Le Retour de la panthère rose

Out of all of the Pink Panther movies this one is my all time favorite.

Clouseau is at it again, bungling at his best. His boss who is on the edge for terminating him, indefinitely! And I don't mean by saying "You're FIRED!" I mean he's going to kill him! He called everyone aroud him "idiots" especially his assistant after he accidentally shoots off his nose. The fight scene between Kato and Clouseau was nothing more than mockery of the matial arts. Other than that I enjoyed every part of the movie.

10. Case CLOSED!

The good: dead pan humor. Over the top silly and childish, but the good kind of silly and childish.

When we were kids in the seventies these were THE comedies we used to watch and we laughed our heads of. Watching it now as a grown up, I must confess there are several scenes that are kinda lame, but overall this movie still stands strong some 50 years later.

More good: Peter Sellers Peter Sellers Peter Sellers. He has perfected the dead pan humor, saying ridiculous things, with a straight and serious face.

There is a lot of slapstick as well, some work, some dont, but overall still a fun watch.

I consider this to be the best of all The Pink Panther series...

Recommended for family viewing, young and old.

Return Of The Pink Panther marked Peter Sellers first appearence as Inspector Closeau since A Shot In The Dark (1964) and kicked off a celebrated Pink Panther sequel trilogy. To follow was The Pink Panther Strikes Again and Revenge Of The Pink Panther. I say trilogy because of course 'Revenge' saw Sellers' last outing before his premature death.

This film is a refreshing return to the roots of the original with Closeau on the trail of the PP diamond after it is once again stolen by the infamous Phantom. The Phantom's alter-ego, Sir Charles Webb (Christopher Plummer taking over from David Niven), is naturally assusmed to be the culprit but he is in fact innocent and so joins in the search.

Steve, from the first page, is spot on with his review of the film. It is slow and quite dismal when Sellers is not on screen and the sub-plot involving Sir Charles is weak and uninteresting, which was not the case with Niven in the original but nevertheless Plummer is an inspired choice for the role. Actually, the whole story isn't really clear or upfront, just Sellers at his best. And when he is on the screen, its gleaming with hilarity with a genius at play.

The result is a comedy which has its obvious flaws but also one which has many, many memorable and rip-roaring laughs. Return Of The Pink Panther is an irrestible treat and a must-see. I'm just having trouble figuring out which is better - this or Strikes Again. They're both great!

Peter Sellers is such a unique and choreographed actor that always seems to have moments of brilliance, and this film is no exception. Often times when I watch Sellers films there are moments that bring the legendary Charlie Chaplin to the forefront of my mind because while I am watching a genius in Chaplin perform, I often catch myself with my jaw dropped because I feel I am watching a masterful ballet. Sellers is one of the few artists that can bring Chaplin's genius to the forefront of my mind from time to time, which is saying a ton.

But as good as Sellers is, the film wouldn't be extremely good with him alone, and Blake Edwards, Christopher Plummer and Herbert Lom are there to make the film extremely good overall while keeping pace with Sellers.

Sellers stars opposite Christopher Plummer and Plummer performs good in this role. An actor with less skill could have easily overreached or left far too much on the table in the role that Plummer performs, but Plummer does neither and turns in a good needle threading performance. Herbert Lom is extremely good in his part for sure, and he plays the part just over the top enough so it braises my forehead, which is just what the character calls for, and he delivers.

And somehow Blake Edwards is able to balance these 3 good performances that all come from quite different angles into an extremely good film, and Edwards has his vision shine through while allowing performers to perform.

We have all seen comedies like this that simply do not work because the Directing & Acting is not of a high enough caliber, but it is refreshing to see in a film such as this when the Directing & Acting do indeed work, and we end up with an extremely good film.

This is probably the Panther film that has the funniest gags of the series, but they are scattered disparately throughout. It's clear that Edwards and co. was spoofing James Bond here in the Sir Charles scenes (or, as others have pointed out, perhaps the Bond films were spoofing the Clouseau films?). I was never much of a fan of the Bond series, so naturally these were, perhaps, jokes I just didn't get. But there is much to like here for Peter Sellers fans as well. My favorite is his interrogation of the beggar and his "minkey" that ends with him so wrapped up in trivia that he ignores a bank robbery. As I said, the Sellers bits are what make the film really shine, but I could've done without the emphasis on the Christopher Plummer character (though I must admit I liked him as Sir Charles better than David Niven, in the first Panther film). Watch out for Catherine Schell not even trying to hide her amusement at Clouseau's antics! That's almost worth the price of admission itself...