Film Review--The Return of the Pink Panther

The Return of the Pink Panther
directed by Blake Edwards
written by Frank Waldman, Blake Edwards
starring Peter Sellers, Christopher Plummer, Catherine Schell, Herbert Lom, Peter Arne, Peter Jeffrey, Gregroire Aslan, Graham Stark, Eric Pohlmann, Burt Kwouk

The fourth installment in the Pink Panther franchise sees the return of Peter Sellers, Blake Edwards, Henry Mancini and the Pink Panther diamond.

As the film opens the infamous Pink Panther Diamond is being rescued from its high security prison at the Lugash National Museum by a thief who leaves the calling card of the Phantom: a single monogrammed white glove. Clouseau is put on the case and quickly bumbles his way through the initial investigation phase. He starts to trace Lady Claudine Lytton (Schell), the wife of Sir Charles (Plummer), the infamous phantom. Through a series of none-to-cunning disguises Clouseau tries to out wit his royal prey but is wholly unable to do so altogether.

Clouseau’s bumbling is less frenetic here than in the earlier two Sellers films. Instead, he tends to get physically stuck in situations rather than fall down or trip over everything in sight. The result is a more agonizing, prolonged comedic thrill as the viewer knows firmly that Clouseau is absolutely incapable of escaping unscathed and the joy is watching him become progressively more ensnared in his own trap.

The story involves the search for the persons or persons involved in the great theft of the Pink Panther diamond. Sir Charles has been clean for over four years and he lives a life or relative seclusion with his lovely wife. Sir Charles leaves for Lugash to look into the possibility that he has been set up. Clouseau moves in on Lytton Manor and manages to uncover absolutely zero useful information before being fooled into following Lady Claudine to Switzerland. He tails her very closely indeed and spends much of the film trying to accumulate evidence to nail her but he routinely fails.

So, we are left with a fool who doesn’t quite know he’s a fool looking in all the right places despite himself. It’s the standard Pink Panther formula where Clouseau manages to solve the case at the very end without accumulating even a shred of actual evidence in the process.

Inspector Clouseau is a bit more methodical in his inanity this time around. The scenes that encase his idiocy here offer elaborate set pieces that allow him to freely run amok within their structures. The sets are built with all of their disparate traps and Sellers is quickly inserted into the quiet scene and chaos mightily ensues. In this film, Sellers often walks dead into a situation that he impressively manages to make much worse. He gets caught in a revolving door, he pretends to vacuum Lady Claudine’s hotel room and nearly destroys it, he gets caught in a desk, he can’t get out of the bath without destroying the bathroom. It’s all classic Sellers and this film brings much of his genius to bear on the material.

The physical humor overall in this film is not as extensive as earlier films in the series. There is a nice bit with Catherine Schell where she slips on the floor and slides around a pole. Mostly, it comes down to less sporadic chaos and more deliberately-paced show pieces that the film is subsequently built upon. Much of the pleasure in watching Peter Sellers comes not from what he has done but rather with what he might do. With a vacuum nozzle in his hand Sellers is a very dangerous man as made evident by his witless path of destruction in that scene. One always wants to see him destroy everything that comes in his path; the pleasure comes in anticipating the potential aftermath for such a display. In this film the damage is minimal but the chaos is inspired.

Peter Sellers once again sells Clouseau’s blistering genius for getting the job done. Clouseau and Sellers were starting to forge into one being after this film. It soon became impossible to talk about one without the other. In this film, Sellers gives us the slow grind. We aren’t splattered with as much debris here but are provided with a sort of absolution through the tyranny of error. Chief Insp. Charles Dreyfus (Lom) is again driven slowly mad by the machinations of Clouseau. It’s good fun to watch Lom’s eye start twitching signaling that his character is beginning to lose it. Lom is excellent at playing it both straight and crazed and in this film he offers us both in all their flowering. Christopher Plummer is hard and lean throughout the film. He’s dashing and exceedingly persuasive as the world renowned Phantom.

Overall, this film doesn’t wholly deviate from the set, successful formula, but it does manage to stretch out key scenes of mayhem to their most illogical extremes. Clumsiness has been replaced by a lack of clear foresight. Clouseau performs a specific act and is unable to ascertain the consequences of that act. The story itself connects it to the first Panther film through the theft of the Pink Panther diamond and the work of the Phantom. It pursues Dreyfus’s insanity and overarching loathing of Clouseau through a series of humorous gags. Ultimately, the film stands as a consistently amusing installment in the franchise and sets the stage for many moments of sheer lunacy to come.