2/13/2023 0 Comments Pink pather films![]() That said, A Shot in the Dark is much funnier than the original film, and much more disciplined than the sequels which began to appear 11 years later. Oddly, the racist portrayal would get worse, not better, as the Pink Panther series progressed, The spelling has been changed to match that of the Roman politician. The character seems a nod to Kato from The Green Hornet, at this stage just a memory as an old time movie serial and a radio series, and not yet a campy TV show. Herbert Lom is the long-suffering Chief Inspector Dreyfus, and Burt Kwouk is introduced as Clouseau’s servant and sidekick Cato, whose job is to periodically attack Clouseau to keep him on his toes.Ĭato is easily the most unfortunate element in the series, and in light of other stereotyped Asian characters in other Edwards’ films (like Mickey Rooney’s character in Breakfast at Tiffany’s or Sellers in The Party), it cannot be dismissed as a one-off anomaly, but rather represents a clear pattern. In this one, Clouseau is brought in to solve the murder of George Sanders’ chauffeur, and works to clear the name of the innocent and bodacious maid, Elke Sommer. It was only adapted into a Pink Panther project once Edwards and Sellers were brought aboard. It was a French stage play, then a Broadway hit, neither one of which featured the character of Inspector Clouseau. Ironically, this property didn’t even begin as a Pink Panther film. The first sequel in the Blake Edwards/ Peter Sellers Pink Panther series, and as is often the way with film series, the first true one (i.e., the comedy tropes get established in the sequel once the collaborators take things a little further and develop some self-awareness). The titular feline is a famous diamond, so called because of a flaw that resembles a pink panther, which Niven steals. This is only slightly less revolting than the oleaginous Robert Wagner, who plays his nephew, putting the moves on women. With 20/20 hindsight, the original PInk Panther film is a Nor’easter of tediousness stretching from horizon to horizon, a slow motion orgy of self-enchantment, endless footage of people skiing and getting in and out of bed in their pajamas, and the revolting spectacle of geriatric sex symbol Niven putting the moves on beautiful young women like Capucine. Sellers, as the relatively mild comic relief, merely stole the show. David Niven, as wealthy cat burglar Sir Charles Lytton (a.k.a. But interestingly (or rather, uninterestingly), Sellers’ Inspector Jacques Clouseau is not at the center of the original film. Meanwhile, Peter Sellers, who’d been a British comedy star for a dozen years, was just starting to become better known to American audiences, thanks to Lolita and The Road to Hong Kong, both 1962, and to a lesser extent, the earlier The Mouse That Roared (1959). Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief, which this film also much resembles, came out in 1955. ![]() The James Bond series, which I’ve always felt this franchise resembled and parodied somewhat, was launched the previous year. The one comedy he was known for as director was the WWII service comedy Operation Petticoat (1959) with Cary Grant and Tony Curtis (although he’d also written the screenplay for Operation Mad Ball a few years before that). His most recent blockbuster was the alcoholism drama Days of Wine and Roses (1962), starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. ![]() Some context: director Blake Edwards was not yet known as a comedy auteur when this film came out. Don’t expect breezy rah-rah across-the-board cheerleading for a franchise that has possessed at least as many lows as it has had highs. As always, I remind you that I am a critic. And thirdly, there are numerous Pink Panther films that Sellers and Blake weren’t involved with anyway. At first blush, the birthdays of either Peter Sellers or Blake Edwards might have made sense for days on which to post it, but I already done dedicated posts on both men. There is no particular occasion for this post on the Pink Panther movies today, other than that I had nothing else in the pipeline and this one, which I’ve been picking away at for months, was almost ready to go.
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