Product Description: One would have thought that the death of Peter Sellers in 1980 would spell the end of the Pink Panther series but Blake Edwards was able to utilize leftover footage from previous Panther efforts to create TRAIL OF THE PINK PANTHER. Sellers once again stars as the ineptly heroic Inspector Clouseau who is assigned to investigate when the fabulous Pink Panther diamond is again stolen from the country of Lugash. While flying to England for an important meeting with Scotland Yard Clouseau's plane mysteriously disappears over the Atlantic arousing speculation about the detective. Clouseau's past is dug up by French television reporter Marie Jouvet (Joanna Lumley) who interviews many of the people whose lives the bungling detective has touched--in more ways than one--over the years including Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) Sir Charles Lytton (David Niven) Clouseau's former wife now Lady Lytton (Capucine) and of course the incomparable Kato (Burt Kwouk). In the course of her research Jouvet manages to unearth Clouseau's father who not surprisingly shares many of his son's most familiar characteristics.System Requirements:Running Time: 97 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG UPC: 027616905970 Manufacturer No: 1006396
Cool! Although some people think that this is hurting Peter Sellers' memory, it is still pretty good. The first half of the film is made up of unused footage from The Pink Panther Strikes Again. The second half is a reporter named Marie Jouvet talking to people that Clouseau has come into contact with. That includes Hercule Lajoy from A Shot In The Dark, Cato from multiple movies, Clouseau's father, and Sir Charles Lytton from the original Pink Panther film. This isn't my favorite Pink Panther film, though. The Pink Panther Strikes Again is my favorite out of all the ones that I've seen. Iv'e seen The Pink Panther, A Shot In The Dark, Inspector Clouseau, The Return Of The Pink Panther, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Revenge Of The Pink Panther, this one, and The Pink Panther {2006}. This film has a great cast. Peter Sellers as Cheif Inspector Jacques Clouseau {archive footage}, David Niven as Sir Charles Lytton, Herbert Lom as Dreyfus, Richard Mulligan as Clouseau's lusty father, Joanna Lumley as Marie Jouvet, Capucine as Lady Lytton, Robert Loggia as Bruno Langois, Harvey Korman as Auguste Balls, Burt Kwouk as Cato Fong, and Graham Stark as Hercule Lajoy. I'm only going to say one part from the film. At the beginning of the opening credits, it says, "To Peter, the one and only Inspector Clouseau." That was my review. Jedi404
[Two stars out of Four] Average, but still funny. Niven's last film... R.I.P. David Niven, you were a gentleman. As for Lom and Sellers they are both get- ting long in the tooth for these type of roles. Sellers would try one more time, but a fatal heart attack would finish him off in 'The Search for Clouseau' starring Ted Wass, which would turn out to be Lom's last film. Followed by an awful Steve Martin remake in 2005 (*) w/ Beyonce Knowles of Destiny's Child!
Passable Panther The problem with many long-running series is that after a few entries everything seems like old material. In "Trail of the Pink Panther", it literally is.
Director Blake Edwards attempts to make one more Peter Sellers Inspector Clouseau movie, despite the fact that Peter Sellers died before the movie began filming. To accomplish his goal, Edwards weaves deleted scenes from previous Pink Panther films with newly filmed "plot" scenes to try to create a coherent story about Clouseau picking up the trail of the Pink Panther diamond one more time.
Halfway through the movie, Clouseau is conveniently declared missing, and a nosy reporter investigates Clouseau's life. She tracks down characters from the series and gets them to tell their stories about Clouseau, providing a clothesline to hang highlight clips from previous films on.
It's easy for anyone who's seen the other films to tell where the archive footage, even the deleted scenes, come from. All of this adds together to create an uneasy feeling of déjà vu for the viewer.
There are some original scenes in which the reporter interviews Clouseau's father, leading into some interesting (and funny) flashbacks to Clouseau's childhood. Even this, however, fails to take away from the feeling of watching the kind of "clip show" common in long-running TV shows. And when a TV show does a "clip show" episode, it's either a finale or the show's jumped the shark. (Think of the final episode of "Seinfeld." This entire movie is the Pink Panther equivalent.)
While the movie could be a good overview or introduction to the series, it's simply not as enjoyable as watching the individual movies themselves and seeing the jokes in their proper context. Even the new or previously unreleased material pales in comparison to that of the earlier movies. And while a "Best of" disc is something of an enjoyable novelty, it's understandable that this movie flopped. I can't fathom why anyone would pay money to see it in theaters.
Not to say that this movie doesn't have its place. For Pink Panther completists, this movie is like a bonus DVD. But like most DVD bonus features, this movie isn't one that will be watched often. For anyone other than completists, this movie is definitely skippable.
Strange Panther This movie starts out very good and is really funny. Then half way through it, Inspector Clouseau's plane becomes missing and so does Inspector Clouseau. A TV reporter looks for him but never finds out what happened to him or the plane. This is Peter Seller's last film as Inspector Clouseau but it is a very strange one indeed. At the end you see Clouseau from the back (you never see his face) looking out over an ocean and that's it!
A Guilty Pleasure Despite the fact that the first 30 minutes of this film were made up from unused footage and the like of Peter Sellers as Clouseau, these sequences are some of the funniest and most outrageously humorous from the PINK PANTHER series.
The remainder of the film follows reporter Marie Jouvet (Joanna Lumley) as she sets a trail to find the whereabouts of the missing Inspector Clouseau. In doing so she ultimately interviews most of Clouseau's acquaintances from both sides of the law. During these scenes we are treated to highlights from the previous films in the PINK PANTHER series and the feeling is one of endearing nostalgia.
David Niven as Sir Charles Litton, Burt Kwouk as Cato, Capucine as Lady Simone Litton, Robert Loggia as Bruno Langois, Graham Stark as Hercule Lajoy and Andr? Maranne as Sergeant Francois Duval are all present. Eventually Joanna Lumley meets Clouseau's father innovatively played by Richard Mulligan in a very memorable comic setting at the Clouseau estate.
Perhaps this film was assembled to keep the PINK PANTHER series alive and rake in a few quick dollars at the box office. It is sort of a guilty pleasure for me.
In the final analysis and most importantly, the driving force in the entire film is Herbert Lom as Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus. His brilliantly perfected performance with neurotic moments of strife and glee in reaction to the inept Clouseau, present or not, is the singular cohesive element that keeps this film afloat and perhaps a reason to keep PINK PANTHER series alive as long as it did. A guilty pleasure? Yes, but a happy one.
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