(1976)
Video
Clips
(click below)
Directed: Blake Edwards
Producer:
Blake Edwards
Written by: Blake Edwards
Frank
Waldman
Music: Henry
Mancini
expandable
Right from the start you just know that you’re in for a treat. Honestly…if you’re unhappy, worried about life, girlfriend has changed sexuality…don’t turn to drugs…watch this movie in it’s entirety and you’ll be a changed man.
In my honest opinion the best of the Panther movies and yes, I prefer it to ‘Shot in the Dark’. It combines both physical humour such as Dreyfus stepping on the rake with great comic lines such as
‘...relax, I'll get it...’
(just after cold cocking Cato when he went to answer the phone).
Sellers, who was nearly bi-polar in real life, is in top form delivering a stunning performance delivering lines that would do no justice here..simply side – splitting.
So the plot. It revolves round Clouseau’s former boss Dreyfus going mad and holding the world to ransom in order to kill Clouseau. The stage moves all round Europe from France to England and hence to Germany in as Clouseau tries to catch up with his old boss – now nemesis.
Scenes that stand out include when Clouseau is leaving the special branch office in London and takes the wrong door to announce,"...the old closet ploy..."
and the whole interrogation scene, a sample of which is captured in the clips on this page. Clouseau's repeated attempts to penetrate Dreyfus's stronghold are akin to Wile E.Coyote's attempts to get Roadrunner...
A femme fatale is also included in the guise of the smouldering Lesley Ann Down – a Russian assassin – turned defector who has orders to kill Clouseau. The final scene where Sellers in a moment of passion tries to remove his clothing in a manner befitting Tom Jones – only to end up with his tie stuck from his head – brilliant.
Cato (Burt Kwouk) is his normal brilliant self - delivering every comic opportunity brilliantly. In a role in which he became type cast, (appearing also in the BBC series Tenko) he is both Clouseau's friend and foil - politically incorrect now of course...my little yellow friend...
This page is dedicated to Dr R.H.Wilson (no he's not dead)
