L'héritier de la panthère rose

The good news that "The Curse of the Pink Panther" does have a few funny scenes. The bad news is that there aren't too many of them. This movie would have been better if it was a lot shorter. Pushing two hours is way too long for a movie like this. There are quite a few scenes that went on too long. The karate fight in the alley is the first scene that jumps into my mind. A major plus in "The Curse of the Pink Panther" is the appearance of Roger Moore. There aren't many stars who, at the height of their fame, would have the guts to have fun on screen like Moore does in this movie. He had a lot of guts for trying and he's actually very funny.

This series should have been killed after this unfunny return with the always annoying Wass, attempting...and boy is he attempting...to fill the shoes of late great Peter Sellers. You don't even have to see the film to know it can't be done. Niven looks tired in his final role and the rest of the cast looks bored, with a feeling that they've been down this road way too many times.

Ignore the negative press when viewing this. O.K., the movie cant hit the heights of either A shot in the dark or The Pink Panther Strikes Again, but it is a nice little film in it's own right. Firstly Ted Wass is good in the role of Clifton Sleigh, perhaps it is the fact that the character is too bumbling in the wrong direction that it doesn't work out. The stars of the show are again Herbert Lom and Joanna Lumley, and the sexy Leslie Ash in a Bond girl like role. The man who steals the show is surprisingly Roger Moore as the newly Plastic surgery clad Clouseau who is made up to look like, rather appropriately, Roger Moore. An hilarious twist which is something Clouseau would have gone in for. It is a pity Moore wasn't given the role of Clouseau out right because he is effective in the part and quite funny. An enjoyable little film.

While this is not quite the train wreck that TRAIL OF THE PINK PANTHER was, it's still a pretty weak entry in the PANTHER series. Ted Wass is bland and ineffectual; when I watch him here I keep thinking of how much better this movie could have been if most of his scenes were acted or directed differently. One of the few times he made me laugh was when he was doing the voice for his "instant companion."

The "new Clouseau" at the end was an interesting touch -- not convincing, exactly, but funny.

In hindsight, if Blake Edwards really wanted to wrap up the series after Sellers' death, I think it would have been better if he combined the "using deleted Sellers scenes" concept from TRAIL with the "searching for Clouseau" concept from CURSE into just one movie, and left it at that.

I wanted to like this entry in the Pink Panther series but I didn't care for it as much. I never got into the film at all. They are looking for Inspector Clouseau who has been kidnapped. The first rate cast has a poor script to work with. The sights of the South of France is highly desirable. I love the cast but not the story. It's a weak entry in the film.