To wrap up the year, Have You Ever Seen episode #636 reviews our first Peter Sellers movie in over 10 years. He was flawlessly funny in Dr. Strangelove (which is the other film we reviewed) and he's note-perfect in Being There too. Hal Ashby had a very-underrated run of greatness in the '70s, directing powerful dramas like Coming Home, but also making truly funny-yet-cynical yuck-fests like Shampoo and this. In Being There, Sellers plays an illiterate gardener who supposedly-intelligent people believe is the wisest man they know. Melvyn Douglas won an Oscar playing a dupe who projects so much onto this blank slate, partly because he's a well-dressed, pleasant, older man. The film is also prescient about presidential politics, with Sellers spouting inoffensive platitudes...and then there's that infamous Jesus imagery at the end. It's quite a ride. So we hope you like to listen as much as Chance/Chauncey likes to watch as the Ellises bid you Happy New Year and present a gab about Being There.

There might be growth in the spring, but don't wait until then to order Sparkplug Coffee. They provide a onetime 20% discount to listeners who use the "HYES" promo code. The website is "sparkplug.coffee/hyes".

Rate and review this podcast in your app, but also subscribe to us.

And subscribe to, like and comment on the show on YouTube (@hyesellis on the 'Tube). You can also fire off an email ([email protected]). And try us on Twi-X (@moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis) or Bluesky (ryan-ellis and bevellisellis).