♪♪♪
-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, "Peter Gunn"-style tune plays ]
♪♪♪
[ Thunder crashes ]
♪♪♪
[ Tires screech ]
♪♪♪
-[ Vocalizing ]
[ Glass shatters ]
♪♪♪
-I didn't know a lot of couples like Blake and Julie
that were so equal.
-It was kind of like royalty. [ Laughs ]
I mean, that's how I felt.
-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.
-They seem to work so well together on and off screen.
-Blake was working to 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.
-Dad knew who she was as a person
and that she's very funny.
She swears like a truck driver.
-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.
-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.
-Blake Edwards must have understood that
"If I hire somebody great,
they're going to reflect back on me."
And she's super funny.
-And that works so well in the context of the anarchy
and the rawness of the things that they built.
-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.
-There was a great trust and admiration for one another.
-A true love affair.
-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.
♪♪♪
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."
[ Whistle blows ]
[ Crowd cheers ]
[ Air hissing, laughter ]
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 ]
I think we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves here.
Maybe we should go back a bit.
-Push the button, Max.
-No, a bit further.
[ Tape rewinding ]
[ "The Pink Panther Theme" plays ]
A little more.
-How do I look? -More.
There.
♪♪♪
-Dad was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
-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.
-He was very artistic. He loved to paint and draw.
His mother, Lillian, brought him out to California.
She met Jack McEdward.
-Jack was a production manager and a producer.
-And so my dad spent a lot of time on movie lots.
-In Hollywood where 65% of all films are produced...
-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.
-So it just seemed like a natural thing
for him to go into the business.
-He came up through the old studio system,
first as an actor in the '40s.
-You better sit down, sonny.
-I wasn't an actor for very long.
-This is enough.
-I wasn't very good.
Even while I was acting,
I was beginning to write and that's what I wanted to do.
-His first real taste of success came in a medium
that people don't talk about much anymore,
which is network radio.
-My name is Diamond and I'm in business
for a very simple reason: I like money.
-He created, wrote and sometimes directed
a popular radio show called "Richard Diamond."
It was the foundation of his success.
-Blake had a friend
and they decided they could write as good a Western
as the one they just saw.
-We saw some Western. I criticized the hell out of it.
And then we decided we would just write our own screenplay.
-This is the thrill-swept story of John Sands.
-I think that first piece was called "Panhandle."
It turned out to be not too bad.
[ Gunshots ]
-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" with Cary Grant
was a big step in my career.
-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.
-"Operation Petticoat" is light. It's bright.
There's very little serious about that movie.
-Stand by two, three. -Stand by two, three.
-It's sexist by today's standards.
-Oh, Captain, it's time for your vitamin pill.
-Lieutenant, get below. Damn it, get below!
-But I think it still plays.
[ Explosion ]
-What happened, sir? -We sunk a truck!
-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.
[ Jazz music playing ]
And Henry Mancini suggested to him.
-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?"
-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.
[ "Peter Gunn Theme" playing ]
-"Peter Gunn" became a hit in large part
because of its theme song,
and thus began a long, almost record-breaking collaboration.
-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.
-You can feel when a great director finds a great composer
that they click with.
It's like two hands clasping together
and they complement each other so well.
-Hank was so happy at being creative in a free space
and knowing that we adored him and he could do no wrong.
[ "Moon River" plays ]
-"Breakfast at Tiffany's" was probably them at their best.
Audrey, for one thing, has become just this icon.
-How do I look?
-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."
-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.
-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.
-So, my darling Fred,
I have tonight made a very serious decision.
-And what is that?
-No longer will I play the field.
-Audrey and I just got along.
Super lady. Just the best.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
-Blake had just an idea about this.
He felt that it needed to be the best party ever.
[ Party music playing ]
-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.
-Who are all these people anyhow?
-Who knows? The word gets out.
-Oh, she looks so gorgeous.
He wasn't a bad hunk, either, was he?
-♪ Moon river, wider than a mile ♪
-This song, I mean, it's the most beautiful song
I think ever in film.
-♪ Oh, dream maker ♪
-God Almighty, is that a beautiful song or what?
Lyrics by Johnny Mercer. -♪ You heartbreaker ♪
♪ Wherever...♪
-He understood the power of music.
People are so afraid of it, I think, now.
-♪ Two drifters ♪
♪ Off to see the world ♪
♪ There is such a lot of world to see ♪
-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.
-♪ Waitin' 'round the bend ♪
-Waitin 'round the bend, my huckleberry friend.
-♪ My huckleberry friend ♪
-Lovely lyrics.
-♪ Moon river ♪
-That's just movie magic right there.
-♪ And me ♪
-But there are problematic things that happen in comedy
and Blake has his share of them.
-Mr. Golightly!
-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.
-Look, there's no doubt that the Mickey Rooney portrayal
of the landlord is on its face racist.
-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.
-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.
-Don't cut. Don't censor. Show them and discuss them.
-In later years, my dad expressed regret
for the racist tone that was portrayed.
-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.
-As a kid [Chuckles] nothing better
than these opening sequences.
[ "The Pink Panther Theme" playing ]
-I remember watching for the first time Clouseau
and as dad laughed,
like he would fall off the couch laughing, literally.
♪♪♪
-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.
-But our security measures.
-I'm sure your security measures are very good,
but [Laughs] obviously not good enough.
[ Alarm ringing ] Let me see.
[ Door slams ] Ah!
-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.
-Ah! Help!
[ Grunting ]
-And Blake's humor revolved a lot around slapstick.
-Laurel and Hardy were basically Dad's muse.
-Now, don't drop until I get the mattress underneath ya.
-Well, hurry up! I can't hold on much longer!
-Stan and Ollie make me laugh to the point
of not being able to recover.
