Blake Edwards could have comfortably rested in the pantheon of famed comedy directors based solely on his acclaimed Pink Panther movie series, which still charms us today with its incomparable slapstick routines and gut-busting laughs. Blake Edwards: A Love Story in 24 Frames, a new entry in the American Masters series, ensures that his other movies get their due, and the episode also rounds out his personal life as a father and husband, and delves into his other pursuits, like sculpture and painting.
At the center of Edwards’ life (he died in 2010) was his wife of four decades, Oscar-winning actress and singer Julie Andrews. Andrews was already famous for movies like Mary Poppins (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965) when they married in 1969 and, as the doc shows, was a huge influence on the filmmaker’s continuing career.
Edwards directed her — as “a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman” — in another of his classic comedies, Victor/Victoria (1982), set in the cabarets of 1930s Paris. Victor/Victoria costar Lesley Ann Warren, who played a canny chorus girl, recalls in the doc how much Edwards loved working on the comedy: “He would fall off his chair laughing. You would hear his laugh through the take and we’d have to do it again.”
Bo Derek in 10 (Orion / Everett Collection)
Before Victor/Victoria, there was 1979’s hilarious 10, the midlife-crisis comedy with Dudley Moore mooning over Bo Derek. Even though she was an object of affection in the movie, “Blake, from the very beginning,” recalls Derek, “always made his women interesting, intelligent and clever.”
Interviews with his two children and access to Edwards’ archive of photographs and home movies fill out this intimate portrait of the man as an artist.
Blake Edwards: A Love Story in 24 Frames, Premieres Tuesday, August 27, 8/7c, PBS (check local listings at pbs.org)
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