Four of The Pink Panther films have been released on 4K-UHD and Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.
The Pink Panther — 4K-UHD/Blu-ray — Kino Lorber
Blake Edward’s The Pink Panther is considered a classic film, which does not necessarily make it a great one. It’s slow moving, messy and not altogether compelling, but it does introduce audiences to the bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau (comic genius Peter Sellers), although he isn’t quite as irreverent yet– that would come when the franchise would hit its stride with subsequent sequels in the 1970s where Sellers would really find and mine the character for all possible ineptitude.
The thin plot involves a Brit playboy, Sir Charles (David Niven, a bit too old for this kind of role, at least through a 2026 lens), who may or may not be “The Phantom,” a cool jewel thief after a gigantic pink diamond known as ‘The Pink Panther,’ owned by gorgeous but aloof Princess Dala (Claudia Cardinale). Sir Charles happens to be having an affair with Simone, who happens to be Mrs. Clouseau (Capucine, sweet and icy).
They all converge at a resort in Cortina d’Ampezzo, along with the cuckolded dimwit Inspector Clouseau and Sir Charles’ suave nephew George (Robert Wagner).
The famous title sequence, featuring the lanky, leaping feline strutting about to Henry Mancini’s Oscar-nominated score, is a gem.
The enchanting Cardinale delivers the films richest performance. She is both hilarious and poignant in a scene where she gets intoxicated for the first time (or so she claims).
Another highlight is the “Meglio stasera” (“It Had Better Be Tonight”) sequence, a wacky musical number performed by Fran Jeffries.
But the piece de resistance is an extended sequence where no less than three men run in and out of Simone’s hotel room, always just missing one another. It’s Edwards at his side-splitting finest.
The director was coming off the tremendous success of Breakfast at Tiffany’sand Days of Wine and Roses.
Peter Ustinov was first considered for Clouseau and Ava Gardner was originally cast as Simone.
The film was released abroad in 1963, and in the U.S. in March of 1964 and was an instant hit.
Kino’s new 4K disc, scanned from the 35mm original Technirama camera negative, looks and sounds fantastic.
Extras are all taken from the 2008 Blu-ray and include an audio commentary by Edwards, a 29-minute doc, The Pink Panther Story, as well as chats with Wagner and Cardinale and a featurette on the cartoon.
The Pink Panther is an interesting curio, that beget quite the lucrative and, mostly, rewarding film series.
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A Shot in the Dark — 4K-UHD/Blu-ray — Kino Lorber
The second film in the Pink Panther series was far superior to the first, riddled with hilarious moments with now uber-bumbling Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) and the height of his hijinks. Ironically, Sellers hated the film and offered to buy all the prints if he could shelve and/or destroy them!
Within seconds of Clouseau’s onscreen appearance in A Shot in the Dark, he falls into a fountain. So begins a whodunnit, where it doesn’t really matter who committed the murder(s) and – SPOILER — we never really find out!
Elke Sommer shows off her comic chops as Maria Gambrelli—because when you think Italian, of course the go-to actress is of German descent—but she is wonderful.
The great Oscar winner, George Sanders, has some fun (but not too much) in the role of the suave Monsieur Benjamin Ballon.
A young and adorably cute Burt Kwouk would make his first of many Pink Panther appearances as the looney martial arts butler Cato. And this would be Herbert Lom’s first of many appearances as the exasperated Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus.
Director Blake Edwards co-wrote the screenplay with future Exorcist scribe William Peter Blatty, allegedly in 5-6 days on a ship from New York to Paris, adapted (specifically to include Clouseau) from the 1961 play by Harry Kurnitz, which was itself adapted from the 1960 French play, L’Idiote, by Marcel Achard.
As was the case with The Pink Panther, cast actors ended up quitting or turning the film down for varying reasons. They included Walter Matthau, Sophia Loren, Shirley MacLaine and Romy Schneider.
Henry Mancini was back as composer.
The film looks terrific, if a bit too dark in spots, on the 4K-UHD disc, which was created from a 4K scan of the 35mm original camera negative. The sound is fine.
