PETER SELLERS GETS COMPLETELY VICIOUS FOR 'NEVER LET GO'

Peter Sellers & Carol White in NEVER LET GO Year: 1960 Rating: ****

A British Neo Noir cross between DEATH OF A SALESMAN before and DEATH WISH after, John Guillerman made NEVER LET GO the same year as THE DAY THEY ROBBED THE BANK OF ENGLAND, only a car's worth much less than an entire country's bullion vault... 

But don't tell that to desperate cosmetics salesman Richard Todd, whose old fashioned, pseudo-charming client-pressuring style goes against the company's new-fangled scientific methods... 

David Gregory with Adam Faith and Richard Todd in NEVER LET GO

So when his brand new job-strategic car's swiped by bully street punk Adam Faith (and David Gregory) hired by garage-owning heavy Peter Sellers... who keeps hot young blonde Carol White in his fancy pad... it's an all-out war to get that otherwise common (and uninsured) vehicle back... 

The only thing between an effectively intense Todd is the large locked steel door of that formidable corner garage, and crooked owner Peter Sellers (with lookalike assistant David Lodge) turns in a viciously threatening role — ironically, both good guy and bad guy share equal heated intensity and bad temperament...

Carol White and Adam Faith in NEVER LET GO

Meanwhile the young rebellious boy and girl become sympathetic pawns after Sellers revs up his nefarious schemer — from killing baby turtles to smashing human fingers, you'll forget he's a comic actor slumming into drama...

Between The Goon Show radio beginnings and PINK PANTHER motion picture stardom, Sellers, playing a gleefully perverse villain with relish here, was in what he later quipped a Rod Steiger phase; and though he'd attempt brisk drama again, it never hit this genuine a level, nor would he be backed by as tightly-wound a director as Guillerman OR an adversary as determined as Todd...

Carol White in NEVER LET GO with Elizabeth Sellars

The latter whose rudimentary failing at work scenes are as involving as his vengeance trail — trailing above the law — while slowly coming mentally unglued back home with sharp and steadfast wife Elizabeth Sellars, also the ingenue in Guillerman's BANK but with more purpose here... 

Eventually helping protect her children and home when Sellers... dead-set after trophy blonde White... turns from jealous menace to vicious monster in a sublime and unique novelty performance that doesn't seem like that at all.

David Lodge with Peter Sellers in NEVER LET GO

David Gregory in NEVER LET GO

Peter Sellers and Richard Todd in NEVER LET GO

Peter Sellers in NEVER LET GO with Adam Faith

Adam Faith and Carol White in NEVER LET GO

David Gregory with Adam Faith and Carol White in NEVER LET GO

Elizabeth Sellars and Richard Todd in NEVER LET GO

Peter Sellers in NEVER LET GO with Adam Faith and Carol White

NEVER LET GO with Carol White and Adam Faith

NEVER LET GO with Peter Sellers

NEVER LET GO with Peter Sellers, Mervyn Johns and doomed terrapin

Peter Sellers in NEVER LET GO with Adam Faith

Peter Sellers in NEVER LET GO with Adam Faith

Peter Sellers and Richard Todd in NEVER LET GO

Peter Sellers in NEVER LET GO with Carol White

David Gregory in NEVER LET GO

Adam Faith in NEVER LET GO

Peter Sellers and David Lodge in NEVER LET GO with Richard Todd

Peter Sellers in NEVER LET GO with Richard Todd

Peter Sellers and David Lodge in NEVER LET GO

Peter Sellers and Elizabeth Sellars in NEVER LET GO with Richard Todd

Peter Sellers  NEVER LET GO

Peter Sellers  NEVER LET GO with Carol White

David Gregory in  NEVER LET GO

Peter Sellers in  NEVER LET GO

Peter Sellers in  NEVER LET GO with Adam Faith

Peter Sellers in  NEVER LET GO with Elizabeth Sellars and Richard Todd

Artwork poster with Carol White for NEVER LET GO

Carol White in NEVER LET GO

Richard Todd in NEVER LET GO with Peter Sellers

Richard Todd in NEVER LET GO with Adam Faith

Carol White in NEVER LET GO with Adam Faith

Carol White in NEVER LET GO with Adam Faith

Peter Sellers and Carol White in NEVER LET GO

Carol White in NEVER LET GO