An active imagination

Eyeing the blond in the next booth at the Polo Lounge as she stands up to leave, Blake Edwards jokes that there was a reason why he wrote and directed the comedy “10.”

His blue eyes twinkle as he watches the statuesque twentysomething put on her raincoat -- it’s the same type of look Dudley Moore gave Bo Derek the first time he caught a glimpse of her in the 1979 hit that Edwards wrote and directed. Never mind that the woman is casting off vibes that she knows she’s attractive.

“I don’t have to know that,” he says with a smile. “I can sit back here and imagine her. I can imagine you, whoever you are kiddo. So you have been imagined and taken in.”

Edwards is now 81. For the last 20 years, he’s suffered from the disease commonly known by the misnomer chronic fatigue syndrome.

But he’s quick to point out that he directed numerous movies during that time and even directed wife Julie Andrews on Broadway a decade or so ago in the theatrical version of his 1982 movie musical hit, “Victor/Victoria.”

Though he hasn’t directed a film since 1993’s “Son of the Pink Panther,” Edwards is constantly at work, spending most of his nights writing. “How many things did I write last year? Three plays and two screenplays.”

He also did the poignant audio commentary track for the upcoming DVD of “The Days of Wine and Roses,” the acclaimed 1962 drama about a young couple’s (Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick) battle with alcoholism. The Warner Home Video disc arrives in stores Jan. 6.

Just a few hours before this interview, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science announced that its board of governors had selected Edwards to receive an honorary Oscar Feb. 29 for “extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement.” The citation on the award will read: “In recognition of his writing, directing and producing an extraordinary body of work for the screen.”

“I would be lying to you if [I said] I wasn’t flattered by it,” he says. “I would be lying about it if [I said] it didn’t keep me up all night. I kept drifting away from what I was doing, thinking about my past and how I got here.”

Although he’s made such classics as “Operation Mad Ball,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” the “Pink Panther” comedies, “The Party,” “10,” “S.O.B” and “Victor/Victoria,” Edwards’ only Oscar nomination has been for the screenplay adaptation of “Victor/Victoria.” He’s won awards from the Writers Guild, received a Golden Globe nomination and other honors and awards here and abroad, but the movie academy has all but ignored him.

“I have to tell you, I never thought I was going to get an Oscar,” he says matter-of-factly. “I felt like there were times when I should have been nominated. I was very philosophical about it. If it didn’t happen, it didn’t happen. I have had awards and I have had a hell of a life. I can’t do much better. So this is gravy. It’s wonderful.”

Beginning Friday, the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood is paying tribute to Edwards with a retrospective of the “Pink Panther” comedies he made with Peter Sellers from 1964 to 1978: “The Pink Panther,” “A Shot in the Dark,” “The Return of the Pink Panther,” “The Pink Panther Strikes Again” and “Revenge of the Pink Panther.”

Set to Henry Mancini’s melodious scores, the “Pink Panther” comedies are filled with silly puns and sight gags that the giants of silent screen comedy would have envied. Even four decades after the first two “Panther” films were made, the movies remain remarkably fresh and funny, and Sellers’ disaster-prone French police officer, Inspector Clouseau, is one of cinema’s great comedic creations.

“I’m flattered,” says Edwards, “anytime they feel something I did was good enough to do a retrospective.... But on the other hand, and people are going to say this is sour grapes, and that’s all right because I have been a critic of the industry all of my adult life, but they are going to remake the ‘Panther’ and they are going to remake ‘The Party’ and nobody, no one has talked to me about it.

“Home Box Office just did ‘The Life and Death of Peter Sellers’ and there is not one word of truth in it,” Edwards continues. “I had seen [the first draft of the script], and I saw it only by my request. I said, ‘I hear you are doing this. I am surprised. Where are you getting your information?’ They are not even taking it from the book [about Sellers]. I thought the actor who plays me [John Lithgow] might think that maybe I have something I could tell him. I have stories....”

But what really puzzles Edwards is why Steve Martin would want to be the new Clouseau. Edwards attempted to make two Clouseau comedies after the death of Sellers with Ted Wass and Roberto Benigni; both failed.

“He doesn’t have to prove anything, even to himself,” says Edwards of Martin. “Why put himself in competition with Sellers? He’s not even going to come close to Sellers. He may do something great on his own. That I don’t know. He is not going to be Clouseau.”

Mike Myers, he says, had been discussed to star in the remake of the 1968 Edwards-Sellers vehicle, “The Party,” in which Sellers played a clumsy Indian actor wreaking havoc at a Hollywood party. “He backed off, wisely.”

He confides that there was no screenplay for “The Party.” Although there was an outline, it was all ad-libbed. “It was designed to be a silent film, in respect to the great comedians of the silent era, to honor them,” he says. “We found out very quickly that it didn’t work because in order to express fully the character, you had to hear the Indian accent. So we switched in midstream.”

Although Sellers was brilliant, he could be very difficult. Edwards describes working with the actor as “truly a schizophrenic experience in the truest sense of the word. He could be manic -- funny, almost too much. Having a big success, we would do another film, and he would be a monster.... I had a terrible day on the set trying to get him to do something, and he called me in the middle of the night like at 2 in the morning and said, ‘Blake, don’t worry about the scene. We’ll do it tomorrow. I just talked to God. I know how to do it.’ ”

On the audio track of “The Days of Wine and Roses,” Edwards says Lemmon was the actor he would have worked with on any project. It was Lemmon who recommended Edwards to direct the film. “Jack said, ‘The movie is so heavy anyway, I want somebody who has a sense of humor because life is full of humor and that makes the drama much more potent,’ ” Edwards recalls.

Edwards adds that the late John Ritter was another actor he would have worked with at the drop of a hat. “I cared about him and he cared about me,” he says. The two had teamed up for the 1989 comedy “Skin Deep.” And before his death, Ritter did a reading of a play Edwards wrote called “Scapegoat.” Ritter played the devil. Eyes twinkling again, Edwards says, “A better devil you never saw.”

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A ‘Pink Panther’ Christmas

Where: Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood

Schedule

Friday: “The Pink Panther”, 7 p.m.;

“A Shot in the Dark,” 9:30 p.m.

Saturday: “The Return of the Pink Panther,” 5 p.m.; “The Pink Panther Strikes Again, “ 7:30 p.m.

Sunday: “Revenge of the Pink Panther,” 5 p.m.; “The Pink Panther,” 7:15 p.m.

Monday: “A Shot in the Dark,” 7 p.m.; “The Return of the Pink Panther,” 9:15 p.m.

Tuesday: “The Pink Panther Strikes Again,” 7 p.m.; “Revenge of the Pink Panther,” 9:15 p.m.

Price: $9 general admission; $8 for seniors and students with valid I.D.; $6 for Cinematheque members.

Info: (323) 466-3456