THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN

US, 1976, 103 minutes, Colour.
Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Lesley- Ann Down, Colin Blakely, Burt Kwouk, Leonard Rossiter.
Directed by Blake Edwards.

This is the fourth in the series of Pink Panther comedies with Peter Sellers. Introduced as one of the characters in the original The Pink Panther, Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau was given his own film in the very funny A Shot in the Dark.

Alan Arkin appeared in the 1967 film Inspector Clouseau directed by Buzz Kulik. It was not in the league of Blake Edwards’ comedies. When Peter Sellers fell on difficult times with his career, Edwards revived the Inspector in The Return, Strikes Again and The Revenge. They were moderately funny with Sellers doing his usual turns.

Edwards used outtakes from earlier films and included them in a further film after Sellers death: The Curse of the Pink Panther. He then directed Ted Wass and Roberto Benigni in Son of the Pink Panther.

In 2006, the Pink Panther struck again with Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau but this did not work well – although Kevin Kline was good as Inspector Dreyfuss and showed how he might have made a good Clouseau.

1. How good a comedy was this? How good a parody of detective stories?

2. The fact that this was fourth in a series? How much did you presuppose the others? How well did it stand on its own? The importance of the opening and the filling in of the background about Dreyfus and Clouseau? The title sequence with the animation of the inspector and the pink panther? Setting a tone for the film? The humour of the satire on the various films with the pink panther as each character?

3. How much did the film rely on Peter Sellers and his characterisation, his comedy skill and styles? His accents, lines, visual jokes?

4. How intriguing was the plot? Interest, humour? The parody of gangster thrillers? The parody of mad scientists? Was it credible? Did this matter?

5. The initial focus on Dreyfus? The details of his character, his role as a policeman, the victim of Clouseau's stupidity, the way that he was harassed, the interview with the psychiatrist and his wanting to rehabilitate himself? His desperation at the visit of Clouseau? The fact that he was driven mad by Clouseau? A basis for the situations and the details of the plot? What happened to the character of Dreyfus during the film? Did he change into a type, or did he develop as a character?

6. Clouseau as central? Peter Sellers' characterisation? The self-opinionated man, not seeing the reality about himself, his vanity and self-assurance, his stupidity? His arrival home, the encounter with, his fear of Dreyfus? The scenes in England and the English police's reaction to him? His inefficiency in handling situations? His brutality and recklessness, at least in their effects? How sympathetic a character is the inspector?

7. The humour of the sequences with Dreyfus: his drilling holes in Clouseau's floor and the consequences of this, the kidnapping of the professor and his daughter, the arranging of the killers and their hiring, his installing himself in the castle, the sequence with his teeth?

8. The characterising of the English detectives? Their encounters with Clouseau and their coming off second best? The buckshot, etc.?

9. How much humour was there in the English sequences? Especially the sequences with the butler, the male impersonator? His death?

10. The humour of the death sequences of the killers in Munich?

11. The satire with Omar Sharif being one of the killers? The skit on sex appeal? The Russian spy and her involvement with Clouseau?

12. How humorous was Clouseau's invasion of the castle via the moat, his becoming the doctor, the laughing gas and the extraction of the tooth?

13. Did the film build up well to its climax? Clouseau and the Russian spy? The change into animation at the end and the satire on Jaws? What is the value of this kind of film? Humour, poking fun at self-important detectives? Was it a good example of the genre?