For those of you who think The Pink Panther is a cartoon character from a good animated series, our pink feline started out as a flaw in a fabulous diamond. If you looked deep into the rock, you could see the shape of the pink one whose cartoon character started the credits on this film.
The film The Pink Panther could best be compared to, believe it or not, is The Road to Singapore. That film was probably the weakest of the Road series, but it showed that Bing Crosby and Bob Hope had a real screen chemistry and sequels were demanded.
But the guy who made the movie going public demand the sequels here was Peter Sellers. Take Sellers out of the film and you have an average caper film held together by the considerable charm of David Niven and the rest of the cast. The movie stars David Niven, but the man who stole it completely was Peter Sellers with his indelible character of that bumbling train wreck of a Surete detective Inspector Clouseau.
Niven is the famous Sir Charles Lytton, playboy to the world, but really a legendary jewel thief known as the Phantom. He's after the famous diamond with the Pink Panther flaw that's owned by exiled princess Claudia Cardinale. Clouseau is on the case, but he doesn't know that his wife Capucine his having an affair with Niven and keeps him in the loop on the investigation. In addition Niven has a nephew who doesn't know about his double life played by Robert Wagner who'd like to embark on that kind of life himself.
People should keep several feet away from Sellers because the man is a walking train wreck. But for all his bumbling and for all of his cheating wife giving Niven inside information, he actually does have a brain, a facet of the Clouseau character in this film that a lot of people overlook. The final chase scene is something out of Mack Sennett.
Peter Sellers made four succeeding Pink Panther movies and in the second one he got a good comic foil in the person of his frazzled supervisor Herbert Lom. But that comes later.
The Pink Panther is an average caper film that has two distinguishing things. One of the most enduring and familiar film scores in movie history by Henry Mancini and it's the start of a string of films like the Road picture series centered around Peter Sellers's most enduring character creation.
The film The Pink Panther could best be compared to, believe it or not, is The Road to Singapore. That film was probably the weakest of the Road series, but it showed that Bing Crosby and Bob Hope had a real screen chemistry and sequels were demanded.
But the guy who made the movie going public demand the sequels here was Peter Sellers. Take Sellers out of the film and you have an average caper film held together by the considerable charm of David Niven and the rest of the cast. The movie stars David Niven, but the man who stole it completely was Peter Sellers with his indelible character of that bumbling train wreck of a Surete detective Inspector Clouseau.
Niven is the famous Sir Charles Lytton, playboy to the world, but really a legendary jewel thief known as the Phantom. He's after the famous diamond with the Pink Panther flaw that's owned by exiled princess Claudia Cardinale. Clouseau is on the case, but he doesn't know that his wife Capucine his having an affair with Niven and keeps him in the loop on the investigation. In addition Niven has a nephew who doesn't know about his double life played by Robert Wagner who'd like to embark on that kind of life himself.
People should keep several feet away from Sellers because the man is a walking train wreck. But for all his bumbling and for all of his cheating wife giving Niven inside information, he actually does have a brain, a facet of the Clouseau character in this film that a lot of people overlook. The final chase scene is something out of Mack Sennett.
Peter Sellers made four succeeding Pink Panther movies and in the second one he got a good comic foil in the person of his frazzled supervisor Herbert Lom. But that comes later.
The Pink Panther is an average caper film that has two distinguishing things. One of the most enduring and familiar film scores in movie history by Henry Mancini and it's the start of a string of films like the Road picture series centered around Peter Sellers's most enduring character creation.