The Pink Panther Strikes Again

The best of the Panther films As much James Bond film as Pink Panther movie, this 1976 entry begins with former Chief Inspector Dreyfus, (Herbert Lom) about to be released from the lunatic asylum and all is going well - until Chief Inspector Clouseau turns up... Within minutes, the newly sane former police commissioner Dreyfus is reduced to a gibbering maniac - hell bent on destroying the world unless the authorities deliver Clouseau to him. The following 90 minutes consist of an inflatable Quasimodo hovering above Notre Dame cathedral, an absurd fight with an 'oriental lunatic', assassin wars at the Oktoberfest, a dentist with a plastic nose and the destruction of the United Nations building. Sellers and director Blake Edwards did everything right here. With a script this insane - they couldn't really go wrong.

Imagine poor old "Dreyfus" (Herbert Lom). Once the proud chief detective of the Sûreté now reduced to trying to convince his psychiatrist that he is over his kill-Clouseau phase and is ready to resume his place in society. Guess who turns up to wish him well at his hearing in front of the sanity commission...? Oops! Back to square one. Scoot on a bit and "Dreyfus" is now so obsessed with revenge that he has assembled a gathering of criminal minds that would make "Spectre" looks like the boy scouts. He issues the world with an ultimatum. Deliver "Clouseau" or face the imminent destruction of the globe! Meantime, the hapless sleuth (Peter Sellers) has decided that he will put himself on the trail of his nemesis whilst trying to avoid some of the twenty-odd assassins out to get him and his own, trained-to-kill manservant "Cato" (Burt Kwouk). Lom is on great form here as the maniacal character bent on getting his pound of flesh, and as Sellers wanders about leaving comedic mayhem in his path, I was with very much with him! By now, this character is established and we know what to expect with the silly accent, slapstick antics and the incompetent bumblings gently entertaining as the soundtrack and the narrative takes a pop at a few other stories (and even director Blake Edwards' wife) as it moves along. I would have preferred a different conclusion, but I suppose that was never to be in a world where a bum actually explodes and a game of croquet can lead to concussion and near drowning. It's almost as good as the first film, and shows an ability amongst everyone here to be funny without over complicating things.

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Charles Dance

CinemaSerf