taking them to another level.
[In a new scene, a man tries to remove a shoe from the mouth of a powerful vacuum. Once doing so, he swings the vacuum over his shoulder, accidentally vacuuming a bird out of its cage.]
Feig: He did what I strive to do in my career, which is high and low, which is you take very lowbrow humor, gags, physical comedy, and you put it in a higher context, highbrow setting.
[A young Robert Wagner in a film.]
-Here, my love.
Robert Wagner (Interview): Blake was so inventive.
[Text on screen: The Pink Panther, 1963. A telephone rings. As the man picks it up, the plate next to it crashes to the ground. The man struggles picking everything up.]
Wagner: He and Peter Sellers when they started develop the character of Clouseau, it was improvisational a lot of it.
[The man fumbles answering the phone. On the other end of the call, a man wearing a yellow sweater holds his nose while he speaks.]
-Hello? Inspector Clouseau.
-[Nasally] Inspector Clouseau?
Wagner: It was so exciting to be around. You could just tell it was going to be a hit.
[In a scene from The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Closeau jumps out of bed and goes for the lightswitch.]
-Wow-ow-ow!
Johnson: The Pink Panther movies, watching them as kids, they always felt slightly sexier than they should be.
[The light turns on and a woman is shown in his bed, covered up only by the sheets.]
-Oh, forgive me, darling. I’ve just washed my hands.
Johnson: There was always an element of something very adult about them. Even when they were at their most cartoony.
[Feig watches a scene on the TV. Clouseau talks to an old man at a desk.]
-Do you have a [Thick French accent] room?
-I do not know what a [Thick French accent] room is.
Feig: [Laughs] Whenever you talk about Clouseau, this is always the gag everybody talks about. Across the board. People will go, [French accent] “Does your dog bite?”
-Does your dog bite?
Feig: It’s just so funny the way that he’s trying to be sweet.
[Clouseau bends down to pet the small dog.]
-Nice doggy.
[The dog suddenly jumps, and barks loudly. Clouseau turns back to the man.]
Feig: [Laughs]
-I thought you said your dog did not bite.
-That is not my dog.
Feig: [Laughs] It’s just a big corny gag. And then there’s a cuckoo clock at the end, just to let you know that the gag is ridiculous.
[A cuckoo clock goes off. In a new scene, Clouseau knocks on a large wooden door. A man dressed in a suit walks towards him.]
Andrews: The entire family now speaks “Clouseau.”
-This is a door.
-Uh, yes, sir, that is a door.
-Yes, I know that. I know that.
Andrews: “Yes, yes, I know that. I know that,” you know. And it was always Sellers’ answers.
[Marshall watches a screen showing Clouseau approaching gymnast bars, placed right next to a staircase.]
-This reminds me of my younger days at the Surete Police Academy.
Marshall: You see that and you see Peter Sellers, you know what’s gonna happen.
Johnson: The thing that he had such a great intuitive sense for is building that beautiful anticipation.
Marshall: [Laughs] I can hear Blake, like, stifling a laugh off camera.
[Clouseau begins swinging on the bars.]
-Yes, it’s all coming back now.
Marshall: Here it comes. You know it’s coming.
[He swings right down the stairs. He gets up after a moment, and tries to play it off to the people around him.]
Marshall: [Laughs] But see, it all comes from character.
-Well! That felt good!
Feig: And it’s the comedy of trying to cover up, trying to be normal and things going terribly wrong that is very funny and very relatable to an audience.
[Trying to play it cool from his fall down the stairs, Clouseau addresses two older women sitting on the couch.]
-I expect you are all wondering why I asked you here.
[He accidentally steps on a woman’s foot, and the woman screams. Frightened, he backs into a suit of armor and smacks it down with his hand.]
Johnson: I think about this scene every time I write the end sequence of one of the “Knives Out” or “Glass Onion” movies where he goes around to all the suspects and he gets the gauntlet stuck on his hand. Oh, it’s so good.
[Clouseau speaks while holding a metal gauntlet that’s stuck on his other hand.]
-There’s a very good chance that someone in this room knows more about the murder than he is telling.
Feig: What’s so great about his physical comedy too is how tactile it is.
-You!
[Clouseau tries to point to a man but accidentally throws a spiked metal ball towards his face. The man falls back in his chair onto the floor.]
-Oh, dear!
Clouseau: There is much more going on here than meets the ear.
[Clouseau tries to strike down a fly, and accidentally flings the spiked ball into a baby grand piano, destroying it. The piano keys fly out and a plume of dust follows.]
Feig: [Chuckles] Look at all the keys coming out of the keyboard. Why would the keys come out of the keyboard? Because it’s hilarious.
-But that’s a priceless Steinway!
-Not anymore.
Feig: So there is this cause and effect that makes it funnier.
-One, that Professor Fassbender and his daughter…
[As Clouseau speaks with his hands behind his back, a shot is shown of the metal ball slowly heating in the fireplace behind him.]
Edwards: I worked for a director, Leo McCarey, who talked about the golden rule is if you’re going to do a joke, you do the joke…
-That my hand is on fire. [Screaming]
[Clouseau yells and tries to get the gauntlet holding the weapon off his hand.]
Edwards: …and then you try to top that joke.
[Clouseau tries to stomp out a fire, stumbles, and gets his hand stuck in a flower vase. Two men in suits walk into the room.]
-Ow!
-What’s going on?
-Oh, good afternoon, sir.
Edwards: And then you try to top the topper, at least that.
-Ah, Inspector.
[A man salutes.]
-Superintendent.
[Clouseau salutes and the vase hits his head. He falls backward and knocks a gun off the wall, which fires off a second later.]
Andrews: They had more fun on the sets of all the Panthers than you could possibly imagine.
[In The Return of the Pink Panther, 1975, Clouseau walks into a kitchen and opens a refrigerator. A man jumps out of it yelling, engaging in a clumsy fight with Clouseau.]
-[Screaming]
Chandrasekhar: The Cato scenes in “The Pink Panther” are incredible.
-[Screaming]
[The two men fight. Clouseau falls down and his head lands next to the head of a tiger that’s been made into a rug. The man goes to kick him in the head, but Clouseau moves at the last second, causing the man to slam his foot into the open mouth of the tiger. Clouseau smacks the man in the chest. Clouseau runs towards the enemy and jumps towards him, screaming and moving in slow motion, feet first. He misses completely and crashes into a door.]
Feig: Oh, the slow motion is so brilliant. It’s not a natural thought as a comedy director to go, “Oh, it’s gonna be really funny to just shoot somebody flying through a kitchen and falling in slow motion.” Because you kind of — your instinct is like, “Oh, no, you want to just like bang crash and everything falling down.” So that’s a comedy director working at the absolute top of their game.
[A mysterious instrumental begins. Black-and-white footage of a bridge at night with cars covering the road. Text on screen reads Experiment in Terror.]
Marshall: The first thing people think about when they think of him, they think of the Pink Panther films. But I actually think of the range.
[Foreboding music plays as a woman dressed in a robe turns off a light. She walks through a room filled with mannequins.]
Johnson: You see how he brought a level of craftsmanship to such a broad spectrum of genres. So that’s the thing that I connect with and admire the most — the restlessness of his creative spirit.
[A dog barks as a woman exits her car. She turns around and looks confused as the garage door closes behind her.]
Oswalt: Any filmmaker will tell you, getting a scream and getting a laugh are very, very similar. So a master of comedic cutting timing staging is probably gonna be pretty good at getting a scream.
[A close up shot of the woman shows her looking around nervously. From the shadows, a man reaches around and covers her mouth with his leather glove. A harp plays an eerie chord.]
-[Gasps]
Oswalt: You got the little Henry Mancini glissando on the strings when he appears and it just — it…works, man. He knew. The dude knew how to put on a show.
[Text on screen, Days of Wine and Roses, 1962. Thunder crashes as a man enters a greenhouse with many windows and flowers. He shuts the door behind him.]
-There we go.
Johnson: “Days of Wine and Roses” is one of the most extreme examples in terms of the scope of what his ambitions were.
Andrews: Jack Lemmon was one of Blake’s favorite people to work with. Always got what Blake wanted. And all Blake had to do was say “Take it down” or “bring it up.” And Jack got it instantly.
[The man crawls on the ground and grabs a flask. Then, photos of Lemmon and Edwards are shown while slow jazz music begins.]
Edwards: When the film was done, Lemmon and I went and had dinner and we were both obviously big drinkers, and I don’t remember whether it was me or whether it was Jack who said “Do you realize that we made this film about an alcoholic and we’re sitting here and how many drinks have we had so far?” And it began to bother me.
