Trail of the Pink Panther (1. SUMMARY: Blatant exploitation of a great actor’s legacy. Much like Game of Death or Plan 9 from Outer Space, this film’s main star, Peter Sellers, died before shooting even began. Deleted scenes, outtakes, and new footage are cobbled together to supposedly show Sellers as Inspector Clouseau once again on the trail of the Pink Panther diamond. The Sellers footage runs out about halfway through, leaving only a pathetically unfunny story about a reporter interviewing Clouseau’s associates, with flashbacks from other Pink Panther movies spliced in a- plenty. New screen captures were taken from the recent DVD release, and more captions were added, along with a few new comments from me! The slapstick comic skills of Sellers were a perfect fit with Edwards’ flair for directing physical comedy, and in 1. The Pink Panther, a comedy about the theft of a diamond with a flaw shaped like a panther. It featured Sellers as Inspector Jacques Clouseau, a bumbling fool whose talent for finding creative ways to cause slapstick mayhem made the film a huge hit. This was fortunate for the sequel A Shot in the Dark, which was filmed back- to- back with Panther and released just a few months later. A television preview for the 1982 Blake Edwards comedy. Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) - Duration. Trail of the Pink Panther Official Trailer #1.Despite the success of both films, Edwards showed remarkable restraint by not wearing down the formula and instead, he went on to other projects. The article continues after this advertisement.. In the ensuing ten years, Edwards and Sellers reunited only once for the 1. Trail of the Pink Panther Official. The Pink Panther diamond is stolen once again from Lugash and the authorities call in Chief. Trail of the Pink Panther is a 1982 comedy film starring Peter Sellers. Trail of the Pink Panther at the TCM Movie Database; Trail of the Pink Panther. Watch the video «Trail Of The Pink Panther - Intro (1982)» uploaded by Justin Smith on Dailymotion. Sign In * Upload Upload. When he follows the trail of the diamond to another country. The Party. However, after a long string of flops, Edwards was eager to return to the Pink Panther series, and the next two films, Return of the Pink Panther and The Pink Panther Strikes Again, were released in the mid- ’7. However, it soon became apparent that there was a reason the series initially stopped production. By the time the fifth entry in the franchise came around, Revenge of the Pink Panther, it was obvious that Edwards had run out of ideas. Sellers was reduced to tired gags that had already been done to death, and the film even had to pretend that Strikes Again never happened so Herbert Lom’s long- suffering Chief Inspector Dreyfus could be brought back. However, the good name of the series still made the film a modest success. Read articles and publications about Trail of the Pink Panther, 1982. Trail of the Pink Panther rewards the Sellers devotee. The studio wanted to continue the franchise, and made plans for a new film called Romance of the Pink Panther. However, in 1. 98. Peter Sellers. You’d think this would have ended the series, but Blake Edwards insisted he could make a new Pink Panther film work. He proceeded to slap together some old scenes, deleted scenes, and new footage to make our current subject, Trail of the Pink Panther. Amazingly, even after this film was a huge flop, Edwards couldn’t take a hint and made two more Pink Panther films—one starring Ted Wass (who eventually became famous as the dad on Blossom), and the other with the one and only Roberto Benigni filling in for Sellers—before finally giving it up. I’ll just put in a little spoiler here and say that it’s Lugash, where the Pink Panther diamond is kept. The camera begins meaninglessly on some guy in a tower, before panning down to reveal the whole city. In the background is what the closed captions refer to as “Muezzin chants”, though I have no idea what that is and it never becomes important. There’s a quick cut to the Pink Panther diamond in a display case somewhere. Pan down to a hole being cut in the floor, and a black garbed cat burglar comes up through the hole. Yes, it seems the gem is being stolen for the third time. And, I might point out, the security around it has decreased considerably since Return. The thief simply opens the display case, picks up the diamond, and goes back down the hole. You’d think, if anything, the diamond would now be even harder to steal, but of course, the plot needs to proceed somehow. Oh, well, it’s all mine now! Now I can karaoke like a mofo!”After the shortest and most lifeless teaser in the history of the series, we go to the opening credits. As usual, these feature a cartoon version of Inspector Clouseau and his run- ins with the silent Pink Panther character, who was so popular at one point he got his own show. Or maybe I’m thinking of someone else. Too bad Blake Edwards later forgot this himself, so he could continue to run the series into the ground with Wass and Benigni. The credits themselves are pretty low key compared to the zesty ones from the previous films. There’s some strangeness here with a dated Pac- Man reference, that has chomping, disembodied Inspector and Pink Panther heads chasing each other around. Also, we see a mildly amusing gag where they make it seem as though a chunk of