♪♪♪
-[ Screaming ]
-He loved the old Laurel and Hardy movies.
But he then seemed to expand on it to a great degree.
-Yes? This is Chief Inspector Clouseau.
Who is speaking?
-"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 music plays ]
-Wh-Wh-Whoa, whoa, wah-wah!
♪♪♪
[ Explosion ]
-He was not just emulating or imitating what had been done.
He was taking them to another level.
[ Vacuum whirring ]
[ Thunk ]
[ Bird squawking ]
-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.
-Here, my love.
-Blake was so inventive.
[ Telephone rings ]
[ Crash ]
He and Peter Sellers,
when they started develop the character of Clouseau,
it was improvisational, a lot of it.
-Hello?
Inspector Clouseau.
-[ Nasally ] Inspector Clouseau?
-It was so exciting to be around.
You could just tell it was going to be a hit.
-Wow-ow-ow!
-The Pink Panther movies, watching them as kids,
they always felt slightly sexier than they should be.
-Oh, forgive me, darling. I've just washed my hands.
-There was always an element of something very adult about them,
even when they were at their most cartoony.
-Do you have a [Thick accent] room?
-I do not know what a [Thick accent] room is.
-[ 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?
-It's just so funny the way that he's trying to be sweet.
-Nice doggy.
-[ Laughs ]
-I thought you said your dog did not bite.
-That is not my dog.
-[ 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.
-The entire family now speaks "Clouseau."
-This is a door. -Uh, yes, sir, that is a door.
-Yes, I know that. I know that. -"Yes, yes, I know that.
I know that," you know.
And it was always Sellers' answers.
-This reminds me of my younger days
at the Surete Police Academy.
-You see that and you see Peter Sellers,
you know what's gonna happen.
-The thing that he had such a great intuitive sense for
is building that beautiful anticipation.
-[ Laughs ]
I can hear Blake, like, stifling a laugh off camera.
-Yes, it's all coming back now.
-Here it comes. You know it's coming.
[ Laughs ]
But see, it all comes from character.
-Well! That felt good!
-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.
-I expect you are all wondering why I asked you here.
[ Bones crunch ] -[ Screaming ]
-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.
-There's a very good chance that someone in this room
knows more about the murder than he is telling.
-What's so great about his physical comedy too is
how tactile it is.
-You!
-Oh, dear!
-There is much more going on here
than meets the ear.
[ Fly buzzing ]
-[ Chuckles ] Literally all the keys come 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.
-So there is this cause and effect that makes it funnier.
-One, that Professor Fassbender and his daughter...
-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 ]
-...and then you try to top that joke.
-Ow!
-Lieutenant, what's going on? -Oh, good afternoon, sir.
-And then you try to top the topper, at least that.
-Ah, Inspector. -Superintendent.
[ Bonk! ]
[ Gunshot ]
-They had more fun on the sets of all the Panthers
than you could possibly imagine.
-[ Screaming ]
-The Cato scenes in "The Pink Panther" are incredible.
-[ Screaming ]
[ Clouseau screaming slowly ]
-Oh, the slow motion is so brilliant.
[ Clouseau screaming slowly ]
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.
-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.
-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.
[ Dog barking ]
-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.
-[ Gasps ]
-You got the little Henry Mancini glissando
on the strings when he appears
and it just -- it [bleep] works, man.
He knew. The dude knew how to put on a show.
[ Thunder crashes, wind howling ]
-There we go.
-"Days of Wine and Roses"
is one of the most extreme examples in terms
of the scope of what his ambitions were.
-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.
-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.
-My dad literally stopped drinking and smoking cigarettes
after making "Days of Wine and Roses."
♪♪♪
-Aww. -Aww.
The Rolls-Royce! -Yes.
-Where were we going? -I don't know.
But that's Mom.
♪♪♪
When would the first time you were aware of what Dad did?
-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." -Mm.
-And he flew back that night. -Oh.
-For like the weekend. Yeah. -That's Dad.
-He said it was really emotional for him.
I think I was probably five.
-He seemed to take us to work a lot, which I question
whether we ever went to school. -[ Laughs ]
The first set that we were allowed on was "The Great Race."
-Is that true? -Yeah.
-I guess I remember being on the snow set.
-Right. That was the first time, I think.
-And that was wild. -The iceberg.
-Right. Exactly. -And the polar bear.
-Right. That's right. -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.
[ Gunshot ]
The cars were amazing.
-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."
-Push the button, Max.
[ Explosion, man screaming ]
-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.
[ Campy music playing ]
♪♪♪
[ Slow music plays ]
-And Mom. -She's beautiful.
-She was gorgeous.
Sad. -Yeah.
-Even though we look so happy, there was a lot of sadness.
This was around the time that they were...
-Getting divorced. -...gonna split up.
-Yeah, they were probably split up
for all intent and purpose. -Yeah.
-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.
-"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. -Alright, stand by!
-I love "The Party." One of my favorite movies.
There's so many funny gags in this movie.
[ Explosions ]
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! -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?
-[ Indian accent ] "Does that include television, sir?"
[ Normal voice ] And you're like, "God, is that --
that's so funny."
-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.
-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.
-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."
-Birdie, nom-nom.
-It's a form of dialect comedy,
if you will, that we found acceptable in the late '60s
that no longer is.
-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.
-And the gags are just superlative.
-There's a scene in "The Party"
where Peter Sellers is flirting with a blonde woman
and there's a drunk waiter.
-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.
[ Dishes break ]
-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 biggest laugh-getter in the whole film
almost is this one thing right here with the chicken.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
-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 [bleep] over by the water,
and now the mannequin [bleep] is wearing her hair,
and Peter Sellers is a hundred miles away
at the other end of the yard.
[ Toilet flushes ]
-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."
-This scene's amazing just 'cause it's literally one thing.