Jennifer Edwards: My dad literally stopped drinking and smoking cigarettes after making “Days of Wine and Roses.”
[Ethereal music plays over black-and-white photos of Edwards and crew working on set. Then, Edwards’ children, now adults, open a photo album together.]
Jennifer and Geoffrey Edwards: Aww.
Jennifer Edwards: Aww. The Rolls-Royce!
Geoffrey Edwards: Yes.
[A color photo of Edward’s and his two children standing in front of a black car. Edwards is holding a camera in one hand and his kids in the other.]
Jennifer Edwards: Where were we going?
Geoffrey Edwards: I don’t know. But that’s Mom. When would the first time you were aware of what Dad did?
[Old family photos and videos are shown featuring Patricia Walker, Edwards’ former wife. Then, photos of Edwards on set.]
Jennifer Edwards: He was leaving in the morning or whatever. And I would say, “Well, where are you going?” And he’d say, “Well, I’m shooting today.” And I had visions of him on the golf course aiming guns at targets. He was doing “Experiment in Terror” up in San Francisco. And he called the house and I was put on the phone and I said, “Daddy, I miss your face.”
Geoffrey Edwards: Mm.
Jennifer Edwards: And he flew back that night.
Geoffrey Edwards: Oh.
Jennifer Edwards: For like the weekend. Yeah.
Geoffrey Edwards: That’s Dad.
Jennifer Edwards: He said it was really emotional for him. I think I was probably five.
Geoffrey Edwards: He seemed to take us to work a lot, which I question whether we ever went to school.
Jennifer Edwards: [Laughs] The first set that we were allowed on was “The Great Race.”
Geoffrey Edwards: Is that true?
Jennifer Edwards: Yeah.
Geoffrey Edwards: I guess I remember being on the snow set.
[A black-and-white still from the set of The Great Race. A group of four people are gathered on an iceberg with an ocean set behind them.]
Jennifer Edwards: Right. That was the first time, I think.
Geoffrey Edwards: And that was wild.
Jennifer Edwards: The iceberg.
Geoffrey Edwards: Right. Exactly.
Jennifer Edwards: And the polar bear.
Geoffrey Edwards: Right. That’s right.
[A scene from The Great Race, 1965, shows a polar bear crawling out of a vehicle.]
Jennifer Edwards: There was a fake iceberg. There was fake snow. And it was so bright and colorful and it was magical. It was kind of Disneyland-like.
[Tuba, piano, and marching snare drum play as a man fires a gun. Many cars begin to race through a city.]
Jennifer Edwards: The cars were amazing.
Andrews: While I was doing “The Sound of Music,” my agent let me know that I’d been offered a role in “The Great Race,” which was being directed by Blake Edwards. And I thought, “Oh, I’d love to be able to do that.”
[A drum roll begins. Two men in fancy clothing sit inside of an old car.]
-Push the button, Max.
[The garage around them explodes and the man screams.]
Andrews: But I couldn’t get out of “The Sound of Music” of course. But all I could think of was that just has to be fun and what a delicious thing to be doing.
[Fast-paced carnival music plays as scenes show people throwing pies at each other, intercut with photos of the film crew covered in pie. Back to the photo album, we see a sepia photograph of the two children with their mother, sitting in a tree.]
Jennifer Edwards: And Mom.
Geoffrey Edwards: She’s beautiful.
Jennifer Edwards: She was gorgeous. Sad.
Geoffrey Edwards: Yeah.
Jennifer Edwards: Even though we look so happy, there was a lot of sadness. This was around the time that they were…
Geoffrey Edwards: Getting divorced.
Jennifer Edwards: …gonna split up.
Geoffrey Edwards: Yeah, they were probably split up for all intent and purpose.
Jennifer Edwards: Yeah.
[A scene from The Party, 1968, shows a film crew in the desert.]
-Look, I just spoke with Clutterbuck on the phone. He says if we don’t wrap this location today, it’s your neck.
-No problem. All we have left is to blow up the fort.
Edwards: “The Party” was 90% improvisation. We wrote down characters, what we wanted to start with, and what we wanted to end with. And we improvised.
[Two men rig a detonator on screen. Feig watches on the TV.]
-Alright, stand by!
Feig: I love “The Party.” One of my favorite movies. There’s so many funny gags in this movie.
[The main character in the scene, outfitted in stereotypical Indian clothing, tries to adjust his sandal and puts his foot down on the detonator, not realizing what it is. The fort explodes and the film crew is in shock.]
Feig: Here’s this guy who wants to be an extra, he completely screws up an entire shoot, blows up a fort and everything. He’s gonna get drummed out of the business. He doesn’t even know it.
-You!
Chandrasekhar: And the director says, “You’ll never work in show business again.”
-I’ll see to it you never make another movie again!
-[Indian accent] Does that include television, sir?
Chandrasekhar: [Indian accent] “Does that include television, sir?” [Normal voice] And you’re like, “God, is that — that’s so funny.”
Feig: And then, by an accident, he gets invited to this party. He’s not sure why he is there, but he’s really excited to be there and trying to be on his best behavior. Well, you can’t not root for that character. You like that character. So now you’re gonna follow them through every bit of turmoil they go through. It’s so humanizing in that way.
[At a lavish party, the main character notices mud on his shoe and tries to subtly wash it off in a pond. He looks around and his shoe pops off, floating down the pond.]
Chandrasekhar: I remember my first reaction to “The Party” was, “That’s a pretty good Indian.” Like, there are uncles and aunts that remind me of the details of his performance.
-I missed the middle part but I can tell from the way that you’re enjoying yourselves, it must have been a very humorous anecdote.
Feig: You could definitely not get away with that today. But again, comedy is constantly changing and I look at some of my movies and go back and go, “Ooh, gosh, you know, we probably shouldn’t have made that joke.”
[The character in brownface, stands next to a bird cage. Text on screen: For more on derogatory stereotypes in film history, visit pbs.org/americanmasters.]
-Birdie, nom-nom.
Maltin: It’s a form of dialect comedy if you will that we found acceptable in the late ’60s that no longer is.
Chandrasekhar: You know, in Shakespeare, men were playing women, right? That was okay then. Then it became not okay. Okay, fine. Then we stop doing it. But at the time, Peter Sellers’ Indian was the hero of the movie. I mean, he gets the girl in the end.
[Text on screen: #AmericanMastersPBS.]
Maltin: And the gags are just superlative.
Chandrasekhar: There’s a scene in “The Party” where Peter Sellers is flirting with a blonde woman and there’s a drunk waiter.
[People in fancy clothing sit at a long dinner table. Text on screen: Steve Franken as Levinson, the waiter. Watching the scene are Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, Writer, Producer, “Ed Wood”, “Dolemite Is My Name”.]
Larry Karaszewski: Steve Franken is one of the rare people in a Edwards/Sellers movie that actually gets almost equal comic time to Sellers. It is very funny.
[In the scene, the waiter falls forward and another waiter grabs the plate out of his hands before he reaches the floor. The waiter stands up and it is revealed that he tripped on the manager, who was kneeling down.]
Chandrasekhar: The drunk waiter’s manager is angry at the drunk waiter and the manager gets him into the kitchen. And the swinging door of the kitchen keeps swinging open. And it’s just these layers of comedy. And that is what Blake Edwards teaches.
[The main character and a woman are shown eating at the table. Behind them, a door swings back and forth as people come and go from the kitchen. Each time the door is open, we see an escalating progression where the manager eventually chokes the waiter.]
Karaszewski: The biggest laugh in the whole film almost is this one thing right here with the chicken.
[The man cuts a roast chicken, which slips right onto a woman’s wig.]
Alexander: Then they come up with the idea of Steve Franken removing the chicken and her hair from her head. It’s like that’s funny. But no. Now we’re going to keep going. Now we’re going to put it down on Peter Sellers’ plate. Now he’s got a big hunk of hair in his plate, which is so funny. Most directors would get out there, but then they’ve got this insane final gag where you go to the mannequin [beep] over by the water, and now the mannequin [beep] is wearing her hair and Peter Sellers is a hundred miles away at the other end of the yard.
[In a new scene, the main character is in a bathroom.]
Oswalt: This kind of energy that you create when you have a director that so clearly trusts and is delighted by their actor, because Sellers is so comfortable and knows he has the time to build this and even build the awkwardness, creates instant interest from the viewer. You feel the confidence, the actor and the director together. You’re like, “Well, this has gotta be good.”
Karaszewski: This scene’s amazing just ’cause it’s literally one thing.
[The man struggles with the toilet’s button flusher.]