Blu-ray extras are from the 2008 BD release and include a revealing 23-minute chat with producer Walter Mirisch and negligible outtakes provided via The Dick Cavett Show when Edwards and wife, Julie Andrews guested. It would have been nice to have the entire episode instead of the silly bloopers. Five trailers are also on the disc as well an audio commentary by Jason Simos of The Peter Sellers Appreciation Society.
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The Pink Panther Strikes Again — 4K-UHD/Blu-ray — Kino Lorber
Skipping over the 1975 sequel, The Return of the Pink Panther, which will get the 4K treatment in March via Kino Lorber, we turn to the, arguable, best of the franchise, The Pink Panther Strikes Again.
Director/producer/co-writer Blake Edwards along with co-writer Frank Waldman return to collaborate with Peter Sellers for this outing that has the newly promoted Chief Inspector replacing Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), who was sent to an insane asylum, after attempting to kill Clouseau. Dreyfus, of course, escapes and kidnaps a famous professor in order to create a doomsday device (you can see where a lot of Austin Powers developed). Dreyfus is also obsessed with murdering Clouseau, placing a bounty on his head which leads to a bunch of international assassins attempting to ice the clueless detective, but never actually hitting their target. It’s a lot of truly silly fun as we watch Clouseau evade death and destroy a lot of property, all leading to an insane denouement.
The thing about the Pink Panther films is you can anticipate what’s coming in almost every moment, but it doesn’t matter because it’s (usually) still hilarious—and at its best when it feels like a James Bond spoof.
Sellers’ slapstick seduction scene with Lesley-Anne Down probably inspired the Stanley Tibbets character played by Dudley Moore in Colin Higgins’ Foul Play, two years later.
Edwards, long rumored to be bisexual, includes scenes in a gay club—which was not done back then—although seen through today’s lens, these moments feel borderline homophobic. Edwards would make one of his best films, Victor/Victoria, in 1982, allowing Robert Preston to scene steal as a proud, and terribly suave, gay man in love with Alex Karras!
The animated opening sequence is the best of the series and pays tribute to the popular movies of the day.
Omar Sharif has a fun uncredited role as an Egyptian assassin.
The Pink Panther Strikes Again was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song, “Come to Me,” music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Don Black, and sung by Tom Jones. And it picked up two Golden Globe nominations for Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy and Best Actor for Sellers.
The film was a big commercial success.
The 4K disc looks good but is not pristine, there are some blemishes and imperfections. The sound is terrific.
The Blu-ray portals over an audio commentary by Jason Simos of The Peter Sellers Appreciation Society and three featurettes, the most interesting being a chat with Down who discusses how Sellers and Edwards were often at odds (a running theme, it seems) and how Sellers usually got his way.
For those interested in seeing only one Pink Panther movie, pick this one!
https://youtu.be/7VxsteiTIuQ?si=LS2gBzA4WGQDH8ZM
Revenge of the Pink Panther — 4K-UHD — Kino Lorber
The final Clouseau film to star Peter Sellers, Revenge of the Pink Panther, is disappointing with repeated gags that fall flat, a too-convoluted plot and some truly troubling Asian and Italian stereotypes (even contextualizing).
Sellers died of a heart attack at age 54 in 1980. One of his final performances would prove his greatest, that of Chauncey Gardiner in Hal Ashby’s Being There (1979)— the actor’s only Oscar nomination. The next PP installment, Trail of the Pink Panther, released in 1982, featured Sellers but from outtakes from previous films.
In Revenge, one could sense that Seller was simply going through the motions and Edwards seemed to be rehashing the same old-same old, this time bringing in some mafiosos and having Clouseau don a few really ridiculous disguises.
The one boon the movie has is Dyan Cannon, Oscar-nominated the same year for her outrageous performance in Warren Beatty and Buck Henry’s Heaven Can Wait. Her terrific line deliveries and reaction shots almost make this film worthwhile. Almost.
Once again, Kino has done a fab job with the look and sound of the 4K disc.
Special features are practically nil with just two trailers, tv spots and an audio commentary with film historian William Patrick Maynard.
I’d say you can skip this one, but if you’re a fan of the series, it’s worth seeing, if only for the dynamic Cannon and to see Sellers’ swan song as the dunderclodish detective.
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