You would have to be a fan of farce and slapstick to appreciate much of the debut of the celebrated Pink Panther franchise. I enjoy slapstick, though this is limited here to mishaps with items of furniture, but farce tends to pass me by (although I laughed myself silly at One Man, Two Guv’nors on stage). And you should be aware that this is really a dry run for the Clouseau character later hilariously perfected by Peter Sellers.
The premise is clever. Bumbling detective Clouseau (Peters Sellers, minus the pronounced French accent that appeared later) is on the trail of ace cat burglar The Phantom (David Niven), unaware that his wife Simone (Capucine) is not only in cahoots with the jewel thief but his lover. The trail leads to Switzerland where the robber plans to steal the titular diamond owned by The Princess (Claudia Cardinale). The Phantom, aka Sir Charles Lytton, attempts to get to know her better by stealing and then rescuing her dog.
Meanwhile, to add to the confusion, Lytton’s conman nephew George (Robert Wagner) has arrived in town, and soon attempts to purloin his uncle’s mistress and on realising Lytton’s true identity stals his equipment with the intention of turning thief himself.
Lytton has the tendency to take a suite adjoining the Clouseau bedroom complete with linking doors to make it easier to make hay with Simone while the complaisant detective is lured elsewhere.
Cue a series of bedroom farces of the kind where Lytton attempting to make love to a drunken Princess in the lounge of his suite does not realise his nephew is in the bedroom and Simone expecting the uncle and finding the junior. And the classic of Simone, pursued by both men in her own room, having to hide them, on her husband’s return, in bed, cupboard, shower and bath.
There’s a fancy dress party where competing gorillas target the famed jewel and Clouseau, clunking around in armour, knocks into or knocks down anything in sight. And finding one of his men, dressed as a zebra, drinking on duty, harangues him with the threat of having his stripes (best joke by far).
But the bulk of the laugh out loud comedy originates from the inspector’s tussles with inanimate objects, doors, even approached cautiously, appearing to be capable of springing surprises.
Unfortunately, the first Pink Panther outing was not designed with Sellers expressly in mind and so the plot, necessitating accommodating the other stars via romantic interlude, does not play to his strengths. You get the impression of Sellers improvising his way into stealing every scene he is in with his brilliant physical comedy as there’s only limited value in his role as the duped husband.
After the sequel A Shot in the Dark (1964) where Sellers took center stage Blake Edwards would go all-out slapstick in his next venture The Great Race (1965) but here there’s neither sufficient Keatonesque or Chaplinesque buffoonery or Laurel and Hardy antics to maintain the comedic momentum.
David Niven (Bedtime Story, 1964) is perfectly serviceable as the master criminal especially as it calls mostly for his legendary charm, though he brings his double take quickly up to speed. Claudia Cardinale (Once Upon a Time in the West, 1968) is surprisingly good in a light-hearted role while Robert Wagner (The Biggest Bundle of Them All, 1968), a rising star at this point, comes over as slippery ingenue. Capucine (The 7th Dawn, 1964) has the most difficult part since she is in effect playing two roles, faithful wife and wanton lover.
Despite priceless roles in Ealing comedies and various attempts to embrace the Hollywood dynamic, this was the picture that turned Peter Sellers (Heavens Above!, 1963) into a bona fide star. It says a lot for the director that, having found a comedy genius on his hands, he did his best to accommodate him without allowing him to over-dominate what was in effect a carefully-orchestrated piece.
In small roles you will find John Le Mesurier (The Liquidator, 1965) and Brenda de Banzie (A Matter of Innocence, 1967) and the chanteuse in the ski chalet you might be interested to know was Fran Jeffries (Sex and the Single Girl, 1964). And of course the memorable theme tune, as celebrated as the movie itself, was composed by Henry Mancini (Hatari!, 1962). The film also spawned the famous cartoon series. Edwards wrote the screenplay with Maurice Richlin (Pillow Talk, 1959).
You could do worse than splurge on a five-disc box set.
This was hilarious! Fast paced and entertaining. Were disappointed with the sequels except perhaps A Shot In The Dark was worth a watch.