Alexander: This scene is so great ’cause everything is there for a reason. There’s a painting on the wall, there’s toilet paper, there’s a toilet lid. And each one of those elements is going to build to construct this incredible joke.
[The man wipes his hands and notices that the toilet won’t stop running.]
Feig: You’re on his side because clearly if you were at a fancy party in Hollywood and something was going wrong in the bathroom, which everybody’s gonna blame you for, ’cause there’s no one else to blame, It’s all very understandable.
[Concerned, the man removes the lid of the toilet tank.]
Karaszewski: First of all, we’ve all been there [Laughs] in someone’s house and the toilet isn’t working properly and you’re like “Oh, lord, do I go out and tell them?”
[The picture on the wall falls into the tank.]
Alexander: He’s such a great character ’cause he’s so sweet and so well-intentioned and such a good soul, but he’s an idiot.
[The man grabs some toilet paper to clean the picture, and the roll just keeps spinning.]
Johnson: It’s also — go back to the silent-comedy thing you do creating with tableau for the comedian to work within. And when you have Peter Sellers, my God, you can do it. [Laughs] It keeps going.
[The man stares at the toilet paper roll as the last piece of toilet paper falls off.]
Oswalt: It just — It feels very, very real, you know. You instantly get pulled in as an audience member.
[1968 appears in large text onscreen over footage of a Beverly Hills street. Then, a picture of young Blake and Julie.]
Andrews: We dated for quite a while, but I wasn’t in any hurry. He scared me at times because I knew that underlying that incredible charisma and charm and talent, there was something kind of dark and mysterious. We were both coming off a marriage. Blake had two children, Jennifer and Geoffrey. I had my own daughter, Emma. And I was very nervous about meeting them because I wanted them to know that I wasn’t going to try and take their dad away from them. I decided that maybe they might like to see “The Sound of Music.” So I asked Robert Wise, our director, whether I might be able to show a screening in private.
Jennifer Edwards: Dad came to pick my brother and I up and said, “We’re gonna go to a screening,” which wasn’t unusual.
[Black-and-white photos of Edwards and his children getting in a car.]
Geoffrey Edwards: We were going out to dinner and a movie to meet somebody he was dating. We drove on the Fox lot.
Jennifer Edwards: And we went into a screening room and there was nobody there except for, in my 8-year-old head, Mary Poppins.
Geoffrey Edwards: And we sat and watched “The Sound of Music.”
[On screen, a woman sings in a large grassy field surrounded by mountains.]
-♪ The hills are alive with the sound of music ♪
Jennifer Edwards: And I remember sitting there watching this huge screen and thinking, “What is my dad doing in the back row with Mary Poppins?”
[Jazzy instrumental plays over footage of a city lining a coast at sundown. Behind it, clouds roll over a mountain.]
Andrews: I had to go away on location to the south of France for a film that I was doing called “Star!” And he continued to phone and so on and so forth. And one morning he said, “Can I just play you something?” And I said, “Sure.” He said, “Well, keep the phone very close to your ear.” And he played the song that Mancini wrote called “Nothing to Lose.”
[In a movie, a woman sings a song in a fancy living room. Guests are gathered around her wearing suits and dresses.]
-♪ Nothing to lose ♪
Andrews: It has a beautiful lyric. Nothing to lose if we are wise. We’re not expecting rainbow-colored skies. It was “let’s just take it easy” was really what it was about. And when the song was over and I said, “Oh, Blake, that is a sweet song. It’s perfect.” And he said, “Yeah, it is, isn’t it? Now will you marry me?” [Laughs] over the telephone. And I was flabbergasted. I had no idea that’s what he was up to. Uh, and at that point I said, “Will you give me time to think about it? Because I — I’m thrilled and flattered, but oh, my gosh, you took me by surprise.”
[A film projector spins as an animated retelling of their wedding day begins. A clapperboard reads: The Wedding, Take 1.]
-Blake and Julie wedding, take one, marker!
[A clapperboard claps. A butterfly flies past and birds are heard chirping in the background. Plucked strings play a joyful melody.]
Andrews: We did eventually get married. We decided to do it very quietly in my garden. And we just had about six people. We had put a video camera to the left of us and a friend of ours was up in the hill above the minister filming us. And just as the wedding ceremony was over, our friend on the hill said, “I’m not sure that I got anything off this camera because all I’m seeing is black.” And we said, “Well, at least we’ve got the video camera on the left.” [Dog barking] Somebody had kicked the plug out of the wall on the video camera and Blake said to the minister, “Would you mind marrying us again?” At which point he didn’t mind at all. [Clapperboard claps] By this time though, we were aware of what that sweet man was saying, which was like this spherical piece of magical gold. And it went on and on and I could see Blake pursing his lips and I began to get the giggles. So the camera never worked on the hill, but we do at least have a very pretty wedding book.
[Photos of a young Edwards and Andrews in love.]
Karaszewski: Towards the beginning of Blake Edwards’ directing career, you go from “Operation Petticoat” to “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” to “Experiment in Terror” to “Days of Wine and Roses” to “The Pink Panther.” It’s like he can do no wrong.
Geoffrey Edwards: But in the early ’70s, things weren’t going so well for Dad.
[Darling Lili, 1970 appears onscreen. Planes descend in a scene.]
Edwards: There were two rather important films that were major train wrecks. One was something that involved my wife, which was very near and dear to my heart at that time.
[A scene from the film, a woman sings on a flower decorated set.]
-♪ And not the girl…♪
Edwards: I felt relatively soon after meeting and getting to know her that there was a great untapped quality in her.
-♪ Oh, no ♪
♪ There’s somebody special…♪
Edwards: She’d been really pigeonholed. She’d really been stuck in Mary Poppins and Maria Von Trapp. And that’s terrific for those films but I just knew there was more to it.
Andrews: “Darling Lili” was about World War I. And I played a German spy. I wasn’t sure that it was the role I should be doing, but we had an absolute ball shooting it. We moved to Ireland on a beautiful estate. We lived on the estate, we shot on the estate, we took our children with us.
[Footage of Andrews and Edwards children living on a large estate. Then, Edwards children flip through a photo album.]
Jennifer Edwards: This is “Darling Lili.”
Geoffrey Edwards: Mm-hmm. That was such a big movie. You know, the airplanes and Rock Hudson and the castle.
[Black-and-white photos of Edwards and others working on set.]
Andrews: I can’t say it was easy to be part of the movie while also trying to get the kids to tidy up a bit or making sure they were safe for a day. But it was a magical time together. It really was because we were making a family.
Geoffery Edwards: She dove right into being a parent. From the moment she took on Dad, she took on us.
Jennifer Edwards: We really, really did sort of everything as a family. So it was the three kids and a lot of motor biking and horse riding. She read us, I think, like “The Velveteen Rabbit.” There were a few stories that she would read us at night.
Geoffrey Edwards: I fell asleep.
Jennifer Edwards: Yeah, that was the point. We had a bet with her, remember?
Geoffrey Edwards: Yeah.
Jennifer Edwards: She was so upset, uh, with us for leaving clothes on the floor and all of that. And I said, “Well, we’ll do what you say, but you need to stop swearing.” And she said, “Well, what do you want –”
Geoffrey Edwards: “If I lose.”
Jennifer Edwards: “If I lose, what is it that you –” and I said, “I want you to write a story.”
Geoffrey Edwards: And she said [beep].
Jennifer Edwards: Like immediately.
Geoffrey Edwards: And then she wrote — That started her writing career.
[A children’s book, Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards.]
Jennifer Edwards: Exactly. One swear word.
Geoffrey Edwards: One swear word. This made me want to do this.
[A photo of Blake holding Geoffrey behind a video camera.]
Jennifer Edwards: I don’t remember sitting on Dad’s lap and looking through the camera lens or anything like that. I always wanted to be in front of the camera.
Geoffrey Edwards: Yeah. That he could actually take the time to do that. I’m sure that the folks back home maybe didn’t like it so much ’cause he was burning money.
[Mysterious down-tempo music begins.]
Andrews: There were some tough times. There were, I have to admit. I found him pacing up and down and couldn’t decide what angle, what shot. And I suddenly thought, “I think he’s a little bit nervous, too.” So many people came down to visit us from Hollywood. But on the day that they came, of course it was raining and so on. Everybody was just lounging around, hoping that the sun would come out because we needed to match the skies. The studio blamed Blake for the cost overruns and he was very upset.
[A plane falters in a scene of Darling Lili.]
Edwards: I had challenged [Laughs] Bob Evans to step outside. I said, “You have done everything possible that you can do to embarrass me and to insult me. And you leave me no alternative but to act like a caveman. It’s just, if you’re gonna hire me, then you hire me. Not you telling me what to do.”
