So Long, My Huckleberry Friend: Blake Edwards 1922 -- 2010

What an eccentric, prolific - and streaky - career writer/director Blake Edwards enjoyed.

Operation: Petticoat (1959), a naval farce aboard a pink submarine, is the drollest of service comedies. Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961),  while it bore zero resemblance to the Truman Capote story on which it's based, defines New York during the Mad Men era. Days of Wine and Roses (1963) captures the lives of alcoholics like almost no film before or since.  The Pink Panther (1964) is hilarious Continental slapstick. Experiment in Terror (1962), about a madman extorting a bank teller, remains a  most effective bloodcurdler. 10 (1979), the one about Dudley Moore's midlife crisis, is  a knowing comedy about male menopause. S.O.B. (1981) and Victor/Victoria (1982) are classic show-business satires. And Micki and Maude (1984) is a great screwball comedy about bigamy.

Edwards, beloved spouse of Julie Andrews, was a sculptor, recovering alcoholic, and most keen observer of men who had trouble controlling their appetites. Loved his movies. You?