Tag: Kino Lorber

4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY REVIEW:

Street Date 1/13/26;
Kino Lorber;
Comedy;
$24.95 Blu-ray each; $44.95 UHD BD each;
Rated ‘PG’;
Stars Peter Sellers, David Niven, Robert Wagner, Capucine, Claudia Cardinale, Herbert Lom, Graham Stark, André Maranne, Burt Kwouk, Elke Sommer, Lesley-Anne Down, Dyan Cannon.

The “Pink Panther” films, with some exceptions, are best known as comedy vehicles for the legendary Peter Sellers, playing the bumbling French Inspector Jacques Clouseau, who manages to find new ways to fail upward with each new film. But for as much entertainment value the films provide, equally fascinating is their history as a franchise, which would make modern cinephiles whining about “franchise fatigue” blush. In many ways, the multiple continuations of the “Pink Panther” films are perfect precursors to many of the fads of the home video era, where low-budget and/or direct-to-video sequels often rule the day.

The original “Panther” film series ended up comprising nine films before being rebooted with Steve Martin in 2006. Four of the six that credit Sellers as Clouseau are part of the first batch of Kino Lorber’s re-releases of the films with a spiffy remaster scanned in 4K from the original 35mm negatives for Blu-ray, and Dolby Vision HDR on 4K disc.

These films are the original 1963 The Pink Panther, 1964’s A Shot in the Dark, 1976’s The Pink Panther Strikes Again and 1978’s Revenge of the Pink Panther.

The first two films are generally regarded as the best and set the tone and style for what was to follow. In fact, the original The Pink Panther is striking for how much more it relies on its ensemble — and in fact it could be argued that Clouseau is a supporting character behind David Niven’s jewel thief, The Phantom. Clouseau is still somewhat clumsy and aloof, but Sellers plays him much more straight than in later movies, as the film relies much more on a comedy of errors to carry the day. The title refers to a famous diamond The Phantom wants to steal from an exiled princess. Clouseau is after The Phantom, but is completely oblivious to the fact that his wife (Capucine) is The Phantom’s lover and accomplice. Robert Wagner plays The Phantom’s nephew, a criminal in his own right but unconnected to his uncle’s schemes. They all converge on a European ski chalet where everyone tries to stay one step ahead of everyone else.

The three enduring franchise elements that emerged were the opening credits’ animated Pink Panther character, which spawned a spinoff series of short films and TV cartoons; Henry Mancini’s iconic theme tune; and Clouseau himself, who would return to screens a year later in A Shot in the Dark. The second film is actually devoid of any references to the “Pink Panther.” It does have an animated opening sequence, though the focus is on a Clouseau caricature, and Mancini provides a new theme.

The fact that A Shot in the Dark doesn’t seem much connected to the previous film may owe to the fact that it wasn’t originally intended as a sequel. Sellers was attached to an adaptation of the comedic mystery play L’Idiote, but script problems prompted producers to bring in Edwards to direct, and the screenplay was re-written into a Clouseau vehicle. It’s a classic farce in which Clouseau falls in love with the prime suspect (Elke Sommer) in a series of murders and refuses to accept that all the evidence points to her. It’s here that Sellers begins his over-the-top performance for Clouseau that would be repeated (and get more exaggerated) through the rest of the films. We also get the introduction of several franchise stalwarts, most notably Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), Clouseau’s boss who is driven insane by Clouseau’s antics and stupidity to the point of trying to murder him; and Cato (Burt Kwouk), Clouseau’s live-in manservant who is always attacking Clouseau to keep him on his toes.

The film is a comedy classic marked by long, sustained takes of Sellers’ slapstick, and Edwards’ masterful use of widescreen to frame it, both of which became hallmarks of the series. In his commentary track, Jason Simos of The Peter Sellers Appreciation Society calls it a “wonderful tableau of chaos.” In many of the films in the series, some of the comedy scenes are so dependent on the widescreen set-up that they don’t work when reduced to pan-and-scan 4:3 for subsequent TV viewings.

Edwards’ and Sellers’ fourth “Panther” collaboration, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, picks up with Dreyfus in an insane asylum and Clouseau promoted to his old job as chief inspector as a reward for retrieving the diamond. Triggered by Clouseau’s continued, inexplicable success, Dreyfus escapes from the institution and forms a league of super-criminals and assassins he uses to steal a superweapon to blackmail the governments in the world to eliminate Clouseau in an inspired sequence (keep an eye out for Omar Sharif as the Egyptian agent). This may be the franchise at its zany best, as Sellers’ physical comedy is in top form, the plot is so far removed from reality it can’t help but be a lot of fun, and there’s even a great parody of President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (who aren’t named but it’s obvious who they’re supposed to be).

The third Edwards/Sellers “Panther,” Return of the Pink Panther, has had a complicated home video history due to rights issues, but is slated for a Feb. 3 Blu-ray and March 3 4K disc release by Kino Lorber. Amusingly, newer fans or those casually familiar with the franchise picking up the earlier DVD sets and just watching the films through may not have even realized there was a movie missing from them. A Shot in the Dark ends with Dreyfus apprehended for his attempts to kill Clouseau, so anyone watching Strikes Again next (and not knowing about Returns) could easily assume Dreyfus was institutionalized for his actions in that movie. The fact that he’s back as Clouseau’s boss in Return with nary a mention of consequences for his actions in Shot owes more to story continuity between the films not being strictly enforced.

That’s even more apparent in Revenge of the Pink Panther, as Dreyfus is reinstated as Chief Inspector despite his actions in Strikes Again that would seem to preclude this as a possibility. He gets the job back when it appears Clouseau is killed by French gangsters looking to impress their Godfather. It turns out they killed the wrong person, and Clouseau is alive, but pretends to stay dead in order to solve the case, which takes him to Hong Kong.

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Edwards’ sixth “Panther” film would be 1982’s Trail of the Pink Panther, an oddly structured story assembled from deleted footage from Strikes Again following Sellers’ death in 1980, intended to set up further franchise films with a new cast.

The six Edwards/Sellers “Panther” films were previously released on Blu-ray in 2017 by Shout! Studios as The Pink Panther Film Collection Starring Peter Sellers. The Kino Lorber re-releases include legacy bonus material from that collection and previous home video releases. At the moment, no standalone Blu-ray or 4K edition of Trail of the Pink Panther has been announced, oddly making the Shout! set the only source for an HD copy of it.

The three other “Pink Panther” films from the original run — 1968’s Inspector Clouseau  (starring Alan Arkin as the title character, directed by Bud Yorkin), 1983’s Curse of the Pink Panther (directed by Edwards and starring Ted Wass as a bumbling American detective trying to find Clouseau), and 1993’s Son of the Pink Panther (directed by Edwards and starring Roberto Benigni as Clouseau’s son) — were released on Blu-ray Disc by Kino Lorber in 2017 but are now out of print and can fetch a high price on the secondary market. Kino Lorber has also released a series of Blu-ray Discs of various animated series focused on the Pink Panther and Clouseau characters featured in the films’ animated opening sequences.