O Otimista

"Sometimes it wasn't half as bad as all that, sometimes" Excellent Lionel Bart score adds to new style Peter Sellers, that of serious actor as in Being There. Superb London locations add to moral tale. Ex Vaudevillian Peter Sellers befriends two kids and begins to believe in life again and encourages the two kids from broken home to be more optimistic about life. A truly compassionate film that says despite your circumstances that there will always be someone who cares.

"The Optimists" was a box office disaster when it was released to theaters in 1973, and has all but been forgotten since despite the presence of Peter Sellers. It's a real shame, because it is an absolutely charming movie. Sellers gives an excellent lead performance, making you believe this a man who is well travelled and a little tired and frustrated, but still goes on despite the circumstances. But the child performers who play the kids that befriend Sellers' character also deserve kudos - they are absolutely convincing and their performances don't feel the least bit forced. Director Anthony Simmons (who also co-wrote the screenplay based on his book) avoids a polished look and feel, and really captures the poor side of London and its various residents in a way that makes it feel absolutely real. The story is somewhat meandering, but has so much charm that you will follow it all the way to the end. And the Lionel Bart songs, including the wonderful "Sometimes" are the icing on the cake. If I have a complaint, it's that the British accents are sometimes very hard to make out, though fortunately that's only an occasional problem.

I remember the scene with the budgerigar act - Don Crown & His Busking Budgies! I would have seen the film as a child in the early seventies and in hindsight I think Sellers was also paying homage to his dad's time as a music hall performer. My mother was conscious of Sellers wearing a prosthetic nose as Sam, but it was a hell of a lot better than the one he had for the sailor guise (as Clouseau) in one of the Pink Panther films! My sister had the book that inspired the film and the depiction of the death of Sam's dog Bella was quite upsetting.

A shame the DVD version's sound is poor and subtitles aren't available. I can recall a documentary being on TV about it and this could have done to be on the DVD.

I'm a sucker for Peter Sellers as well as movies that center around dogs, so I'm easy to please here. That said, in both title and by being classified as a comedy, "The Optimists" is a bit off. Yes, it stars Sellers and a couple of likeably scruffy kids, but the story is one of only light humor and much sadness amid a downscale London district bordering the Thames called Nine Elms.

Nine Elms, as a lonely young girl named Liz (Donna Mullane) explains in the beginning, "didn't mean trees, it meant foggy winter, the noise of trains. But most of all, it meant Sam, the first to show us the world on the other side of the river."

Sam, played by Sellers, is a street performer, or "busker," who like his faithful dog Bella is getting on in years but still plugging away singing for loose change at soccer games. Liz and her little brother Mark (John Chaffey) initially tease Sam, but come to befriend him and Bella. Sam in turn indeed takes them across the river to help him in his street act, teach them some songs, and talk about life, death and the wonderland that's one's own imagination.

"It's magic, it's private, it's yours," he says of the last thing.

"It's not!" Liz counters.

"I told you that's a rude word," Sam tells her. "Use a handkerchief."

Sellers supposedly channeled memories of his father, a music-hall performer, in the character of Sam. He's charming company, tipping his battered hat and introducing songs like "No Matter How Long Your Stockings Are, The Tops Are Always Nearest To The Bottom." His interaction with Mullane and Chaffey is quite winning in a natural, unaffected way, chippy at first ("Don't annoy the dog, son, she'll pee all over you!"), then gradually warming into believable affection.

A problem with "Optimists" is the absence of any real story. Liz's concern with the world across the river stems from the fact there are nicer apartments there for her family to live in if they can get accepted by the right building council. Mark just wants a dog of his own. Later in the story, there is a crisis involving the getting and keeping of this second dog, as well as how the relationship between Sam and the kids is interpreted by their gruff-but-decent father. None of this adds up to riveting cinema, and "Optimists" sort of runs on like the river that forms its most memorable backdrop.

Amble as it does, "Optimists" has an engaging quality to it. Director Anthony Simmons, both the writer of the source novel and co-writer (with Tudor Gates) of the script, finds the right balance of image and pace. The musical score by George Martin, with songs by Lionel Bart, accentuates both Sam's music-hall heritage and his budding friendship with Liz and Mark. The cinematography by Larry Pizer is stark but beautiful, much of it centering around the environs of Battersea Power Station which will be quite familiar to Pink Floyd fans.

There are no stirring setpieces in "Optimists," but a lot of nice little moments that stand out when you see them, like another busker with trained budgies or an old woman glimpsed staring out the window at the children playing outside.

Twee and manipulative as it sometimes is, "Optimists" scores with a solid Sellers performance in the middle of his dry early-1970s period as well as a quality of battered hopefulness that sticks with you. If it had been more sharply written, it could have been a classic, but as it is it stands up as a character study and leaves a warm impression.

The old VHS tape had dismal picture quality, but the sound was quite good enough to understand the dialog. The DVD is the reverse: the picture quality is relatively excellent, but the dialog is nearly unintelligible. The idiot who re-recorded the sound for the DVD must be the same one that destroyed the sound for The Importance of Being Earnest and Waltz of the Toreadors. I wish I could synchronize the DVD with the VHS to get the best of each.

This is such a wonderful film, a favorite. How sad that friends and family can't share my enthusiasm because of the struggle to understand what's being said. Nevertheless, I recommend it and insist it's worth the trouble. The film transports me to the time and place, and gives my emotions some healthy exercise. Try taking the journey from sadness and frustration to hopefulness and joy, with a fascinating view of the London of 40 years ago and a sensitive portrayal by Peter Sellers, one of his best.