Curse of the Pink Panther

Tweet

The Boy loves the Pink Panther movies, but not having grown up with them as I did, he didn't realize how bad this movie was going to be. See, he has seen the original Pink Panther movie and a remake with Steve Martin. I forgive him because he is only a teenager. I agreed to watching this movie before I realized it had been filmed three years after Peter Seller's death. The idea is that Inspector Clouseau has disappeared. Inspector Dreyfuss doesn't really want him found, so he engages the services of the worst detective in the world who turns out to be an American version of Clouseau. I don't fault Ted Wass, he was as good as anyone could be in that role. But the whole film felt odd and wrong. The first thing I noticed is that when David Niven spoke, someone else's voice came out of his mouth. I discovered that this was Niven's last film and his voice was too soft and incomprehensible so they overdubbed it. I do wonder why they didn't find someone who sounded more like him. Heck, I could do a better David Niven impression. I found it all to be in bad taste, including having a Clouseau who was bandaged around the head for most of the film due to having cosmetic surgery, and who was revealed at the end to look exactly like Roger Moore. Moore was apparently too embarrassed to admit to being in the film, because he is credited as Turk Thrust II. Let's face it - The Pink Panther, the movie that started it all, was funny. The sequel A Shot in the Dark was hilarious. After that, though, the only reason to watch Pink Panther movies was to see Peter Sellers doing familiar gags that we loved despite the fact that they consisted mostly of exaggerated accented pronunciations and slapstick. The Curse of the Pink Panther was a movie consisting of only the supporting characters and foils for Inspector Clouseau. It lacked the one ingredient that makes a film a "Pink Panther" film - Peter Sellers. Never watch this film. It is more than a waste of a couple of hours. It is not paying homage to Peter Sellers, it is simply a ripoff. It's tasteless, unfunny and somewhat depressing to know that we will not see Peter Sellers pop up in his famous trenchcoat and hat and that David Niven died soon after the film was made.