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I went the other way and was expecting to see more of Sellers even though I knew he was not essentially the central character. I guess if i had seen it in a cinema it would have worked better as farce needs the gags to line up.
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So not quite a proper Inspector C movie, unlike what followed, but still a swanky, plush production with big stars and a great comic performance from Sellers. I think even as I kid, I got that Clouseau was not the main character here, but with duelling gorilla, pantomime zebras, suits of armour and some brilliant sight gags, who cares? And that double-take car sequence….
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I thought I would laugh more. On paper it sounds great. In reality not so much. But I suspect seeing it with a live audience would have made all the difference though I laughed myself silly at Support Your Local Sheriff and I was the only person in the room.
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“Opening credits contain the following inaccuracies: The last name of actress Meri Welles is misspelled “Wells,” while the last name of production supervisor Jack McEdwards is misspelled “McEdward.” McEdwards happened to be director Blake Edwards’ step-father, as noted in a 28 Nov 1962 DV news item.
The 16 May 1962 Var announced that The Pink Panther would be the first feature film from the newly formed production company of Blake Edwards and producer Martin Jurow. The pair garnered additional production support from the Mirisch Company, which had a long-standing distribution arrangement with United Artists, and two months later, an 11 Jul 1962 Var news brief noted that their G–E Productions had allocated $3 million for The Pink Panther. Production was slated to begin sometime in Nov 1962 in Italy.
Another item in the 11 Jul 1962 Var suggested that actress Audrey Hepburn would star in the role of “an Indian princess.” Edwards, who directed Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961, see entry), may have underestimated the star’s commitments to other projects. Two weeks later, a 27 Jul 1962 DV brief indicated that actress Nancy Kwan looked likely to play the role. Over the next month, various contemporary sources speculated that Cyd Charisse and Claudia Cardinale were being courted to appear in the film. By Sep 1962, Cardinale’s casting was confirmed. A 14 Sep 1962 DV production chart indicated that she would join the ensemble cast of Ava Gardner, Peter Ustinov, David Niven, and Robert Wagner.
Less than a month before the start of production in Rome, Italy, the 30 Oct 1962 DV reported that Ava Gardner had been replaced by French supermodel-actress, Capucine. According to DV, Gardner and Edwards “could never reach terms.” Producer Jurow clarified, in a 28 Nov 1962 Var article, that he had dropped the Hollywood star because of her “excessive fringe demands,” including a weekly allowance for what amounted to a personal staff—a chauffeur, secretary, hairdresser, and makeup and wardrobe assistants.
Soon after Gardner’s departure, Peter Ustinov dropped out of the production, leaving filmmakers scrambling to find a new “Inspector Jacques Clouseau.” Edwards later stated, in the 17 Jan 1964 LAT, that their desperation was short-lived: “The happy idea of Peter Sellers came up. [He] arrived on a weekend in Rome and we were scheduled to shoot on Monday. We went over the script together and out of our conference, the entire concept of the character was changed.” Clouseau, originally conceived as a “straight, sober-sided dignified cop,” became, at Sellers’s urging, a “funny, pathetic, bumbling, lovable” fellow.
With Sellers in the revised role of Clouseau, casting had to be reconsidered “all the way down the line,” according to a 30 Nov 1962 DV news item. The 31 Oct 1962 DV reported that a “high society party-thrower” role had been offered to actress Kay Thompson. However, a conflicting report in the 20 Nov 1962 DV suggested that Hermione Gingold had been tapped to play the “Elsa Maxwell type” cameo. A 30 Nov 1962 DV production chart indicated that filming began 19 Nov 1962. Shortly thereafter, various sources confirmed that Brenda de Banzie had joined the cast as socialite “Angela Dunning.”
Though pleased to have found Sellers, filmmakers filed a lawsuit against Peter Ustinov for his untimely departure from the project, claiming that their plan to begin filming 5 Nov 1962 had to be postponed while they “reorganized” the production schedule. On 26 Nov 1962, Army Archerd’s “Just for Variety” DV column reported that the Mirisch Company was seeking $200,000 in damages from the actor. The 10 Jan 1963 DV clarified that the actual amount sought was $175,000. President Harold J. Mirisch declared that commitments [to starring roles] needed to be honored, lest the motion picture industry become “seriously impaired” by actors’ whims.
