Revenge of the Pink Panther was the first non-Disney or Star Wars movie I got to see in theaters. With all the slapstick from Peter Sellers, it was small wonder why kids found it funny and my parents took us along; the previous Panther flick was an R so I guess Hollywood had a change of heart on what was now PG; makes sense, Jaws was an R in 1975 and suddenly PG by 1979 for HBO. However, Edwards was quite talented in his own right which easily explains the success he had without Sellers.
Personal favorites were Victor/Victoria because anything with James Garner gets my vote and Operation Petticoat which I initially saw as a short-lived sitcom on ABC; then came the shock a couple years later when I “discovered” the original version starring Cary Grant and Tony Curtis on a Sunday morning.
I use the word discovered in quotes since Edwards’ name was synonymous with crass, vulgar sex-related comedies while I was growing up: 10, SOB, The Man Who Loved Women and Skin Deep. Based upon the perception of what his contemporary work was like, one would think he was a more successful version of Bob Guccione or Larry Flynt. This made it even harder to believe he was married to Julie Andrews.
By adulthood, I had learned about his earlier work. Edwards was similar to other director/writers of his era, the closest example would be Robert Altman. He started out doing TV, Westerns and WWII stuff. Eventually, he branched out to many genres and gave the world his most enduring piece…Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I’ve never seen it, maybe I’ll get around to it, see the other side of the man who busted my pre-teen guts with vulgarity.