Trail of the Pink Panther (1982)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Admirable film.

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Sellers' death could not stop the popular Pink Panther series, but it certainly made things awkward, as this rather sloppy exercise demonstrates. The approach steals its structure from Citizen Kane - Joanna Lumley stars as a reporter seeking to uncover the truth behind Clouseau's disappearance, through interviews with other characters from the series: Kato, Dreyfus, the Phantom, etc. and slowly builds a portrait of Clouseau as a spectacular bungler, despised by those he crossed paths with. But the result is certainly not Citizen Kane II; it's really a slow, unfunny and meandering mess, plus we knew all of this back story stuff anyway. There is very little new here. Sellers appears in outtakes from the other movies, giving us a glimpse of his comic genius, but honestly there is little here that we haven't seen before and done better. The only excuse for this exercise in cinematic necrophilia is to make a few bucks posthumously off Sellers' fans' good will. Don't be suckered. Watch the other series entries and stop there.

Victor Frankenstein's monster was never as hideous as this. This movie called itself a tribute to Peter Sellers, but it was really an insult, as Sellers would never have allowed old footage of himself to be used in new movies. Yet this movie not only includes highlight scenes culled from prior Pink Panther movies, but unused footage that should have stayed unused. Add a thin story about the disappearance of Clouseau and a lot of mostly poorly-acted new material (though the scene where Dreyfus tries to keep from showing joy at the prospect of Clouseau's disappearing for good was the movie's only funny part), and that is exactly what this movie is. No exaggeration.Blake Edwards may have disliked Peter Sellers, and may have had good reason, but that didn't justify his obvious grave-robbing here.

When Peter Sellers died in 1980 he was planning on another Clouseau film. He probably hated the idea, although he was writing the script. Sellers knew that his signature role for all time would be the stumble-bum French Inspector, but he hated how it hid his performances in, say, DR. STRANGELOVE or BEING THERE from the memory of the public. For as other actors caught in repeat performances of the same part (think of Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes or Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates) have said, those repeat roles are just going through the same paces again and again, and don't help stretch the performers talents.What is odd about TRAIL OF THE PINK PANTHER is that it is a posthumous resurrection of Sellers due to Blake Edwards, who should have known far better than to do this. Some dead actors have managed to reappear after they died in films, like Jean Harlow in SARATOGA, but usually they were shooting the film when they got sick and died. In TRAIL OF THE PINK PANTHER Edwards decided to use outtakes and some cut sequences to build up a plot for a new film. Supposedly, for the third time in the series, the actual "Pink Panther", the stone that Claudia Cardinale was struggling to hold onto in the first film, is the center of a robbery - a successful one. Clousseau is sent to solve the robbery. But his plane apparently crashes into the sea. Is the great detective dead or not? Joanne Lumley plays French television journalist Marie Jouvet. She is assigned to investigate the disappearance of Clousseau and who might be behind it. There are many potential characters: Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom, twitching again), the head of the French Mafia (Robert Loggia) - still struggling from their defeat by Clousseau in 1978, and even Sir Charles and now Lady Lytton (David Niven and Capuchine, reunited for this second film). Cato (Burt Kwouk) and Clousseau's old assistant Hercule Lajoy (Graham Stark) are interviewed. And the clips and outtakes are added in a sad attempt to give unity to the mess. For it was a real mess.Basically, Sellers was (in 1982) seemingly irreplaceable in the role. The public identified him with the French detective who mispronounced the English pronunciation of "monkey" as "minkey". The public watching the film could only consider it a curiosity at best. They might stretch it into an attempt at honoring a great comic actor. But they probably also thought it shabby, which it was. The other films preceding it had benefited from the energy of Sellers characterization (rather subtle one, by the way: people tend to forget that clumsy and arrogant as Clousseau was, he was a brilliant detective - listen to his conversation with Lajoy in a sequence from A SHOT IN THE DARK regarding the suspect Maria Gambrelli - we know Clousseau is in love with her, but he points out very sharply she had no motive for the murder she has been accused of). The sequences with Sellers at work had his energy, but the gaps appeared when Lumley or rest of the cast struggled with the vapid plot.The actors are not doing badly. Best is Richard Mulligan as the elderly father of Clousseau (who would like to make time with the reporter), and Lom of course. Stark is an old scene stealing pro (look at his subsequent work in VICTOR/VICTORIA as a snide and suspicious waiter). Here he is Lajoy enjoying his retirement. He shares an easy sequence with Lumley (one wishes there was more to it). She is quite good too, but her role is confused by the script (her best sequence is not with Loggia - a sad lost opportunity by two good performers - but just before when she realizes her taxi driver is being forced to kidnap her). She also has a moment confronting Lom (who can't give a damn about finding Clousseau) where she mimics his twitching eye.But why they trotted out Niven again is beyond me. He was within a year or so of his death, from Lou Gehrig's disease. He no longer had that wonderful gentleman's voice of his, so Rich Little was dubbing for him. You listen and you realize it is not Niven. That is just doubly sad.It could have been different in two ways. In 1982 the roles of both Clousseau and Sir Charles Lytton were not totally sewed up by Sellers and Niven. A film called INSPECTOR CLOUSSEAU had been made in the middle 1960s starring Alan Arkin, who might have been available to attempt the role again. And in the early 1970s, the third Pink Panther film had resurrected Sir Charles and Lady Lytton with the jewel robber being played by Christopher Plummer. A bit of recasting would have been needed. If they had done it (presumably if the performers were available or when they were) more time might have been spent on the script. Sadly that was not the case here.Edwards would make another "Pink Panther" film after this, which did less box office than this one did. Then, wisely, he went onto other projects. They never did find Jacques Clousseau in these last two films. The last two films were so terrible they did not deserve to merit the recovery of Insp. Clousseau. Now, aside from an occasional viewing on television both are forgotten (as is Arkin's one attempt at the role). However, Steve Martin took over the role a few years ago, with Kevin Klein taking over Lom's role as Dreyfus. Martin will shortly be seen in a sequel to his first "Pink Panther" film. Good luck to him - he has big shoes to fill.

I watched Trail of the Pink Panther again, 1982, a pieced-together story and tribute to Peter Sellers made 2 years after his death in 1980. I forgot what wonderful messes Sellers could create out of a simple room and pure innovative genius. Much of his work was spontaneous.Peter Sellers died at age 56 of a heart attack July 24, 1980, he was schedule for corrective surgery that month. His only son, Michael, died of a heart attack at age 52, July 24, 2006, 26 years to the day from his father's death. He also was scheduled for corrective surgery that month.Peter Sellers lives on, and I have ordered all of his Panther movies (ending in 1982), and "The Party" too. I got Trail of... because Joanna Lumley (from Ab Fab) was in it, at the tender age of 35. My sides still hurt from some of the never before stock footage they showed... and those looking for some meaningful plot or logic, have missed the point altogether...Classic laughter.