Andrews: I think that particular group of people had dollar signs coming out of their eyes between Blake and me. And it was Rock Hudson. It was a lovely, funny, silly film to make. But I don’t think people wanted to see me as a World War I spy. And it wasn’t a successful movie. Though I am happy to say that people today are rediscovering the film.
Marshall: The movie opens with that wonderful Henry Mancini, uh, song, “Whistling Away the Dark.”
[Marshall watches a TV.]
Andrews (onscreen): ♪ Often I think…♪
Marshall: Out of the blackness comes this beautiful Julie Andrews. There she is. And it’s stunningly shot because it’s just her.
Maltin: There aren’t too many performers who could open a movie the way Julie Andrews does here.
Johnson: This opening sequence, when I first saw it, I think I texted like eight of my friends, like, “Just put on the first five minutes of ‘Darling Lili’ right now.”
Andrews (onscreen): ♪ …to keep…♪
Johnson: I’m a really big fan of this film, and I know it had a very tortured path and I know he had a miserable time with it, but I was just dazzled by it. The way that you’re just like thrown into this magical performance.
[In the film, the camera follows Andrews as she walks past red lights.]
Marshall: At this time, steadicam wasn’t really a big thing where you’re just sort of, you know, can move anywhere. So I’m wondering if Blake did this on a track of some kind. That beautiful classic Julie Andrews profile.
Andrews (onscreen): ♪ …my poor old heart has given up for good ♪
Marshall: It’s very brave to open a movie with something so somber and melancholy.
Andrews: It took a whole day to get it completely right. I had to lip-synch absolutely clearly and not miss a beat and not look down at my feet as I was trying to hit my marks and walk where it was meant that I should walk. The grips were pushing a trolley. The cameraman had to pull focus and change things.
Andrews (onscreen): ♪ My darling ♪
♪ Tell me dreams really come true ♪
Marshall: But mostly he’s letting Julie just do what Julie does best.
[Red lights cause the lens to flare into horizontal lines of varying length.]
Johnson: And also, what is the lens that’s creating these universes within universes of these dazzling red flares?
[Text onscreen: #AmericanMastersPBS.]
Marshall: The camera’s just spinning around her. It’s so beautiful. And she’s just luminous, of course. And you just see the love. I mean, this is obviously the blossoming of their relationship and you see how much he loves her.
Johnson: The visual invention that he brought. You can feel him kind of chasing his muse. I know what that feels like trying to do that.
[Cheers and applause play over a black-and-white photo of Andrews and Edwards in font of a curtain. Soft, melancholic piano begins.]
Andrews: When we went home that night, we both were so proud. Everybody did their best work that day. When you think about the fact that we were married 43 years altogether and our first film was a flop, it’s mind-boggling to me that we stayed together that long and it didn’t break us up. Collaborating with your spouse is maybe, to begin with, extremely nerve-wracking ’cause how do you know he is gonna like what you do when you’re married to the guy or certainly in love with him?
[Edwards and old home videos.]
Edwards: I say so at the risk of really sounding like just another fan. She is a remarkable human being. She really, truly is.
[A clapperboard oncsreen reads: “Scene 85 Take 2, Director B. Edwards.” The board is brought down and a young Andrews is revealed sitting on a chair.]
Andrews: Collaborating eventually was speaking shorthand, putting it to bed at night when we came home. If we wanted to talk about something, we did.
[Edwards and Andrews walk on a path next to trees.]
Edwards (onscreen): Let’s weigh the issue. What appeals to you?
Andrews: If we didn’t, we had to come home, take care of the kids, and be a husband and wife and things like that.
[The music picks up into a mid-tempo groove. Edwards and family sit and eat around the dinner table.]
-[Speaking indistinctly]
-Want to barbecue on the beach tonight?
-No.
-Yeah.
-I’d love it. [Laughter]
Edwards: Her failings are fun. There’s nothing really disastrous about them.
[Outside, Andrews tries to ride a unicycle. Their child falls in the pool.]
-Whoa!
-Ah! Ah!
Edwards: There are things that angered the hell out of me because they’re so diametrically opposed to my M.O. But always, uh, I find myself sort of inwardly smiling.
[Footage of Andrews and the children on a beach. The music changes into a western inspired soundtrack.]
Andrews: So collaborating with your mate is a wonderful gift, really, if you’re lucky enough to find a way to be able to do it. Blake’s next film was called “Wild Rovers.” [Western music playing] We traveled with Blake to Arizona and we shot in the most beautiful surroundings. I was just Mrs. Edwards having a wonderful time. “Wild Rovers” was about two cowboys who are adorable. After the death of a friend of theirs and they decide they’re never gonna get in life what they’d really love to have. And they decide just once to rob a bank.
[Wild Rovers, 1971 appears onscreen. A man sits on a horse while another man stands next to him, holding a bowler hat in his hands.]
-Well, I’d rather be rich! I’d rather have that ranch and all them pretty girls now than bust my butt, break my bones, punch in cows for the next 25 years.
Andrews: “Wild Rovers” was the first time I began to really notice that Blake really was writing in a biographical way. When in the film one of the cowboys say, “I don’t want to have to wait till I’m in my 80s. I want it now while I’m able to enjoy it.” And that was typical Blake. Blake called me one day and he said, “Honey, I’m at MGM. I’m in the recording studio. Could you get down here right away?” I got in the car and rushed to, um, this sound stage at MGM, and Blake was running the horse-breaking sequence. And Jerry Goldsmith was conducting to the screen.
[Fast paced strings begin as a man rides a horse through the snow.]
Jennifer Edwards: Henry Mancini was actually not available and Dad hired Jerry Goldsmith.
Andrews: I think it’s an amazing piece of film. I do.
[The man lassos a rope as horses gallop ahead of him.]
Marshall: Blake was particularly proud of “Wild Rovers.” He talked about it a lot. I think he felt it deserved more.
[Mid-tempo jazz begins.]
Maltin: Famously the intensely disliked James Aubrey, who was then running the studio, recut.
Karaszewski: So Aubrey has a separate cutting room and cuts I think 20 to 40 minutes out of the movie and just keeps the bare bones necessary for the plot. The thing about “Wild Rovers” is the things that give the movie soul are the stuff in between the plot.
Andrews: Aubrey butchered it.
Edwards: That was just too much. I couldn’t handle Hollywood, if you want to call it that, although I’m not sure what the hell Hollywood is.
Andrews: And it’s the catalyst that made him want to leave Hollywood and never go back.
[Film reel spins as an animated retelling of a story begins. A clapperboard reading: “The Close Call, B. Edwards, Slate 11, Take 6” is shown.]
-Close call, take six, mark.
[Clapperboard claps and an up-tempo, jazzy organ begins playing.]
Andrews: Aubrey got him where it really hurt and Blake couldn’t get him off his mind. And Blake was driving home fantasizing about what he’d like to do to him. And he swerved around a corner and narrowly missed a pedestrian who was jogging. And he thought, “Oh, my God, I got to pay attention.” And he looked up into the rearview mirror and it was Aubrey that had been jogging. And he said he knew that no one in the world would’ve believed him when he said, “I just killed Aubrey but I didn’t do it on purpose” because of course he was thinking about him. He came home and told me and he was just shaking. So we went off to work in Europe and ostensibly to live happily ever after, so to speak.
[Drone footage of Switzerland’s mountains.]
Geoffrey Edwards: So Dad and Julie and the whole family moved to Switzerland.
Edwards: I was really licking my wounds at that point.
Andrews: Blake was a depressive. He had a very dark side to him.
Feig: Comedy people are an interesting breed. There’s very few comedy people you meet who are just happy-go-lucky and have the greatest lives. They have problems with depression and many times and all that. It’s one of the things that drives you to do comedy. I think normal people, for lack of a better term, aren’t driven to make people laugh.
Andrews: He was so unhappy about what had happened with “Wild Rovers.”
[A younger Edwards sits, looking despondent before putting on his glasses and using a typewriter.]
Edwards: And said, “That’s it. I’m just gonna write.”
[Typewriter clacking.]
Edwards: And nobody can do much about that. They either like it or they don’t, they either buy it or they don’t. And I don’t have any bosses but myself.
[Uplifting jazz begins, before quickly transitioning to a peaceful acoustic guitar lead song. Black-and-white photos of Edwards and Andrews in a montage.]