After several weeks filming at Cinecitta Studios, as well as in and around Rome, cast and crew traveled north in Jan 1963 to Cortina, a posh resort town in the Italian Alps. A news brief in the 22 Jan 1963 DV noted that the company was making the best of the below-freezing temperatures. One month later, the 20 Feb 1963 Var indicated that production in Italy was “winding up,” and that filmmakers planned to go to Paris, France, for “a day or so” of location shooting. Principal photography had concluded by mid-Mar 1963, as evidenced by reports in the 15 Mar 1963 DV, which noted that Jurow and Edwards, as well as actor Robert Wagner, had returned to Los Angeles, CA, and were tending to other industry obligations.
News briefs in the 27 Aug 1963 and 16 Sep 1963 DV revealed that “sneak” screenings of The Pink Panther were held in Aug, in Los Angeles, and Sep, in New York City. However, the picture’s official theatrical release was pushed to “around” Mar 1964, as noted by an 11 Dec 1963 Var column. United Artists secured Radio City Music Hall for the New York opening, a coup for the studio considering they had not had a film in the prestigious theater since 1950’s The Men. A 27 Feb 1964 LAT news brief announced that the picture would open 20 Mar 1964 at the Hollywood Paramount. The New York opening followed on 23 Apr 1964.
Reviews were mixed. The 16 Jan 1964 DV acknowledged the “jerky machinations of the plot” and “occasional lapses” of logic, but declared that Sellers’s “sharp performance” as the clumsy Clouseau would someday become a “vintage record of the farcical Sellers at his peak.” The 20 Mar 1964 LAT and 24 Apr 1964 NYT were more dismissive of the nonsensical onscreen antics, particularly when the slapstick elements seemed forced or labored.
However, critics praised the opening title sequence, which featured an animated feline character, the “Pink Panther,” making mischief with the cast and production credits. The main title sequence was credited onscreen to DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, Inc., a production company recently formed by film editor David H. DePatie and animator Friz Freleng. According to 4 Aug 1964 and 24 Dec 1964 LAT articles, both men worked at Warner Bros. for many years, and had just taken over production of the studio’s commercial and animation divisions when Blake Edwards asked them to devise something for the opening of his film. The result was the sly, debonair Pink Panther. DePatie and Freleng speculated that their work on The Pink Panther added $1.5 million to the picture’s intake at the box office. In the wake of their cartoon character’s successful screen debut, DePatie and Freleng were offered a renewed contract with Warner Bros. and the opportunity to work out of their DePatie–Freleng studios in Burbank, CA, making six short films starring their animated ingénue. United Artists planned to pair each short with an upcoming theatrical release, reviving the trend of showing a stand-alone cartoon prior to the feature presentation.
Three months after the Mar 1964 opening of The Pink Panther, the Blake Edwards-directed follow-up, A Shot in the Dark (see entry) was released. Edwards acknowledged, in the 17 Jun 1964 LAT, that Sellers’s reimagining of the role of Inspector Clouseau convinced him to incorporate the character into future films. The Pink Panther film franchise grew to include The Return of the Pink Panther (1975, see entry), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976, see entry), Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978, see entry), Trail of the Pink Panther (1982, see entry), Curse of the Pink Panther (1983, see entry), and Son of the Pink Panther (1993, see entry). Edwards directed all eight of these films, and all feature an animated opening title sequence that, with the exception of A Shot in the Dark, star the animated feline. Composer Henry Mancini wrote the Pink Panther musical scores, retaining the jazz-inflected style he had introduced in the first film. Sellers reprised his role as Inspector Clouseau until his death in 1980. (He appears in Trail of the Pink Panther only because Edwards had enough footage from previous films to edit together a part.)
Film enthusiasts disagree about whether or not the 1968 feature, Inspector Clouseau, is part of the Pink Panther canon, primarily because neither Edwards nor Sellers were involved in the project. In 2006 and 2009, The Pink Panther and The Pink Panther 2 were released (see entries). Considered a “reboot” of the franchise, the films starred Steve Martin as the bumbling detective.”
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Facinating report. How would Hepburn have fared, I wonder.
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