Villains & Clouseau

I realized that certain of my tagging categories were a little thin, so I decided to do something gutsy in the area of films.

Tonight I watched a movie--without any reviews or suggestions--called "A Shot in the Dark", which is actually the second Peter Sellers Pink Panther movie. It was made in the mid-60's and it's Peter Sellers in all of his goofy, slapstick, ridiculous glory.

Be forewarned of a few things: First, the Pink Panther doesn't actually have anything to do with the movie. It's just that Sellers plays Inspector Clouseau, so they kept the franchise intact. In fact, you don't even have to see the first one in order to appreciate this one. They have nothing to do with each other except Clouseau.

Second, don't watch if you're offended by 60's sensibilities. And by this I mean moments of bad humor (bad as in not funny), sexist attitudes, affairs between pretty much everyone, and weird plots that seem pointless and stupid. Oh, and nudists. But it's 60's film censorship, so you don't see a thing.

However, a lot of Peter Sellers' slapstick really is very funny, and it's a goofy mystery movie so you can't be too tough on it. It's perfect for a popcorn movie, doesn't require any thought and all you need is to sit back and witness the ridiculous.

As far as the noveling goes, things are speeding along nicely. I'm trying something new with this novel, which is actually taking time to craft suitably creepy and realistic villains. I tend to make my villains SO grey that they really aren't villains at all, and therefore my novels end up with no conflict. Having empathetic villains is different than having ambiguous ones. I've realized that I'm allergic to conflict. So I'm trying to fix that.

I actually had to write a section of my novel in the daylight, today, because it was creepier than I normally write and I kept freaking myself out last night when I tried to write it. Pathetic? Yeah, probably. Does it mean I'm doing better with villains? I hope so!

Current Word Count: 9,730

-The GLS