Andrews: He came up with a couple of ideas. And these were the two of the most biographical films, “S.O.B.” and “10.” In a way he wrote out his demons particularly in “S.O.B.” I thank God for his sense of humor because I think it got him out of his depression. Blake and I hoped to have our own kids together but we weren’t successful. And so we adopted two new children from the country of Vietnam: Amelia and Joanna. And so we have two very beautiful Vietnamese daughters who have been with us now virtually 50 years. We decided to move to London and make some movies there. And we had a movie that we’d been offered by Sir Lew Grade, who was, you know, a big impresario in England.
[Dramatic strings play over footage of “The Tamarind Seed”. “A Blake Edwards Film” is shown in white text over a close-up of a person’s eye. The camera moves backward and transitions into a shot of a red sun behind a cloud.]
Karaszewski: He does “The Tamarind Seed.” That doesn’t really feel like a Blake Edwards movie, but it feels like Blake proving to the world “I can be a good boy.”
[Andrews sits outside with a man, scooping sugar into her teacup.]
-What do you do at the embassy?
-I am a military attaché.
Karaszewski: “See, I can make a movie like everyone else. I can make a spy thriller.”
[Three men throw explosives into beach home. Andrews character screams.]
-Ah!
[A scene of a shootout on the beach.]
Karaszewski: “I’m not gonna go over budget. It’s going to look nice and it’s gonna be a regular movie.”
[The crowd screams. Next, down-tempo marimba plays over photos of Edwards looking pensive.]
Andrews: We had a two-movie deal. The second movie was supposed to be something that I was going to be in. And finally I could see Blake getting more and more stressed. And I said to Blake, “Blake, I don’t want to do this second movie. It’s too much stress and ridiculous. Uh, what if I bow out?” And he looked at me and he said, “Don’t say anything to anybody. I’ll be back in an hour.” And he went off to see Sir Lew Grade and convinced him to do another “Pink Panther” at that point. And he came back and said, “It’s okay. You’re out of the movie. You don’t have to do it. We’re going to do Pink Panther instead.” And I sort of thought, “Well, that’s not exactly what I was hoping that we’d do. I was hoping we’d go off and pitch a tent somewhere and, you know, do that.” And so it all started all over again.
[“The Pink Panther Theme” plays over the opening sequence of “The Return of The Pink Panther”. A cartoon panther faces away from the camera and dances.]
Karaszewski: I think Blake winds up going back to Panther because he recognizes how important it is to have a box-office hit. If he has a box-office hit, he can actually become viable again in the movie business, and maybe he can make, maybe, those personal films that he’s talking about. Things like “S.O.B.” and “10.”
[An animated sequence begins. The camera pans downward revealing “Blake Edwards, The Return of The Pink Panther”, which each word stylized differently.]
Edwards: I went to a party shortly after it’d come out and was a big hit. And they were all saying “I knew. I was the one. Everybody else was saying but I knew you’d come back.” Everybody did that. It was just a joke. I loved it.
[Stacatto marching percussion plays over a legato trumpet melody. A promotional poster for the movie “10,” featuring a man and woman on the beach. The white-suited man stands in the water and looks down at the woman, who wears a revealing bathing suit, laying in the water and placing her feet on the man.]
Andrews: “10” is about a guy who should have committed a long time ago and didn’t really want to and has a very understanding lady, and he finally sees a woman of his dreams. And she is, in fact, he says, “She’s better than a 10. She’s 11.” And that was Bo Derek.
[Black and white stills of Bo Derek running on the beach in a one-piece bathing suit, her hair braided with beads tied at the ends. Up-tempo percussion begins.]
Derek: I was married to my husband, John Derek, who was a filmmaker, and I got this call from a mutual friend. She said, “Blake Edwards is looking for this, uh, perfect woman on a scale of 1 to 10.” They sent me the script and my husband said, “It’s a great part. If you were ready, you would get it, but you are not ready. And it’s about time someone else tell you you’re not ready.” But I came home with the part. Blake changed my life forever. Blake told me that he got the idea for the script when he was driving in Beverly Hills and he saw a wedding car pull up at a stoplight next to him. And the bride was turned away. And he just went into this idea that what if she turns around and she’s my dream girl. So in the film, that’s how I’m introduced, when I turn around, and something about her look just sends Dudley Moore off on this chase to find her, to fall in love with her.
[A wedding scene. Dudley Moore watches the ceremony behind flowers and greenery in the church, trying to be discreet despite a bee crawling on his face.]
-Consider these two rings. Perfect circles without beginning, without end.
Geoffrey Edwards: Not only did “10” have the Blake Edwards slapstick signature…
-In sickness and in health. From this day forward, till death do you part.
-Ah! Ow!
Chandrasekhar: “10” is about obsession and sex and yet there’s slapstick all over.
[A man looks through a telescope. He looks away and spins it, hitting himself on the head which knocks him over. He rolls down a hill.]
-Oh, God. You have all — Oh! Ah!
Geoffrey Edwards: …but it also is deeply personal.
[Dudley Moore and Julie Andrews sit in bed together in a scene.]
-First, I’m getting a little fed up at sexually emancipated ladies being referred to as broads. Second, I think a telescope aimed at anything other than the stars is an invasion of privacy and qualifies the voyeur as a peeping tom. And there’s a very good law against that.
Oswalt: That feels so lived-in, it’s like a conversation that she and Blake Edwards probably had.
-Third, the first two really wouldn’t bother me a bit if you’d stop watching so god [beep] much television and pay a little more attention to your bedroom guests. This guest in particular.
Johnson: You could put this in a movie today and people would be talking about it coming out of, you know, coming out there. People would be tweeting a lot about it in this moment. I mean, and also it’s fashioned with a very fine scalpel.
Andrews: There’s this wonderful shot of little Dudley naked, two beautiful ladies beside him, three backsides all in a row.
[A scene from the movie accompanies narration.]
Johnson: The fact that he’s using the framing device of the keyhole that they’re both looking through of the telescope and just the perfect pauses and that perfect little beat that he gives and then… Pew! Runs.
[Bo Derek in “10” jumps into bed with Dudley Moore.]
-Whoa! [Laughs]
Derek: Blake loved women. He wrote great characters, strong women. And I think that where you’re going along with this story of this funny guy, Dudley, following this fantasy creature, and then she turns out to not be what he wants, but something very different and strong and modern. And he can’t handle it.
-I guess I just don’t understand that kind of thinking.
-Well, evidently not.
Johnson: I love the entire movie, but I didn’t love love the movie until this scene clicked the entire thing into place.
-I thought you were something different, something special.
-I am!
Johnson: He finally has her in the bedroom. It’s about to happen. And we all know just instinctively through good storytelling instincts, we all know this is a sequence where the fantasy has to come crashing down.
-I thought maybe you thought I was something more than just a casual lay.
-Why did you think that?
-Oh, great, thank you.
Johnson: The fact that they have this incredible scene where these two actors absolutely kill it, and it feels honest and real, and she reveals herself to be guileless but not innocent and to just know who she is and what she wants.
Oswalt: That scene is so brilliant because, um, one, Bo’s really good in that. Um, this is a guy who has finally met a truly liberated woman and he’s terrified.
-And if I feel like sleeping with someone, I do it because I want to.
-Mm-hmm.
-I enjoy it. It pleases me.
-Jolly good.
Oswalt: He’s showing him “I’m as complicated and deep a person as you are. That’s what true liberation is. And that’s the opposite of what you actually want.” It’s such a great pulling the rug out from under Dudley’s character.
Johnson: He’s a middle-aged dude whose emotional innards are these thorny kind of thicket of hang-ups and fears and desires and unhealthy things that have grown up over all the years. And the reality is he’s in because of that, he’s not compatible with this young woman who has this incredibly healthy kind of perspective on sex. And to have that be the way the whole thing kind of falls apart and that be what he kind of learns from, it’s incredibly, painfully honest in a self-examining way.
Geoffrey Edwards: “10” was an enormous hit. And it allowed him to continue making the films that he really wanted to make.
[Blake Edwards’ “S.O.B” opening sequence: Julie Andrews whistles as she peers out from on-set castle arches, guarded by men dressed as toy soldiers. In the next scene, a tired man sits in the back seat of a car rolling into the ocean.]
Maltin: “S.O.B.” is a very personal film, and you can tell. It’s about the trials and tribulations of a movie maker.
Andrews: Everything in “S.O.B.” had actually happened somewhere in Blake’s life. It’s Hollywood at its most foolish, at its silliest, but also to some degree as it really, really was.
[A scene from “S.O.B.”]
-So, if you’re really gonna end it all, I can show you half dozen great ways to do it.
Andrews: “Standard operational bull[beep]” is what the title meant. And it is devastatingly funny and heartbreakingly sad.
