I loved his comic genius in Evil Under The Sun. Agatha Christie, what fun! Sir Peter did you proud. I love the Ustinov banter here not one bit less…. Can you imagine him laboring to breathe with his forehead and think with his diaphragm?! And to sing with his eyes?! Talk about fruit-basket-turnover. Thanks again for posting this delight. A brilliant post!
He was always the most entertaining guest on Irish television (RTE) on the Late Late Show with recently deceased host Gay Byrne. May they both rest in peace.
I agree. Sir Peter Ustinov was a remarkable man. Given his understandable popularity on chat shows, people tend to forget he also won numerous awards including a couple of Oscars no less, two Emmys, and a Golden Globe. He was a notable UNICEF ambassador as well. Wow!
I think Ustinov is a name from the defunct Russian aristocracy? It's very funny listening to his take on the scenes of the class war of pre-war and wartime Britain. It could be very obnoxious. I don't believe a word of that singing teacher's advice. I think he knew it was impossible to teach someone to sing in a few lessons, just had some fun with Ustinov and collected his check. If someone could "breath with his forehead, think with his diaphragm and sing with his eyes", he could just as easily read the music with his rear end. His speech @ 43:00 is beautiful.
Peter Ustinov was truly great. One of the best story tellers ever. I have now listened to three hours of pure enlightenment, and not been bored for a second. This is in Stark contrast to my day to day experience, no matter how hard people try and even succeed in telling good stories. This man just had me at hello, just by the way he pronounced it. A great musical talent, a polyglot, a wise man, a generous and loving, a philosophical human beeing. Is there a woman like him out there? I'd love to meet her and have long talks...
It is really quite sad to hear him describe the meeting he had with his second wife. He flat out admits, sweetly, that she was a pathological liar, yet he thought she was charming. I find it sad that this mighty man could find himself ensnared by an obviously emotionally disturbed woman. Not only that, he was married to her for the better part of 17 years! That can't have been easy. Ultimately, his lapse of judgement speaks volumes to his own vulnerability and lack of emotional intelligence. When I encounter someone who makes up lavish stories, I go the other way. When Ustinov met someone who was obviously troubled, he married her.
Peter Ustinov is always a treat, but he's truly at his best when interviewed with the license of a raconteur. Reading his own words falls short of the boyish charm that he was known to exude throughout his life.
@@MrDaiseymay If you haven't seen it already, the movie in which he portrayed Jules, an escaped convict, called _"We're No Angels"_ really seems to have captured the impish Puck of his personality. He costars in it with Humphrey Bogart, but he's an absolute standout!
An inspired raconteur, but alas, his mindset coloured by his internationalist liberalism, which he obviously thinks should be adopted by all who are as intelligent and perceptive as him. But ordinary people do not live peripatetically bohemian Ustinov lives. He waxes lyrical about anti-communism, but says nothing about the horrors of Communism to balance it, nor would he, I imagine, be quite so polemically squeamish about anti-Nazism. If he really understood America as he says he does, he'd understand why McCarthy came about, and what it has lead to in America today. Nor does he ever , or has ever, explored or expatiated on the iconoclastic dysfunctionalsim of the ongoing extremes of the progressivist liberalism, the kind that he subliminally endorses in the seemingly moderate dispensation of his forays into political opinion..
