3. Being There
Based on Jerzy Kosinksi's book, Hal Ashby's Being There is one of the all-time classic mistaken identity movies, one which has Peter Sellers deliver one of his all-time greatest performances as Chance, a mild-mannered gardener who has spent his life working an unassuming job for a wealthy older man, but when this man dies, Chance has to head out onto Washington's streets, eventually being mistaken for a high-class businessman. Chance's flowery musings on gardening are mistaken for veiled political comments, causing him to become a sensation with Washington's highfalutin political elite, and eventually be positioned for a Presidential run by film's end. As a biting satire of class and politics, Ashby's extremely sharp film takes its mistaken identity premise and totally runs with the ball.