[Continued scenes, the man sticks his head in an oven while a couple dances nearby, not paying attention. Then, he stands on a stage holding a microphone.]
Oswalt: Knowing what you know about Blake Edwards and also knowing what we know now about depression and about anxiety and grief. The Richard Mulligan character is so openly suicidal, and no one around him is helping him. They’re just shrugging it off and making jokes while he’s spiraling into madness and despair.
-The dream sequence will become erotic orgies!
-Felix.
-It is perfect!
Chandrasekhar: Directors back then behaved in a way that would be more dangerous today.
-You’re going to recut “Night Wind” and you’re going to cut it exactly the way I tell you to cut it.
-Never!
-Then by God, if It’s the last thing I do, I’ll fix it so you never do another picture in this town as long as you live! Ow! Oh, my God!
-Oh, my —
Chandrasekhar: There was an attitude back then that the director knew everything and the studio heads knew nothing.
-It’s your film! A Felix Farmer production.
-And who okayed the script and budget?
Oswalt: That feels like a conversation that Blake Edwards had in his head at 2:55 a.m. on a lot of successive nights over a lot of successive movies. You have those volcanic rages in your head when you realize what you’re up against.
Johnson: Yeah, it’d be the equivalent of making a movie now and making it about, you know, X, Y, and Z, you know. I don’t even have the guts to say the names of X, Y, and Z now. He made an entire movie flipping them off.
[Text on screen: #AmericanMastersPBS. Scenes continue.]
Oswalt: There’s so much vitriol against the studio system, not only what it does to directors but what it does to actors, actresses, how it pits the creatives against each other.
-You lunatic! You maniac! Sixteen million!? Felix, half of that money is mine!
-That entitles you to 50% of the profits!
-That entitles me to have you arrested for grand theft, larceny, fraud, embezzlement, you thieving, filching, son of a bitch!
-Sally Miles swears!
-And you’re going to give me my eight million or so help me I’ll have you locked up for the rest of your unnatural life! [Vase shatters]
Andrews: He wanted me to spoof my own image.
-♪ Polly Wolly Doodle ♪
♪ Polly Wolly Doodle ♪
Andrews: [Laughs] I said fine. But then when he told me that I might and probably would have to go topless…
[In a scene, a man injects something into Julie Andrews’ hip to deescalate her panicking.]
-No, no, no! There is no way in God’s Earth that I’m going to bare my ha out there on that stage!
Andrews: It took 10 years to get that film made, and by the time it came around, I wasn’t the least bit nervous.
-Can she work?
-Is Batman a transvestite? Who knows? I was specifically requested to alleviate her anxiety. Work was never mentioned.
-Irving! She’s got a very big scene to do!
-[Laughing] I’m gonna show my boobies. What do you think, Irving? You’ve seen my boobies. Mmm. Are they worth showing?
-Well, since I can only render an evaluation based on a completely impersonal, purely professional examination of the subject — uh, subjects — I would have to say that in my humble opinion you’ve got a terrific pair of knockers.
-Yay!
Oswalt: It is a very, very realistic satire about raging against the machine that the machine is totally cool to let you rage.
[Now, the opening title for “Viktor und Viktoria” 1933.]
Andrews: Blake came home one day and he said, “I spent the afternoon watching an old movie, and it would be such a role for you, honey bun.” That became “Victor/Victoria.”
[Subtitles from the black and white film: A man?!]
Maltin: “Victor/Victoria,” which is based on a German film and the British remake of the German film is a story of a destitute performer.
Marshall: Victoria can’t make it as a singer in Paris. And her wonderful friend that finds her, Toddy, you know, roaming the streets of Paris, takes her in and together they cook up this idea.
[A character trims Julie’s hair in a scene.]
-A woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman?
-Ridiculous.
-It-It’s preposterous.
-In fact, it’s so preposterous no one would ever believe it.
Marshall: So everybody assumes that she’s actually a man. And then goes on stage as a woman where she actually can sing high notes and so forth and so on. And she becomes the toast to Paris.
[Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria. She reveals her face from behind a fan, dancing and singing on stage.]
-♪ La, la-la-la, laaaaa ♪
♪ La-la-laaaa ♪
Andrews: I loved making the movie, but I said to Blake, “Darling, no one is going to believe that I am able to do drag.”
Edwards: She, I don’t think to this day, is completely convinced that she was that good in “Victor/Victoria.” And I would get into those thing and finally end up in an argument. I said, “Trust me, it works,” you know.
[Easy going instrumentals play over archival photos of Julie and Blake on set.]
Andrews: I trusted him so much because he’d proved it time and time and time again with the films that we did together. There was one wonderful day when I walked onto the set in my tuxedo with my hands in my pockets, and for the first time, none of the guys turned around in deference to a lady. And I suddenly thought, “I think they now accept me as a guy.” And I just stood and talked with them as if I was a guy. And it was an amazing feeling.
[Continued scenes from Julie in Victor/Victoria.]
-♪ Oh, so, baby, Le Jazz Hot maybe ♪
♪ What’s holding my soul…♪
Marshall: I have to say I was so thrilled that he finally did a musical. It was inevitable. He had musical in his blood. Musicals were so few and far between, and it was so thrilling that a proper musical like this starring Julie Andrews and Robert Preston came out. And then there’s a love story with this man who falls in love with a woman playing a man playing a woman.
[A man and Julie perform in a scene, both in masculine hair and tuxedos.]
-Would you believe me if I told you we were in love?
-No.
-Because homosexuality is unnatural and a sin.
-According to who?
Lesley Ann Warren, Actor, Victor/Victoria: Right from the beginning of the film, he’s addressing gender identity and what does it mean how does it play out in our relationships and our sense of selves and all of that? Absolutely, it was ahead of its time.
Marshall: Blake had a romanticism about his work, too. You can fall in love with a man, a woman. It doesn’t matter. It’s like, who is the person?
-I don’t care if you are a man.
-I’m not a man.
-I still don’t care.
[The characters kiss.]
Edwards: That scene, he made a really definitive sexual statement, but he hedged his bet in the film because he had seen that she was a woman. I didn’t want to do that exactly that way, and I didn’t on the stage. When I did “Victor/Victoria” for the film, I felt as I was writing it that this would make a terrific Broadway musical.
[Text on screen: 1996. Broadway in New York. Electric city lights, taxis fill the city streets and people crowd the city sidewalks.]
Andrews: It was 40 years since I’d been back to Broadway. I couldn’t believe that I was coming back again after all this time. And I think Blake wanted it for my sake as much as anything.
Edwards: She needed a challenge. She’s one of those people that does best when she’s got to climb the mountain.
[Behind the scenes photos of Julie in rehearsals. Uplifting broadway instrumentals play.]
Andrews: Rob Marshall was the wonderful choreographer. The first day that I went into the studio and I was going to see something that he’d worked on, and I took one look at all those dancers, and I was getting very close to 60 by then, and these people were so hugely energetic and young, and I thought, “God, I’m gonna have to pull my socks up on this.” And Rob was fabulous and made it easy that I could blend in with them. And I think Blake wanted to prove himself as a theater director.
Edwards: The bottom line is that I needed to do it for me.
[A gray-haired Blake directs in rehearsals. Jovial instrumentals play.]
Marshall: He loved that it was a living, breathing thing that he could constantly work on and change. For instance, after the show opened, he’d say, “There really should be some kind of dance number for Julie, something like a tango between Norma and Victoria or Victor. I think there could be great humor in that.” He was so instinctively right. It was one of the highlights of the whole piece because you get this character trying to be a man and every once in a while being a girl and then being a man again in dance. Blake absolutely loved his experience on Broadway. I think if it had come to him earlier, he would’ve done many more Broadway shows. He was so excited. He was like a kid in a candy store.
[A still of Blake smiling dancing playfully during a stage rehearsal. Next, reporter Cynthia Tornquist in a CNN report. Instrumentals come to a halt.]
Reporter: Just a short time ago Julie Andrews, who earned a Tony nomination for Best Actress for her performance in “Victor/Victoria”…
Marshall: When the Tony nominations came out, the only nomination that the show got was for Julie.
Andrews: I really got very hurt and upset by that, not at my nomination but that they didn’t acknowledge what went into that show to make it as good as it was.
Edwards: She said, “I don’t care what they think about my ability. I don’t think anybody can get up there without the proper material, without the proper support from their actors, and do something that they deserve a Tony nomination but nobody else does.”
Marshall: At the end of a show she said she wanted to speak to the audience.
Andrews on stage: Sadly I cannot accept this nomination. [Audience gasps] And I prefer — I prefer instead to stand with the egregiously overlooked.
