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And yet Peter’s performance is extraordinary. His earlier Indian routines on The Goon Show and on comedy records were funny because they were so broad; Dr. Kabir is funny— when he is funny, that is—because of Peter’s technical restraint. At times, in fact, there’s no comedy to speak of in the performance. In a pivotal scene, Sophia’s character, Epiphania, shows up at Dr. Kabir’s clinic having bought it and all the surrounding land in a gesture of spoiled meanness and callous intimidation. She then strips down to an eye-popping black corset, stockings, and garters. Dr. Kabir loses his temper.

The idea of Peter Sellers as an enraged Indian doctor seems, of course, to be inherently hilarious, but in point of fact Dr. Kabir’s breakdown isn’t comical at all, nor is it meant to be, at least from the perspective of the performer. Dr. Kabir is genuinely appalled at her arrogance, and for good reason. There’s also a touch of defensiveness, owing to his awareness of her attractiveness to him. His pitch rises slightly; he gesticulates, but only to a point; and suddenly he begins speaking rapidly in his own language. Dr. Kabir is not a caricature, and whatever authentic emotion The Millionairess projects is due to what the camera’s cool lens recorded, as it often did, as Peter Sellers’s innate humanity.

• • •

The end of shooting The Millionairess scarcely dampened Peter’s ardor. Sophia left for Rome.

He followed.

“After the film was finished he’d phone her all over the place and go off to Italy to try to see her,” says Anne. Michael recalls Peter’s telephone conversations with Sophia occurring no matter whether his wife or children were in earshot. “I love you, darling,” Peter would say, and say, and say again, his children overhearing all of it.

Sophia returned to London for a few days to record a song with Peter, “Goodness Gracious Me,” as publicity for the film: A patient (Sophia) describes to her Indian doctor (Peter) her heart’s peculiar response to a certain man. His chief response, initially placid but increasingly excited, is the song’s title. With its bouncy, jingly tune and spoken lyrics, it’s basically a novelty record. But although The Millionairess itself wasn’t a hit, the song—which was deemed too frivolous for inclusion as title music in a George Bernard Shaw film—appeared on the best-selling charts in November 1960, and stayed there for fourteen weeks, peaking at number four.

Carlo Ponti accompanied his wife to London on the “Goodness Gracious Me” trip, but Mr. Loren’s presence didn’t seem to affect Peter one way or the other. As he saw it, she would leave Carlo, he would leave Anne, and then he and Sophia would be free.

Implausibly, the whole thing didn’t blow up in anyone’s face—at least not at the time. Peter, Sophia, and Carlo all remained friendly, and in fact Peter was a guest in their home for many years. As further publicity for The Millionairess, Peter and Sophia recorded three other songs for inclusion on an entire album, Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren, released late in 1960 by EMI. “Bangers and Mash,” like “Goodness Gracious Me,” was a novelty hit—it’s a mostly spoken menu battle between an English WWII veteran and his Neapolitan war bride. He craves the eponymous sausages; she insists on tagliatelle, all to the tune of a jaunty military fife-and-trumpet background. The song reached number twenty-two on the pop charts in January 1961.

The other two songs they recorded together were “I Fell in Love with an Englishman” and “Fare Thee Well.”

• • •

Early in 1960, before their collaboration on The Millionairess, Peter and Wolf Mankowitz decided to form their own production company, Sellers-Mankowitz Productions, Ltd. In March, before their own deal with each other had been signed, they announced a distribution deal with Continental to produce, in Britain, two out of three of the following projects: Memoirs of a Cross-Eyed Man, My Old Man’s a Dustman, and The Man Who Corrupted America. (Continental was already set to distribute Battle