Soft Beds, Hard Battles

A genius he may have been, but Peter Sellers' film work often demonstrated appalling lapses of taste, as with the weak wartime farce Soft Beds, Hard Battles. Little more than a vehicle for a range of Sellers racial stereotypes and an excuse to feature a succession of scantily clad young women, the film centres on a Parisian brothel during the Second World War and its various clients from all the countries involved. Thus Sellers is given reign to trot out his comedy Frenchman, Englishman, German and Chinaman-none of which come across as anything other than hugely dated. The plot is weak and the hopelessly erotic air gives a feel of Confessions of a Window Cleaner in uniform or "'Allo 'Allo: The Movie". With so many better examples of Sellers' work available, this must surely be close to the bottom of anyone's list.

On the DVD: Soft Beds, Hard Battles's picture and sound are bright and bawdy, with some degree of digital remastering obviously having taken place. There is a 10-minute selection of material deleted from the original cinematic print but these are merely odds and sods that cannot save Soft Beds, Hard Battles from being little more than a woefully outdated curio. --Phil Udell