The Bobo (Beyond Home Ent) (1967)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1967
Running Time	90:33
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Robert Parrish
Studio Distributor	Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Peter Sellers Britt Ekland Rossano Brazzi Adolfo Celi Hattie Jacques Ferdy Mayne Kenneth Griffith Al Lettieri Marne Maitland John Wells Don Lurio
Case	Alpha-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Francis Lai George Martin

    The Bobo is one of Peter Sellers' more obscure films. So obscure that this is the first DVD release there has been of it in any English-speaking territory. It is also one of Peter Sellers' worst films (the last of a string of duds that preceded the magnificent The Party). Which is probably why it hasn't found its way onto DVD until now. That is not to say it's awful. Rather, it is a mediocre rom-com that is generally amusing but lacks any genuinely hysterical moments.

    The story concerns Juan Bautista (Sellers), self-proclaimed to be the worlds greatest singing matador. Having discovered that he's not much of a matador, Juan arrives in Barcelona to try his talent on the stage. Reluctant to give Juan the time of day, theatre owner Francisco Carbonell (Adolfo Celi) agrees to give Juan a brief engagement if the penniless matador can win over the notorious man-eater Olimpia Segura (Britt Ekland), who has recently destroyed the life one of Carbonell's friends. Juan sets about posing as the emissary of a wealthy count to lure Olympia away from other wealthy suitors.

    The Bobo was Peter Sellers' second film with his wife Britt Ekland, produced towards the end of their tempestuous relationship. The film was largely put together to provide the pair a vehicle in which they could work together (unlike their previous film, in which Sellers had Ekland shoe-horned into an existing role in which she was particularly miscast). The two definitely have a chemistry, but it never really set the screen on fire. Worse still, the comedy in the film seems neutered by the relationship. Doe-eyed Sellers seems too busy trying to charm than wring humour out of the story. So much so that numerous scenes seem as thought they aren't nearly as funny as they should be. Countless scenes end at Sellers' expense with a sheepish "aw shucks!" grin on his face at the tip of a mildly amusing situation. Sellers frequently seems as though he is afraid to upstage Ekland and that spoils what should have been a whip-smart character comedy.

    There does seem to be a body of entertainment personalities that claim this to be their favourite Peter Sellers movie (such as Steve Carrell, who purportedly tried to get a remake happening when his career first took off). I dare say these folks are either overly nostalgic or simply trying to be obscure. It is hard to really recommend The Bobo to anyone as anything other than a prime example as to why people should keep their home and work lives separate. The film will be fascinating to anyone intrigued by Peter Sellers's personal life, which certainly includes this reviewer, but casual fan would probably get more out of watching A Shot in the Dark or The Party again.

Video

    The film is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, quite obviously cropped from what looks to be a 1.85:1 original aspect (judging from a brief shot at the start that is in the original ratio).

    The video quality on offer is pretty much comparable to a VHS copy. The film transfer appears to have been sourced from tape as it features occasional tracking errors throughout (a handful of which result in whole frames of white noise). The focus is soft throughout and features substantial edge enhancement (resulting in foreground images looking unusually sharper than the background, though still in soft focus). The colours are faded and pale throughout the film. Most blacks look like darkish grey.

    Film artefacts are frequently visible throughout the film. Most are simply small white flecks of dust, although the odd large splotch is visible. On a handful of occasions a few frames seem to be missing from the video. Mild telecine wobble is present throughout much of the film.

    Aliasing is occasionally noticeable in the image. Mild pixelation is occasionally noticeable, although the digital encoding generally looks to be a reasonable facsimile of a poor source.

    There are no subtitles present for the film.

    There is no layer change interruption, as this is a single layer disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The film features a very basic Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kbps) audio track, which sounds to be mono (which would be true to the original source).

    The audio is quite roughly synced to the video (enough so that it looks like the film was dubbed during some scenes). The degree to which the film is out of sync varies somewhat, particularly after the bits where the video misses a few frames.

    Background hiss is noticeable in the audio and the audio sounds overly compressed. There are mild clicks and pops throughout, much like the projection of a particularly old film print (which is probably exactly where they came from).

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Do you count "scene selection" as an extra? I don't.

    The Bobo has been notoriously absent from DVD worldwide, frustrating many trainspotters. At present, this appears to be the only release of The Bobo on DVD.

    The Bobo is a disappointing Peter Sellers movie. It features a decent-enough premise but fails to deliver real laughs.

    This bare-bones disc offers a transfer that is equitable to that of a VHS copy of an old film. It is watchable, but fuzzy enough to detract from the viewing experience.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall