The Pink Panther

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Template:Two other uses The Pink Panther is a series of American comedic films which feature the bumbling French police detective Jacques Clouseau. The role was originated by and is most closely associated with Peter Sellers, and most of the films were directed and co-written by Blake Edwards, with theme music by Henry Mancini.

Despite its use in the titles of most of the films of the series, all but the first of which center on the comic adventures of Clouseau, "The Pink Panther" is not the Clouseau character, but a large and valuable fictitious diamond which is the macguffin of the first film in the series. (It bears that name because the flaw at its center, when viewed closely, is said to resemble a pink panther.) The phrase reappears in the title of the fourth film, The Return of the Pink Panther, in which the theft of the diamond is again the center of the plot, the film in which Sellers returned to the role after a one film hiatus. The phrase has been used for all the subsequent films in the series, even when the jewel does not figure into the plot.

The first film in the series had an animated opening sequence set to the theme music by Henry Mancini that featured the Pink Panther cartoon character. This character would get its own series of animated films (as well as being featured in the opening of every film in the series except A Shot in the Dark) and came to be known simply as "The Pink Panther".

1 Films and themes
- 1.1 Characters
- 1.2 References to the films
2 Pink Panther cartoon character and animated series
3 External links

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Films and themes

The best-known of the films starred Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau and were directed and co-written by Blake Edwards. The popular jazz-based theme music was composed by Henry Mancini. In addition to the credits sequences, the theme accompanies any suspenseful sequence involving "the Phantom" at work on a theft, both in the first and in subsequent films.

Mancini's other tunes for the first film include an Italian-language set-piece called "Meglio Stasera" whose purpose seems primarily to introduce young actress Fran Jeffries. Portions of its instrumental version also appear in the underscore of the film several times. Other segments include "Shades of Sennett", a "honky tonk" piano number introducing the film's climactic chase scene through the streets of Rome. Most of the soundtrack album's other entries are early 1960s orchestral/jazz pieces, befitting the style of the era. Although variations of the main theme would be reprised for many of the Pink Panther series entries, as well as the cartoon series, Mancini composed a different theme for A Shot in the Dark.

The Pink Panther of the title is a diamond supposedly containing a flaw which forms the image of a "leaping panther", which can be seen if held up to light in a certain way. The beginning of the first film explains this, and then the camera zooms in on the diamond to reveal the blurry flaw, which focuses into the Panther (albeit not actually leaping) to start the opening credits sequence. The plot of the first film centers around the theft of this diamond, which is mentioned in only two other films in the series (The Return of the Pink Panther and Trail of the Pink Panther). The name stuck once the Pink Panther became synonymous with Inspector Clouseau, in much the way that Frankenstein was used in film titles to refer to Frankenstein's Monster or The Thin Man was used in a series of detective films.

A Shot in the Dark, a film which was not originally intended to feature Inspector Clouseau, but which was quickly re-written to capitalize on the popularity of the original film, is the only film in the series that features neither the diamond nor the distinctive animated Pink Panther in the opening credits and ending. Ironically, some critics, including Leonard Maltin, regard this entry as the best in the series.

In the original Pink Panther movie, the main focus was on David Niven's role as Sir Charles Lytton, who is the infamous jewel thief "the Phantom", and his plan to steal the Pink Panther from its owner. The Inspector Clouseau character played essentially a supporting role as Lytton's incompetent antagonist, and provided slapstick comic relief to a movie that was otherwise a subtle, lighthearted crime drama, a somewhat jarring contrast in styles which is not atypical of Edwards' films. The popularity of Clouseau caused him to become the main character in subsequent Pink Panther films, which were more standard slapstick comedy movies with little or none of the sophistication displayed in the first film.

Mancini's theme, with variations in arrangement, is used at the start of all but a few of the Clouseau films.

