The Peter Sellers Collection - Joseph McGrath [DVD]

Collection of four comedies starring Peter Sellers. In 'The Magic Christian' (1969) self-absorbed millionaire Guy Grand (Sellers) spends his days lounging in his lavish home in London and toying with his many fruitless business ventures. When he encounters a vagrant (Ringo Starr) in a city park he decides to adopt the dishevelled man and name him Youngman Grand, Esquire. With his adopted son in tow, Guy Grand indulges in a series of bizarre antics involving grouse shooting with anti-aircraft cannons, board meeting brainstorms and the bribery of a rowing team. With his taste for excess still not satisfied however, Guy takes his son on the exclusive maiden voyage of an opulent, luxury cruise ship and uses the opportunity to engage in more absurdity. In 'Ghost in the Noonday Sun' (1973), having learned where the captain has hidden his treasure, a pirate betrays and kills his leader in order to take the loot for himself. He vows to return and claim the treasure, but when he does he finds his memory is failing him and he cannot remember where the loot is hidden. To find it, he'll need the ghostly assistance of the very captain he so treacherously slew. But it won't be simple to get him on board, not with another buccaneer captain showing up and meddling and a vengeful first mate pursuing him. 'The Great McGonagall' (1975) tells the story of an unemployed weaver who decides to devote his life to poetry. He falls in love with Queen Victoria (Sellers) and dedicates his work to her, despite a distinct lack of interest on her part and talent on McGonagall (Spike Milligan)'s. Finally, in 'The Prisoner of Zenda' (1979), when the mad old King of Ruritania (Sellers) is killed in a freak hot-air balloon incident, two proud Ruritanian suitors who don't want the king's son (Sellers) to take the throne travel to England in search of Syd (Sellers), a London cabbie who has a distinct physical likeness to that of the late king. Once in Ruritania, Syd has to outwit the Machiavellian plans of the evil Prince Michael (Jeremy Kemp) while he finds himself falling in love with the late king's fiancée.