The Pink Panther Film Collection (The Pink Panther / A Shot in the Dark / Strikes Again / Revenge of / Trail of)

Product Details

Writer-director Blake Edwards cast Peter Ustinov as Clouseau in The Pink Panther, but Ustinov dropped out just before shooting began. Edwards (who recounts this story in a spotty commentary track included here) and Sellers bonded over their affection for Laurel and Hardy, and immediately transformed the character of Clouseau into a walking sight gag. The first film has a delicious swinging sixties vibe, while jewel thief David Niven, Claudia Cardinale, and Capucine occupy as much screen time as Sellers. Sellers really hits his stride in A Shot in the Dark, an elegantly funny tale of Clouseau sleuthing out a murder investigation. This one introduced Herbert Lom, as the increasingly frazzled Inspector Dreyfus, and Burt Kwouk, as Clouseau's houseboy-nemesis Cato. Sellers and Edwards, whose relationship was stormy, put Clouseau aside for over 10 years, until a trilogy of mid-1970s comedies restored the character to commercial (and dare we say cultural) primacy.

Unfortunately, the very funny comeback picture, Return of the Pink Panther, is absent from this set due to rights issues with the studios involved. The Pink Panther Strikes Again has Dreyfus going bananas and targeting Clouseau; Revenge of the Pink Panther puts Clouseau in a hilarious series of disguises, climaxing in a wonderfully mounted sequence in Hong Kong. (Throughout the series, the calm, classical staging of gags by Blake Edwards reminds you of what a lost art this has become.) Trail of the Pink Panther looks better now than it did when originally released in 1982, shortly after Sellers's death; it's a batch of unused Sellers routines from previous pictures, strung together with a loose plot. In other words, it's a "deleted scenes" extra, and quite funny at times.

Subsequent efforts Curse of the Pink Panther and Son of the Pink Panther are neither included nor mentioned. A half-hour documentary gives pleasant memories from Edwards, but feels incomplete. The cartoon Panther gets his own 11-minute mini-doc, plus six cartoon shorts including the Oscar-winning "The Pink Phink." --Robert Horton

Product Reviews

(5 stars) - Peter Sellers IS Pink Panther +++
This series of movies is almost sure to give anyone a belly-crunch workout via waves of gut-chuckles. The humor is of several types -- instant and ongoing -- noisy and quiet -- fast and slow. And, it uses sight, sound and touch to express all the fun. The spy crime mystery adventure action itself -- and the plot-twists -- and the settings -- is all fine, vivid and colorful. Then, there's the nostalgia factor -- Pink Panther is an easy way to visit the now-ancient non-pager, non-cellphone, non-computerized world. I even very much like the Pink Panther cartoons. The jazzy swing theme-music is unforgetable. But, it is Peter Sellers [and the other great actors] that really make this series so special. BTW "Return of the Pink Panther" is NOT in this particular set -- Get the Peter Sellers Pink Panther movies however you can +++

(2 stars) - a poor box set!
I am a huge Pink Panther fan, and this box set isn't a great box set.

First off, it is missing "Return of the Pink Panther", which is one of the better Pink Panther movies. Instead it includes "Trail of the Pink Panther" which is basically the outtakes that didn't make it onto "Revenge of the Pink Panther". Sellers had died before it's making, and so you are stuck with a sloppy thrown together movie. The first movie (the Pink Panther) and Revenge of the Pink Panther are fair, and Trail of the Pink Panther is brutal.

I would recommend buying Pink Panther Strikes again (Without question the best of the series), A Shot in the Dark, and Return of the Pink Panther. These 3 movies are the true stand outs, and you won't be wasting your time watching a ton of fluff.

Just my two cents!

(5 stars) - Kermit
I have very much enjoyed these DVD's. They were exactly as listed and delivered as promised.

(5 stars) - Hilarious!
The Pink Panther- The one that started it all. The story is well written and very clever gags (especially the zebra near the end), though the ending can be confusing to new viewers. Peter Sellers isn't in this one as much as you think. The main star is David Niven as Sir Charles Litton aka The Phantom, who the film series was to be focused on originally but audiences responded to the scene stealing Inspector Clouseau. A very young Robert Wagner has his moments of comedy as does the beautiful Capucine. Henry Mancini's score sets the tone of the film and the theme is one of the most memorable in cinema history and is very catchy. The scenery is absolutely stunning in Italy and makes one wish they were there on vacation. One of the best in the series. 5 stars.