As of 2006, ten official films have been made, all but two having "Pink Panther" in the title:

The Pink Panther (1963)
A Shot in the Dark (1964)
Inspector Clouseau (1968) (stars Alan Arkin as Clouseau, and not directed by Edwards)
The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) (with Sellers and Edwards again and also starring Christopher Plummer)
The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)
Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978)
Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) (features the by-then deceased Peter Sellers by way of clips from previous films)
Curse of the Pink Panther (1983) (in which Clouseau has conveniently gone missing and returns in the form of an uncredited Roger Moore)
Son of the Pink Panther (1993) (starring Roberto Benigni as Inspector Clouseau Jr.)
The Pink Panther (2006) (Starring Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau).

The original nine Blake Edwards/Mirisch Company films were released by United Artists except for distribution outside the U.S. for 1975's The Return of the Pink Panther. That film is not fully owned by MGM/UA, as UA sold the film rights to British production company ITC Entertainment (although UA does own the copyright as well as the theatrical distribution rights via Sony Pictures Entertainment). Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers originally intended to produce a Clouseau television series in 1974, but backers ITC felt a movie would better suit the character. This resulted in Return, which successfully revived the franchise.

Some ancillary rights to Return have now reverted to Universal's Focus Features, which explains why it was not included in a 2004 DVD box set containing five of the Sellers films.

Although official, the 1968 film Inspector Clouseau is generally not considered part of the Pink Panther "canon" since it did not involve Sellers or Edwards. Some elements of Arkin's performance and costuming, however, were retained when Peter Sellers took back the role for Return in 1975.

A new film, called The Pink Panther, starring Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau, directed by Shawn Levy, and produced by Robert Simonds, started filming in the Spring of 2004 and was released in February 2006. This is the first Panther film to be released by Columbia Pictures, which along with UA sister studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is part of the Sony/Comcast consortium. Although advance publicity suggested this film to be a prequel to the original 1963 film, it is set in the present day. Prior to Martin signing to the picture, which he also co-wrote the screenplay for, Mike Myers, Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker had all been announced as candidates to play the role of Clouseau.

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Characters

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Inspector Jacques Clouseau

Jacques Clouseau is a bumbling simpleton who believes himself to be a detective, if not a genius. He inexplicably speaks in English with a ludicrous French accent, while other characters in the films speak English in whatever accent is normal for the actor playing the part. (Clouseau's accent is far less pronounced in the early films; it was only starting in the 1970s that an exaggerated accent became part of the joke). It has been suggested that portraying the incompetent policeman as French is based on a British stereotype of the French police in general.

Sheer luck or clumsiness usually saves him. In the first film, a farcical car chase around one of Rome's fountains, and the many surrounding streets that T into its roundabout, results in the loud collision of all the vehicles (off-camera, witnessed only by a bemused pedestrian), resulting in the capture of the thieves. This approach accelerates through the series. In The Pink Panther Strikes Again, assassins from all over the world are sent to kill him; Clouseau bends down to tie his shoelace, falls over, etc., at just the right moment to ensure that the killers' attempts eliminate one another. Sellers remarked that in his opinion, deep down inside, Clouseau knew he was a buffoon.

Played by Peter Sellers, Alan Arkin, Roger Moore, and Steve Martin.

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Chief Inspector Dreyfus

Clouseau's superior, Inspector Dreyfus, was introduced in A Shot in the Dark. He is eventually driven murderously insane by his exasperation with Clouseau's stupidity. One film (The Return of the Pink Panther) ends with him straitjacketed in a padded cell writing "Kill Clouseau" on the wall with his feet. In The Pink Panther Strikes Again he attempts to take over the world for the sole purpose of guaranteeing the death of Clouseau by kidnapping a scientist and forcing him to build a disintegrator ray. Dreyfus appears to disintegrate himself at the end of this film, but subsequently, without any explanation, returns to his Chief Inspector post in later films.

In Son of the Pink Panther, he deals with Clouseau's equally buffoonish son Jacques Gambrelli but, going by the track record of his nemesis, is more accepting of him than he was of Clouseau himself.

In the 2006 Pink Panther, Dreyfus's attempts are less extreme, and simply wishes to make Clouseau demoted as opposed to insanely killing him as in the previous films.

Played by Herbert Lom in the Blake Edwards films, and by Kevin Kline in the remake.

