Cheap The Revenge of the Pink Panther (DVD) (Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom) (Blake Edwards) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Revenge of the Pink Panther

"Inflatable Goiters? Yes, The Valentine's Day Collection."
I am an enormous Peter Sellers fan, and love the whole "Pink Panther" series, but while still funny, this is not one of my favorite outings. Sellers is back as Jacques Clouseau, and this time is taking on "The French Connection" crime organization in the midst of a huge heroin transaction that takes them from France to Hong Kong. Robert Webber plays Philippe Douvier, chief of the organization, and while he is smooth, the interactions are more forced and formulaic than in the other "Panther" films. This time the beautiful vixen is played by Dyan Cannon (as Simone Legree), and series stalwart Burt Kwouk returns as the always helpful Cato (who starts his own business for a new twist...)

Also returning (somehow) is the wonderful Herbert Lom as Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus, although some suspension of belief is needed for the continuity to work inasmuch as he was last seen in "Strikes Again" being atomized by the doomsday machine. Notwithstanding that continuity gaffe, Lom gives the best performance of the film, and in fact single-handedly rescues this installment from a three star rating by virtue of the sublime funeral scene in which he has to give the giggling eulogy for "Clouseau" in what must be one of the funniest scenes ever caught on film.

Here the plot seems very contrived and the screenplay devolves frequently to only modestly amusing puns. Clouseau's disguise designer, for instance, is named "Auguste Balls", and you can see the hilarity that can result. Pretty grade school level, I'm afraid. Also devolving into tedium is the seemingly eternal chase scene at the close of the film, which looks like something the Three Stooges would have done, and set to extremely repetitive, annoying, whistle-laden vaudeville slapstick music. I remember seeing this a long time ago and thinking this scene lasted too long, but this time I actually started thumbing through a magazine to pass the time until it was over.

This movie is funny, and I do recommend it, with a couple of caveats. First, it is recommended only to people who are already fans of the series, and second, it is recommended only to those with patience to muddle through a bit more tedium than is typical of the rest of the "Pink Panther" films.

Watchable but flawed
"Revenge of the Pink Panther" is probably the weakest of the original five Panther movies. Considering it was the fifth installment in the franchise, it simply may have been too much. This time around, the story finds Inspector Clouseau in the sights of a drug lord named Philippe Douvier. Douvier wants to prove to his American counterparts how tough he still is and this is how he wants to do it: by killing Clouseau!! After several failed attempts (which include a bomb and sending out a superhuman assassin) Douvier and his goons think they have succeeded and the entire world thinks Clouseau is dead (upon hearing this news, Dreyfuss regains his sanity!!). But Clouseau is actually alive and is now sneaking around incognito in the hopes of finding his "killers" and bringing them to justice. There are quite a few problems in this film. First off, the writing in "Revenge of the Pink Panther" is inferior to the previous films. I mean, there isn't much of a plot; Douvier just wants to prove he's still strong. This wasn't a problem in the other entries which all had decent story lines that kept things a bit interesting. I think the writers would have done well to have made a better head bad guy as well; Douvier wasn't particularly engaging or interesting. And one more thing. I mentioned Dreyfuss is in the film. Wasn't he incinerated in "The Pink Panther Strikes Again"? I guess they chose to ignore that movie (makes sense considering it was so bizzare). But on comic side of things, you can still get a few decent laughs out of this one. Clouseau dons some pretty wacky disguises here, some of which include a peg-legged Swedish pirate (thar she blows!!), dwarf painter Toulouse Lautrec, and even a godfather disguise. There are some other scenes you'll like but I won't spoil them for you here. When all is said and done, "Revenge of the Pink Panther" isn't bad but it still falls short of its predecessors. I'll give this 2.5 stars. See it if you like but don't expect this reach the heights of the previous "Pink Panther" films.