A Shot in the Dark- Definately one of the better plotted of the series. Sellers begins to adapt Clouseau's over-exaggerated accent, proof of that near the end when he interregates the house staff near the end. We also get the introduction of his ever increasingly insane boss, Dreyfus, played brilliantly by Herbert Lom and Burt Kwouk as his ever suffering man servant, Cato. George Sanders proves he has a comedic side to him, pretty good for the man who would play the first Mr. Freeze. Elke Sommers plays Maria with innocence, making me feel sympathetic towards the character as everyone else but Clouseau thinks she's guilty. Many sight gags in this, in my opinion, the second funniest of Sellers' Panther films. Henry Mancini provides an alternative score for this one, utilizing the main theme suspensfully and the love song used in the beginning as an instrumental for Clouseau and Maria. 5 stars.

The Pink Panther Strikes Again- This one, along with the sequel, are tied in my favorites of the series. Dreyfuss has finally gone off the deep end in this obvious, well I think it is anyway, spoof of the James Bond films. The opening and end credits is one of my favorite bits, with the Panther and Clouseau re-enacting Hitchcock, Batman and Jaws (just to name a few) and Mancini uses bits of their respective themes! The funniest of the series has several hilarious scenes including; Clouseau's interrogation, all the assassination attempts and Clouseaus's attempts to infiltrate Dreyfuss' lair. It's difficult to name all the good things about this movie and yet I really can't find any bad things to say about this one. Though some people think that Dreyfuss' miraculous reapperance in the following film is highly unlikely due to his demise in this one, I just think that the effects of the Doomsday machine are temporary and he was taken into custody when he rematerialized (a little far-fetched but then again, stranger things have happened in movies). 5 stars.

Revenge of the Pink Panther- The last of the Sellers (can't really count him physically being in that one can you). Like the previous films, this one is just as funny, plenty of sight jokes, running gags and more! The Pink Panther theme used in the opening credits is updated for the late 70s with solos for bass and electric guitar (it sounds great, so I'm not complaining). Sellers is once again, his perfect comic self. Some of his best scenes include him as Toulousse LaTrec and his other disguises, when he enters his redecorated apartment, etc. Burt Kwouk gets more to do in this outing (actually helping with the case). Robert Webber makes for a very weak villain but this is the only thing I've ever seen him in. If I see more of his work, my opinion will probably change. And Dyan Cannon, definately not the most attractive woman (in my opinion, they could've done better) but she certainly does act better than a lot of the more appealing women I've seen today (I'll keep my opinions on that to myself). The plot is definately fresher than what we get from the next three films (which, again involve the diamond and a superflouous search for Clouseau [they really should've stopped with this one after Sellers died] and then the one with his son (better than Trail and Curse). 5 stars.

Trail of the Pink Panther- I know Edwards meant well but honestly, this just ends up being more of a disappointment than a tribute. The only way Sellers is even in this film is by utilizing alternate footage and outtakes from previous films. And then when the film runs out, he says "Uh oh, now I have to write an actual story!" The dialog is can be downright horrible at times (especially some of the exchanges between Joanna Lumley and Robert Loggia) and the running gags run tiresome (like the dog tugging on Nana's dress). In fact, the good parts of the film is, of course, the Sellers footage and Joanna Lumley, who unfortunately is underused in the sequel. And the only real other highlights of the film are Herbert Lom, Burt Kwouk, Capucine and the incomparable David Niven. The gags, as said before (especially when the Sellers footage runs out), are tedious, and in some cases, downright juvenile. You can tell, along with one of the elevator scenes in the previous film, that this is when films started to use bathroom humor, which is the lowest form of comedy in my opinion. We get three urine jokes and none of them are even remotely funny. And then there are the juvenile jokes with lingering shots of Densie Crosby's backside and Richard Mulligan gazing at Lumley's breasts. And even Mancini cannot save this picture with his music, this being one of his worst. 3 stars.

(5 stars) - The Pink Panther Film collection
The DVD, The Pink Panther Film Collection, was in good condition, and it arrived in a timely manner. I would definitely order something again from this site.

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