[Cheers, whistling from the crowd. News articles detailing Julie declining her Tony nomination.]
Marshall: And so she wasn’t thinking selfishly about “I never had a Tony. This would be a sort of slam dunk for me this year.” She thought that it wasn’t fair. That’s who she is. And all of us loved her. All of us on the team loved her before. We loved her so much even more after that.
[Text on screen: 2023. People gather for an event.]
Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, Artistic Director for the Sag Harbor Cinema: I’m Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, and I’m the founding artistic director of the Sag Harbor Cinema. A tradition in the Sag Harbor Cinema is the year-round retrospective, which is a tribute to an artist that runs through the year. This year, the tribute is entirely dedicated to the collaboration between Julie Andrews and Blake Edwards. The films they did together reflect a very interesting combination of Hollywood glamour and home movie because they’re all very personal. “That’s Life!” is the most personal movie. So here is Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton.
[Applause from the audience as Julie enters the stage with her daughter.]
Emma Walton Hamilton, Author, Julie’s Daughter: Hello!
Andrews: I’m Julie. That’s Emma.
Hamilton: Might not recognize us 40 years later.
Vallan: So how did this all begin?
Andrews: Blake had been in a very down period. He was quite often quite depressive, and he’d been in a very bad state, and one day he was sitting in the Jacuzzi. Um, suddenly out of the blue, Blake said, “You know what I’d really like to do? I’d like to make a small independent film and I’d like to cast it with all the people that I love the most.” And he said, “I think I’m entitled to one film the way I’d like to try to make it.”
Hamilton: “And I’d like to shoot it here at the house.”
[Black and white stills of Blake on set. A promotional movie poster for the Blake Edwards film That’s Life! Starring Jack Lemmon and Julie Andrews. Lighthearted instrumentals play.]
Andrews: Here on the property, our property. Six weeks later, we had trucks and porta-potties and God knows what all over the place, and a swarming crew. And thus began one of the sweetest experiences.
Maltin: I don’t know, a more autobiographical movie. Jack Lemmon is the alter ego of Blake Edwards. Julie Andrews is his wife. That’s really Jack Lemmon’s son. That’s really Julie Andrews’ daughter. In their actual house. I don’t know how much more realistic you can be.
Jennifer Edwards: In “That’s Life!,” I played Megan, the daughter of Jack and Julie. Everything revolves around Jack’s character, who’s about to turn 60. And he’s questioning who he is and being a jerk the whole weekend about his birthday. And she’s living with this idea that maybe she has cancer.
[A scene from “That’s Life!”]
-To Daddy on his 60th birthday and in two months to be a proud grandpa!
-Yeah! Grandpa Harv!
-Grandpa Harv!
-Grandpa Harv!
-I hate that!
[Tender, sorrowful instrumentals begin.]
Jennifer Edwards: There was a lot of Dad in Jack’s performance. He hated birthdays, especially the ones that made him older. [Laughs]
Marshall: That was definitely Blake because he was dealing with a lot in his life sort of personally. He loved that honesty.
Andrews: He said to all of us on the first day, “I’m giving you a 16-page outline. This is your — what your character is.”
Jennifer Edwards: We didn’t actually know what, uh, we were gonna do until we did it. It was sort of improv.
Andrews: Blake wrote about his own breakdown. And it was the weirdest thing for me who had seen Blake through his breakdown. And then to see him acting it out for Jack Lemmon was slightly surreal or bizarre. And I thought in a way, you know, he knew where he was and what he was doing all that time. Somehow Blake was able to observe as well as go through a breakdown. I think it was his way of looking at it all and putting it in perspective. And he really was much better when the film had been done. It kind of was a catharsis for him in a way.
[Julie and Jack Lemmon sit at a table together.]
-Honestly God, sweetie, I-I-I’ve got to get the hell outta here. I’ve gotta go up to the house. So please.
-[Inhales deeply] Harvey, you go up to the house right now and I’m going to, and I don’t mean up to the house, I mean forever.
Andrews: There’s a scene at the end of “That’s Life!” we were allowed to say whatever we wanted. And what I had been longing to say to Blake for so long was to get over himself and couldn’t because he was so desperately sodden with grief. And then there I am seeing it in the movie. I mean, how bizarre can it be?
[Back to Julie in the scene.]
-Now, it seems to me you have three choices: you can take your own life. That’s a stupid and vicious thing to do. And what kind of a legacy is that to leave your kids, hmm? Or you can look at what’s right under your very nose, which is that you have three beautiful children who adore you. You have a wife who happens to think you’re the best thing since chopped liver.
Maltin: He wanted that verisimilitude. He wanted that intimacy. And he got it. He achieved it.
[Julie walks to Jack in a scene. They embrace, a large lit up sign behind them reading HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARV. Next, Jim Carrey presenting at the 76th Academy Awards in 2004.]
Jim Carrey: I know that I’m the luckiest man in the world tonight because I get to pay tribute to a man who, through his creative genius, has heaped joy upon the world.
Andrews: When Blake was told that the Academy would like to honor him, he was suddenly the most nervous man in the world. And it had to be funny.
Carrey: Ladies and gentlemen, one of the true masters, Blake Edwards!
[Applause and laughter as Blake, in a motorized wheelchair, zooms across the stage, accepts his Oscar, and crashes through a prop wall. “The Pink Panther Theme” plays as the camera pans to the delighted crowd.]
Carrey: Oh, my God, I can’t believe this is happening! I can’t believe this is happening on the biggest night of his life!
Edwards: That felt good. [Laughter]
[Modern day footage of a lush green garden on a sunny day. We return to the sculpture of the sitting duck nesting in a patch of purple flowers. Jazzy music begins, then changes to a sentimental tune.]
Andrews: This fine fellow is called, obviously, Sitting Duck. When I first got to know Blake, I did understand that he had liked to paint and, uh, had done it ever since his teens, I think. But he wasn’t a sculptor at the time, and it wasn’t till after we were married that he dabbled at it. And for a while he tried all kinds of styles. And then, toward the end of his life, found his own style. This was true Blake. What it shows is the man himself: sense of humor, sweetness. These I feel, uh, are Blake’s and Blake’s alone. He was very shy about showing his sculptures and the paintings. It took the whole family to convince him that he should have an exhibit.
[Text on screen: 2009. Low instrumentals play. A bustling art gallery features The Art of Blake Edwards – A Retrospective at Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles. Blake’s paintings fill the walls: Minimal lines and bright colors of trees in fields. His sculptures adorn the gallery floors: Round, abstract shapes in patinated bronze create the figures of animals and people. Julie, and Blake, sitting in a wheelchair, greet the attendees.]
Andrews: The family had been trying to get Blake to come out from hiding his wonderful talent of art and sculptures for about 8 to 10 years now.
Peter Bogdonovich: Well, what strikes me is that he’s as versatile in painting as he is in his making film.
Amelia Edwards, Blake and Julie’s Daughter: I’m so proud of my dad. He’s so talented in every area, painting, sculptures, jewelry.
Geoffrey Edwards: If you look at some of the more frenetic pieces and kind of understand what he was going through at that point. All the sculptures though to me, all are very peaceful.
Jennifer Edwards: I’m incredibly proud of him. I-I’m overwhelmed. This is really extraordinary and it’s, um, it’s very heartfelt.
Joanna Edwards, Blake and Julie’s Daughter: I used to paint with him. That was like our — like, one of our main things we had in common. And he has just always been supportive of my art.
[Text on screen: Blake Edwards wrote over 70 films, television shows, radio programs, and directed more than 50 of them. Along with an Academy Award, Blake was honored with the Directors Guild of America Preston Sturges Award and the prestigious Writers Guild of America Screen Laurel Award among many other accolades. He died on December 15, 2010. Emotional instrumentals sway. Next, a montage of black and white photos of Blake throughout his life, working on set and standing with Julie.]