hair got caught in the projector, only to have the Pink Panther yank it out. But truly, the most bizarre moment comes when the Inspector appears to urinate a credit . I can’t imagine what the animators thought they were doing here, but whatever it is, it doesn’t work. Now, it goes without saying that the best parts of this movie involve Sellers himself. But there’s naturally an air of morbidity over each of his scenes that limits any potential enjoyment. And on top of that, Edwards didn’t seem to realize that there are reasons some scenes are deleted. Here, without any context at all, Clouseau goes into a costume shop. The proprietor, Auguste (played by Harvey Korman), addresses him as Inspector, but Clouseau corrects him that he is now Chief Inspector, after the institutionalization of Dreyfus. This instantly dates the scene as coming from another movie, because the movie we’re watching now supposedly takes place long after Clouseau assumed the title. Clouseau learns his new disguise is ready, and asks about the latex noses in the window. Auguste tells him they’re second- rate, then immediately contradicts himself by saying, “You always did have a nose for noses!” He brings in a box of noses, and has Clouseau try on a particularly ugly one. He says the nose is called “The Way We Were”, part of “the Streisand line”, and I admit, I laughed. However, as the scene doesn’t really belong here, any laughs are meaningless. Auguste’s helper tries to put a costume on Clouseau (the hunchback costume also seen in Strikes Again, another indication of where this scene really comes from), but he gets in the way. Auguste’s response is to push him to the floor and kick him in the head. And this is supposed to be funny? Clouseau tries on another nose called “Wino and Roses”. Auguste tries to talk him into buying it, but instantly acquiesces when it also doesn’t meet with Clouseau’s approval. Finally, there’s a nose called the “Inky Dinky Doo”, presumably after Jimmy Durante, although I don’t see any resemblance. Clouseau likes it, and next Auguste tries to find an appropriate wig. First is a British judge’s wig, which for some reason doesn’t really seem to go with a hunchback costume. Next up is a plain disheveled wig, which Clouseau likes. A set of crooked false teeth complete the picture, and Clouseau is so overjoyed that he hugs Auguste. This might have been funny, if all the laughs at the sight of the costume hadn’t been already used up six years earlier. Gee, could this bit have been filmed much later than the rest of the scene? Back inside the shop, Auguste calls his wife Martha down. He does this with one of those old- fashioned tubes used to talk between floors. First he has to blow the dust out, presumably into his wife’s face. They must use this tube all the time, so I don’t know why there’s so much dust on the thing. Martha comes down and, rather unbelievably, doesn’t recognize Clouseau at first, supposedly because of how good the disguise is. Clouseau reveals himself, then insults Martha’s nose, which is so disgusting he assumes it’s also fake. After learning it’s real, he simply says, “It suits you!” This bit was almost funny, until Martha bought into Clouseau’s complete reveral, even though he called her nose “revolting” two seconds ago. A moment later, Auguste goes into the back room for “stumps”, and Martha abuses the costume guy a little herself for no apparent reason. Clouseau’s interested in owning them, so Auguste tells him to come back later for a specially made pair. Once Clouseau leaves, Auguste collapses and says, “I’ve never been in such pain!” Martha asks if she can kiss it and make it better, but Auguste tells her it “doesn’t hurt that bad!” Oh well, I guess one laugh is all I’ll be getting out of this scene. Which is more than I can say for the rest of the film. Now we get some new footage, with news anchor Marie Jouvet (played by former The New Avengers star, and future Absolutely Fabulous star Joanna Lumley) on TV talking about the Pink Panther diamond being stolen yet again. We then get a history lesson about the diamond for a couple of minutes that has nothing to do with anything. Hey, you’ve got to fill up screen time any way you can when your star is dead. We soon see that a French police commissioner is watching the report on TV, but he turns it off when he learns “Chief Inspector Dreyfus” is there to see him. So, we’re supposed to pretend that we didn’t just hear Clouseau repeatedly refer to himself as Chief Inspector? Alrighty, then. They have a little chat about the diamond, making the news report even more superfluous. Dreyfus learns that the president of Lugash has personally requested “Inspector” Clouseau to work on the case, which starts the familiar eye twitch facial tic that Dreyfus gets every time somebody mentions Clouseau. This ends almost immediately, so I guess Herbert Lom just wasn’t up to the kind of extended bit we saw in previous films. Dreyfus is unsuccessful in getting a different inspector on the case, and eventually the commissioner tells him his finger is in a bottle of ink. This is a bit of a comedown from the days where he’d chop his thumb off, or stab himself with a letter opener. In what can be seen as symbolic of this entire movie’s existence, Dreyfus pulls his finger out of the ink and inadvertently flips off the camera.
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