The Return of the Pink Panther
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| The Return of the Pink Panther | |
|---|---|
| Image:45276F.jpg original movie poster | |
| Directed by | Blake Edwards |
| Produced by | Blake Edwards |
| Written by | Blake Edwards Frank Waldman |
| Starring | Peter Sellers Christopher Plummer Catherine Schell Herbert Lom |
| Music by | Henry Mancini |
| Cinematography | Geoffrey Unsworth |
| Editing by | Tom Priestley |
| Distributed by | -Theatrical Release- United Artists ITC Entertainment Group Jewel Productions LTD. -Home Video- Focus Features through Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | May 21, 1975 |
| Running time | 113 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5,000,000 (estimated) |
| Preceded by | Inspector Clouseau |
| Followed by | The Pink Panther Strikes Again |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Return of the Pink Panther is the fourth film in the Pink Panther series, released theatrically by United Artists. The film stars Peter Sellers in the role of Inspector Clouseau in his third Panther appearance (after the original Pink Panther and A Shot in the Dark). Herbert Lom also reprised his role as Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus. The film also features the return of the character Sir Charles Lytton (the notorious Phantom), now played by Christopher Plummer rather than David Niven. The Pink Panther diamond once again plays a central role in the plot.
Tagline:: You may rest assured that there's trouble, because Inspector Clouseau is on the case. that's the trouble.
[edit] Plot summary
As the film begins, Clouseau's bumbling has resulted in his demotion to a beat cop by his boss, Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus (who despises Clouseau to the point of obsession). However, the French government forces Dreyfus to reinstate Clouseau as a detective so that he can go to the fictional Middle East nation of Lugash and investigate the theft of the fabled Pink Panther diamond, which has once again been stolen.
Clouseau's investigations at the Lugash National Museum (which, being Clouseau, he all but destroys in the process) lead him to believe that Sir Charles Lytton, the notorious Phantom, is up to his old tricks...re-creating the most infamous heist of the Phantom's career. Although Clouseau completely fails to discover any leads into the theft, his bumbling allows him to survive several attempts on his life by a mysterious assassin (including bombs, sniper attacks, and sabotaging of Clouseau's car brakes). After staking out (and nearly demolishing) Lytton Manor in Nice, Clouseau is tricked into leaving France. He follows Lady Claudine (Sir Charles's wife) to a resort hotel in Gstaad, Switzerland, where his bumbling attempts to investigate her only result in repeated failure.
Meanwhile, Sir Charles reads about the theft and realizes that he has been framed. He goes to Lugash to investigate, has encounters with various underworld figures there, and fights off several attempts on his life. Lytton eventually manages to discover the identity of the true thief: none other than his wife, Lady Claudine. Since they were both bored with their quiet retirement, she stole the diamond for her own excitement, then sent her husband on a wild goose chase for his.
Sir Charles makes a daring escape from Lugash (both from the underworld and the Lugash Secret Police), and goes to Gstaad to find his wife and the diamond.
Inspector Clouseau, who has unknowingly been on the trail of the real thief all along, receives a telephone call from Chief Inspector Dreyfus to arrest Lady Claudine. However, when Clouseau calls Dreyfus back to ask why the Chief Inspector wants Lady Claudine arrested, he is informed that Dreyfus has been on vacation for the past week. Actually, Dreyfus is the assassin who's been trying to kill Clouseau; he prepares to shoot his bumbling nemesis with a sniper rifle, as soon as Clouseau enters Lady Claudine's room.
Lady Claudine playfully confesses the theft to her husband. She hands the diamond over to Sir Charles, so he can set about proving his innocence.
However, they are cornered by Colonel Sharky of the Lugash Secret Police, who intends to kill them both. It turns out the Lugashi government has been using the theft of the diamond as an excuse to purge their political opponents. Suddenly, Clouseau barges into the room. After Clouseau makes a huge scene of arresting the Lyttons, Sir Charles points out that Colonel Sharky is going to kill them all. Clouseau buffoonishly attempts to arrest Sharky. Suddenly, Dreyfus opens fire on the room, and manages to accidentally kill Sharky while aiming at Clouseau (who ducks at the last minute to check his fly).
For his work in recovering the Pink Panther, Clouseau is promoted to Chief Inspector. Dreyfus is committed to a sanitarium, where he is straitjacketed and placed inside a rubber-coated room. Sir Charles Lytton comes out of retirement, and continues to operate as the Phantom. The movie ends with Dreyfus holding a crayon between his toes so that he can write "KILL CLOUSEAU" on the wall of his cell, while the animated Pink Panther appears to film him.
[edit] Trivia
- Like the previous three Panther films, "Return" was released by United Artists. However, they were not directly involved in the production of this film. At the time of its release, UA sold their rights to independent company ITC Entertainment, which intended to make a Pink Panther television miniseries starring Sellers and Lom. However, early in pre-production, ITC made the decision to make a feature film. Although UA continues to hold the copyright as well as theatrical distribution rights (as MGM currently holds theatrical rights to the ITC feature film library), they do not hold all other ancillary rights, including home video. This caused "Return" to enter litigation for a brief time, which is why MGM Home Entertainment did not include "Return" in a 2004 DVD box set of "Pink Panther" films, and will not do so for future collections. The remaining rights to "Return" have reverted to Universal Pictures (via its Focus Features division), which recently assumed the video rights from Artisan/Lions Gate Home Entertainment.
- Recently the "Return of the Pink Panther" has been re-released on DVD for the European market (DVD region code 2).
- Catherine Schell can be seen breaking character and laughing on at least two occasions in the film - once when Clouseau impersonates a telephone repairman, and again when he meets her in a restaurant and pretends to be "Guy Gadbois", a lady's man. This magnifies the impression that Mrs. Lytton sees Clouseau as "cute" rather than a real threat.
- The film broke box office records when released. For a comedy movie, it was considered a huge success, which naturally justified the release of the equally successful sequels.
- Richard Williams did the animated open and close titles for this picture and The Pink Panther Strikes Again due to Depatie-Freleng's work on the The Pink Panther shorts and other cartoon projects for TV & film.
- In the first two Pink Panther films, Peter Sellers played Clouseau with a straight French accent. With this film, he began using the exaggerated accent that has become associated with the character.
- The scene in which Sir Charles Lytton arrives at his hotel in Lugash is an obvious homage to the film "Casablanca." The song "As Time Goes By" can be clearly playing on a piano in the background. As Sir Charles meets with his contact he also asks for "The Fat Man" (a reference to the rather large Sydney Greenstreet, who played Senor Ferrari in "Casablanca"), he also tells the contact to have a drink of Renault (the name of Claude Rains' French police prefect character).
The Pink Panther and Inspector Clouseau | |
|---|---|
| Theatrical films | The Pink Panther (1963) · A Shot in the Dark (1964) · Inspector Clouseau (1968) · Return of the Pink Panther (1975) · The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) · Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978) · Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) · Curse of the Pink Panther (1983) · Son of the Pink Panther (1993) · The Pink Panther (2006) · The Pink Panther Deux (2009) (in production) |
| Theatrical shorts | The original Pink Panther shorts (1964-1980) |
| Television shows | The Pink Panther Show (NBC, 1969-1970 and various spinoffs) · Pink Panther and Sons (1984-1985) · The Pink Panther (1993) (Syndication, 1993-1995) |
| Television specials | The Pink Panther in: A Pink Christmas (ABC, 1978) · The Pink Panther in: Olym-Pinks (ABC, 1980) · The Pink Panther in: Pink at First Sight (ABC, 1981) |
| Characters | The Pink Panther · The Little Man · The Inspector |
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