The Bobo is a 1967 British comedy film directed by Robert Parrish and starring Peter Sellers and Britt Ekland.

"[6] In 1961 it was announced that David R. Schwartz had written a theatre adaptation titled The Bobo, with former Moss Hart assistant Joseph Hyman slated to produce,[7] Norman Jewison to direct and Diane Cilento and Shelley Berman to star.

[citation needed] In August 1962, George Cukor announced that he would produce a film based on the book to star Ava Gardner.

[10] In May 1966, it was announced that film rights to the play were owned by the team of Eliot Kastner and Jerry Gershwin, who had recently produced Harper and Kaleidescope for Warner Bros.

When his redrimmed eyes stare soulfully out from a cerulean face, we sense that we are meant to be moved – as by Keaton or Chaplin – but are merely embarrassed; and the same is true – though this time an analogy with Jerry Lewis would be more appropriate – of the scene where his singing, which a little earlier had made both us and the impresario wince, is supposed to touch Olimpia's granite heart.

Only John Wells, as the poovy Maitre d'Hotel in Louis XV costume, emerges with his professional reputation undamaged.

The photography is remarkable for the poor lighting of the studio exteriors and for a repetitive shot of Olimpia's admirers taken through the distorting lens of the peep-hole on her apartment door.

It is a dangerous moment, with the pitfall of pretentiousness yawning on one side, sentimentality on the other and all the psychological hazards of overreaching buzzing in the back of the mind.