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Cato

Cato is Clouseau's servant, and an expert in martial arts. It's unclear whether he believes Clouseau to be a great detective or whether he merely humors him. It is a running joke that he is required to attack Clouseau when he least expects it to keep Clouseau's combat skills and vigilance sharp. One memorable scene offers a twist whereby Clouseau stealthily searches the entire apartment on returning from grocery shopping; upon not finding Cato, he opens the refrigerator for a snack. The hiding place of Cato is left to the viewer's imagination.

In later films, Cato helps Clouseau on some cases, including one in Hong Kong. The ever-faithful Cato wears glasses to be inconspicuous, but he ends up running into various objects because of his now-impaired vision.

At first, Cato appears to conform to the Chinese racial stereotype of speaking in "broken English" and grinning; however, Revenge of the Pink Panther reveals him to actually be a cultured gentleman, fluent in English, who adopts the stereotype as an act for Clouseau. It is suggested that a love-hate relationship exists between the two men, sometimes bordering more on the hate side for Cato.

In the movie Revenge of the Pink Panther, Cato, believing his master to be dead, ran a covert brothel in his apartment. The code to get into the brothel was to claim to be Inspector Clouseau, which caused a humorous scene when the real Inspector Clouseau showed up. He later opened another brothel in Curse of the Pink Panther, and converted Clouseau's apartment into a museum featuring all the disguises he had worn over the years.

The name Cato seems to be based on Kato, the partner of the Green Hornet. He was played by Burt Kwouk. Kwouk was also considered for a part in the 2006 revival, but was overlooked in favour of Jackie Chan. Ultimately the character was scrapped completely when French actor Jean Reno took on the role of Clouseau's partner. In the new film, it is Clouseau who attacks Reno's character, and who always loses the fight.

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François

François, Dreyfus' assistant, generally observes his boss's interactions with Clouseau (and subsequent emotional breakdowns) with placid bemusement. He was played by André Maranne.

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The Phantom

"The Phantom" is a jewel thief, Clouseau's antagonist in several of the films, known to the public as Sir Charles Lytton, and kind of a twist on Robin Hood: robbing from the rich and giving to the rich (himself). He leaves a "calling card", a white glove with a stylized letter "P" at the scene of each crime. In the first film he was played by David Niven, and in Return by Christopher Plummer. In later films he had cameos, again performed by a by-then aging and frail Niven, whose voice was overdubbed, none too subtly, by impressionist Rich Little.

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References to the films

In an episode of the anime series Lupin the Third, entitled "Black Panther" (American-dub title "My Birthday Pursuit"), master criminal and title character Lupin attempts to steal the Black Panther diamond as a birthday gift for his girlfriend/rival Fujiko. Normally, Lupin has to deal with the interfering Inspector Zenigata, but in this episode, Zenigata is aided by a clearly Clouseau-inspired character, Inspector Conaiseau. Conaiseau is even assisted by a Cato-inspired character, Hageito. Also within the episode, Lupin and Conaiseau both infiltrate a nudist colony, much like Clouseau does in A Shot in the Dark. Also, as a note of interest, the Black Panther diamond, when light shines on it at a certain angle, shows within it a black version of the Pink Panther cartoon character. This "toon" seems to give the diamond a life of its own, as whenever it is unexpectedly dropped, the diamond appears to run off like a loose panther, with the "toon" visable to the audience as it does so.

In an episode of the animated series Jackie Chan Adventures, entitled "Enter...the Viper", Jackie Chan and his niece Jade must protect the "Pink Puma" diamond from a female jewel thief called Viper.

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Pink Panther cartoon character and animated series

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The opening title sequence of the original 1963 Pink Panther film was such a success with the United Artists executives that they decided to adapt the title sequence into a series of theatrical animated shorts. DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, run by former Warner Bros. Cartoons creators David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng, had produced the opening sequences, with Freleng as director. UA commissioned a long series of Pink Panther shorts, the first of which, 1964's The Pink Phink won the 1964 Academy Award for Animated Short Film. By the late-1960s, the shorts were being broadcast as Saturday morning cartoons, and new shorts were being produced for both television broadcast and theatrical release.