Peter Sellers had played comic villains before, most notably in The Ladykillers (1955) and tom thumb (1958), but they were always bumbling, inept fools and never truly menacing. He tried the opposite tact for his role in this Independent Artists production and created a portrait of evil personified in the character of Lionel Meadows, a ruthless, sadistic gangster who operates a stolen car business in London; his minions steal the cars and he "converts" and resells them with new paint jobs, license plates, etc. Meadows meets his match, however, in John Cummings (Richard Todd), a mild-mannered cosmetics salesman who is roused to action when his underinsured Ford Anglia is pinched by Meadows' gang. The theft repercussions not only affects Cummings' livelihood - he can't make sales appointments on time without his car and is eventually fired - but his stress and anger also threatens to ruin his marriage and land him in jail for conducting his own unauthorized investigations into the case. Cummings nevertheless forges ahead, driven by revenge, and eventually has a deadly showdown with his nemesis.
Released to theatres as Never Let Go (1960), this contemporary British noir directed by John Guillermin (The Towering Inferno, 1974), showed the movie-going public a side of Peter Sellers they had never seen before. Sellers biographer Alexander Walker described it best when he wrote, "With hair too thick, mustache too trim, jawbone seemingly extended physically by sheer willpower into jutting menace, he appeared on screen as a cone of suppressed fury always threatening eruption." Several times the seething violence underneath does erupt and results in scenes of disturbing intensity; Meadows' punishment of the informer Alfie Barnes (Mervyn Johns) whose beloved aquarium he smashes, crushing Alfie's pet turtles with his boot; Meadows also injures the hand of an unreliable employee (Adam Faith), threatens bodily harm to his mistress (Carol White) and, in the frenzied climax, tries to dispatch Cummings with a tire iron, acid, and chains and almost succeeds in crushing him beneath a car lift.
Strangely enough, the part of Meadows was first offered to Richard Todd but Sellers convinced the actor to switch roles with him and Todd allowed himself to be swayed. It's hard to imagine how the film would have played out with Sellers as the victim but, according to most biographical sources, Sellers took his "work" home with him. Anne Howe, his wife at the time, was quoted as saying, "...he was totally impossible. The role and the man became indistinguishable - he acted the role of Lionel Meadows even under his own roof. He became very aggressive. Particularly towards the end of our marriage, and then ever afterwards, he'd be whoever he was playing; he'd come home as the person. Yes, for Never Let Go, he was very aggressive." Sellers denied to an interviewer at the time that he stayed in character off set but revealed, "My wife is aware of it, though, especially when it's a nasty part, as in Never Let Go. I was sort of edgy with her while we made that film. Then, while I was making The Millionairess [1960]....I was very serene." (The latter film co-starred Sophia Loren, whom Sellers pursued romantically and would later say was the only woman he ever truly loved).
Never Let Go proved to be a box office disappointment upon release and confirmed the fact that Sellers' fans and critics preferred to see him in comedy, not drama. British reviewers, in particular, attacked the film for its explicit brutality and violence. Yet, in retrospect, Sellers' performance is riveting and an admirable attempt to try something different. And, despite its B-movie status, Never Let Go remains a tautly directed and atmospheric crime melodrama, distinguished by John Barry's moody score and the glistering black and white cinematography of Christopher Challis, who would go on to garner Academy Award nominations for his work on The Victors (1963), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), Arabesque (1966) and The Deep (1977).
Producer: Peter de Sarigny
Director: John Guillermin
Screenplay: Alun Falconer (writer); Peter de Sarigny, John Guillermin (story)
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Art Direction: George Provis
Music: John Barry
Film Editing: Ralph Sheldon
Cast: Richard Todd (John Cummings), Peter Sellers (Lionel Meadows), Elizabeth Sellars (Anne Cummings), Adam Faith (Tommy Towers), Carol White (Jackie), Mervyn Johns (Alfie Barnes), Noel Willman (Inspector Thomas), David Lodge (Cliff), Peter Jones (Alec Berger), John Bailey (Mackinnon).
BW-91m. Letterboxed.
by Jeff Stafford
SOURCES:
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers by Roger Lewis (Applause)
Peter Sellers: The Authorized Biography by Alexander Walker (MacMillan Publishing)