Andrews: In all honesty, I don’t think I ever met a man as charismatic, as wicked… as funny, as vulnerable, as angry at times, as adorable and sweet as Blake. For one of our anniversaries, I wrote what he’s really like in my eyes. “In all my years, I’ve never met another man like you. You drive me mad. You make me laugh and cry and set me about my ears. You do. My mate, my dearest love, anniversary man. Let me capture essence of Blake if I can. Black prince. Mercurial knight with a rugged face. Too proud. A broken body. Martial arts grace. A whirling dervish or desperado child. Sudden and quick in quarrel. Open-hearted. Wild. Tough, yet soppy soft. You’d like to save us all. Generous. Extravagant. 20 feet tall. You make bold. You cut a dash. Diamonds in your style. Noble. Even-handed. Manipulative guile. Calculating. Fire eater. When threatened, you attack and hammer at the truth until I cannot answer back. You tear your hair and lecture on the follies of excess. And tell me we’d do better if we could live on less. I agree. I really see and feel your anxious pain. And then you blithely turn around and spend and spend again. You twist and turn and tie your soul. The knots are inches thick. Guilt and fear. Grief. Remorse. These toxins make you sick. You flirt with death, yet you embrace life. Shake it by the tail. Doing first, thinking later, making loved ones pale. You steal a bit and wheel and deal to gain the upper hand. You heal and play the doctor. Your bedside manner’s grand. Magic touch. Gentle touch. I melt within your arms. You seem to know me inside out. I cannot resist your charms. So when all is said and done, this lady’s by your side for the wild fun, the fierce pain, the laughter in the ride. And, dearest, when I show you this, I know what you’ll say. ‘What else?’ you’ll grin, ‘What else will you write of me today?'”
[In archival video on a sunny, breezy day, Blake and Julie playfully embrace on a beach as waves lap the shore. They fall, still embracing.]
Andrews: You idiot. Come on! [Laughs] Oh! Oh.
Edwards: We better get back up.
Andrews: Yeah.
[Blake and Julie begin to stand up. Now, a quick glimpse of the animated white duck, and a quick video montage.]
Interviewer: Can you describe Blake in two words?
Feig: Comic genius.
Johnson: Impeccable craftsman.
Maltin: Individualist survivor.
Derek: My director.
Karaszewski: Birdie nom-nom.
Oswalt: Dark frantic.
Mancini: Deeply hilarious.
Chandrasekhar: Controlled insanity.
Marshall: A free genius.
Geoffrey Edwards: Brilliantly silly.
Wagner: Fast and thoughtful.
Male Voice: Such joy.
Jennifer Edwards: Great dad.
Warren: Grand, just grand.
[Credits over an energetic pop song.]
Featuring Amelia Edwards, Joanna Edwards Hamada, Emma Walton Hamilton, Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan. Music by Tom Scott. “Take me as I am” written by Steven V. Taylor and John A. Taylor, performed by The Uninvited. Animation by Studio Tahluk. Art director Luke Stone. Color stylist Susie Chong. Animators Maxine Carey-Gorey, Luke Stone. Consulting Producer Michael Mayhew. Associate Producer William Coates.
Director of Photography – Julie Andrews Interview, Chad Wilson. Additional Cinematography, Cellin Gluck. David Mahlmann. James Mathers. Felicia Michaels. Still Photographer Felicia Michaels. Additional Stills Maddie Birer. Cellin Gluck.
Hair & Makeup for Julie Andrews John Isaacs, Rick Sharp. Additional Hair & Makeup Karin Beck. Veronica Garcia. Su Naeem. Robert Ramos. Eugenia Weston. Sound Mixer Paul Graff. Electrician Mel Scott. Key Grip Igori Kamoevi. Production Coordinator Bruce Levine. Production Assistants Cruz Becky. Madeline Birer. Jerry Whitworth.
New York Unit. Supervising Producer Taryn Grimes Herbert. Director of Photography Matthew Wachsman. Camera Operators Julian Alvarez. Robert Newman. Production Sound Sam Hamilton. Topher Reifeiss. Michael Ryan Hair For Julie Andrews Xavier Merat. Additional Hair & Makeup Laura Costa.
Post Production Supervisor Robyn Bliley. VFX and Color Alan Chamberlain. Re-Recording Engineer Michael Ryan. DIT Felicia Michaels. Mixed at Actual Size Audio. Additional Editing
Larry Herbst. Media Capture. Katherine Pratt. 5135 Kensington LLC.
To learn more about Blake Edwards and others who have shaped American history and culture, visit pbs.org/americanmasters.
Clearance Counsel Donaldson Califf Perez, LLP. Chris L. Perez. Victoria A. Rosales. Production Insurance United Agencies, Inc. ERRORS & OMISSIONS INSURANCE PROVIDED BY HUB International Insurance Services.
Archival Footage. Julie Andrews Back on Broadway, 1995 Courtesy of THIRTEEN Productions LLC. Blake Edwards Interview Courtesy of © Turner Classic Movies, Inc. 2010 Jack Oakie Celebration of Comedy in Film / An Evening with Blake Edwards Courtesy of © Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Blake Edwards on Charlie Rose 11/20/96 Courtesy of Charlie Rose, Inc. Motion Array. Streamline Films, Inc.
Archival Photographs. Victor/Victoria on Broadway Courtesy of Sara Krulwich. Photographs by Sherman Clark Courtesy of Nick Clark. Photos by Bruce McBroom and Bob Willoughby Courtesy of MPTV Images. Victor/Victoria, 1981, Photos Courtesy of David Appleby. Revenge of the Pink Panther Photo by David Farrell. Photographs by Ron Joy Courtesy of Belle Joy and the Ron Joy Estate. Everitt Collection.
Additional Materials provided by 2000 Victor/ Victoria LLC NBC Radio Network. 20th Century Fox Studios. Orion Pictures Company. Anjul Productions Inc. Paradise Cove Productions, Inc. Argyle Enterprises & Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Paramount Pictures. Blake Edwards Archive. Playbill. CNN. Rogers & Hammerstein Organization. Columbia Pictures. Sony Music. Embassy Pictures. Henry Mancini Archive. Films Around the World, Inc.. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Geoffrey Productions, Inc. The New York Times Company. Geoffrey-Kate Productions. Time Warner. Julie Andrews Family Collection. Turner Entertainment Company. Ladbroke Entertainment, Ltd. Ubilam Productions, Inc. Lorimar Distribution International. United Artists Corp. Lorimar Television. Universal. Manhattan Post Card Co., Inc. Warner Bros. MGM. Mirisch-Geoffrey Productions. NBC.
Special Thanks Georgia Adams. Gregg Field. Felicia Montiforte. Lorna Barrow. Amelia Garner. Flynn Montiforte. Denise Beauchamp. Janet Gutyan. Berta Pitt. Metuka Benjamin. Richard Kaufman. Steve Sauer. Dan Clark. Nicole Larson. Sheila Segerson. Janis Clark. Chris Mancini. Jon Sheinberg. Ginny Davis. Mariah Mayhew. Susan Ursitti Sheinberg. Cassie Farrell. Jerry Milliken. Mike Medavoy. Matthew Feige. Frank Montiforte. Heather Whelan. Marie Montiforte.
Location Access furnished by Sag Harbor Cinema. Services furnished by Pacific Title and Retro Video. Blake Edwards: A Love Story in 21 Frames original production funding provided by The Leslie and Roslyn Goldstein Foundation and Burton P. and Judith B. Resnick Foundation. Original American Masters series funding provided by Corporation For Public Broadcasting. The Rosalind P. Walter Foundation. Sue And Edgar Wachenheim III. Seton J. Melvin. Lillian Goldman Programming Endowment. The Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation. Koo And Patricia Yuen. Thea Petschek Iervolino Foundation. The Philip And Janice Levin Foundation. Vital Projects Fund. The Marc Haas Foundation. Judith And Burton Resnick. Ellen And James S. Marcus. The Ambrose Monell Foundation. The André And Elizabeth Kertész Foundation. Blanche And Hayward Cirker Charitable Lead Annuity Trust. Kate W. Cassidy Foundation. Anita And Jay Kaufman. The Charina Endowment Fund.
For American Masters. Series Theme Music Composed by Christopher Rife. Series Title Designed by Arcade Creative Group. Graphic Designer B.T. Whitehill. Budget Controller Jayne Lisi. Business Affairs Laura Ball. Social Media Maggie Bower. Senior Production Coordinator Chris Wilson. Digital Producer Diana Chan. Multimedia Producer Christiana Lombardo. Digital Lead Joe Skinner. Audience Engagement Lindsey Horvitz. Series Producer Julie Sacks. Executive Producer Michael Kantor. A Production of Gold Entertainment Media Group in association with American Masters Pictures. This program was produced by Gold Entertainment Media Group, which is solely responsible for its content. © 2024 Gold Entertainment Media Group LLC All rights reserved. First publication of this motion picture (sound recording and film): United States of America 2024. Gold Entertainment Media Group LLC is the owner of the copyright in this motion picture. This motion picture is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America and other countries. Any unauthorized duplication, copying or use of all or part of this motion picture may result in civil liability and/or criminal prosecution in accordance with applicable laws.
Logos: Gold Entertainment Media Group. The WNET Group, Media Made Possible By All Of You.
[Video ends.]
