A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television.
Acting
Sellers' final great performance—restrained, mysterious, heartbreaking.
Direction
Ashby's gentle touch makes the absurd feel inevitable.
Writing
Kosinski's dialogue—garden metaphors mistaken for genius.
Director
Hal Ashby
Peter Sellers
Chance
Shirley MacLaine
Eve Rand
Melvyn Douglas
Benjamin Rand
Jack Warden
President 'Bobby'
Richard Dysart
Dr. Robert Allenby
Richard Basehart
Vladimir Skrapinov
Ruth Attaway
Louise
David Clennon
Thomas Franklin
Fran Brill
Sally Hayes
Alice Hirson
First Lady
Jerome Hellman
Gary Burns
John Harkins
Sidney Courtney
James Noble
Kaufman
Mitch Kreindel
Dennis Watson
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Sellers was so convinced this was his best work that his dying wish was to screen it at his funeral.
The 2016 election made this 1979 satire feel less like comedy and more like documentary.
US
