Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that Clouseau addresses his Asian manservant Cato in racially-condescending terms ("my little yellow friend"), and that the movie's ostensible "good guy" (apart from Clouseau) is a charming career thief who's not above intimidating a weasel supporting character via torture. There is gunplay for comic effect.
Parents can talk about the poor way Chief Inspector Dreyfus handles his anger at Clouseau. Does anybody drive you crazy? What's a better way of containing negative feelings to someone you're stuck with at school or at home?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Charles Cassady, Jr.
This was the first time in ten years that Peter Sellers had reprised his hit 1960s role as the klutzy French police detective Jacques Clouseau, but the title is more literal than that, as Clouseau is once again tangling with the nefarious thief Sir Charles Lytton, alias `The Phantom,' from the original PINK PANTHER (and that signature Henry Mancini theme song was back, for good). At times it seems like we're watching two different movies; wild slapstick with Clouseau, more grownup adventure/intrigue with Sir Charles.
Despite high-tech security, the fabulous Pink Panther diamond is stolen by a masked cat burglar from a gallery in the mythical Mideast country of Lugash. France's Inspector Clouseau is summoned to recover the gem, since he is said to have succeeded the last time it was taken (actually he didn't, but there's no point in looking for continuity in Pink Panther movies!).
This is a career boost for the disaster-prone Clouseau, demoted to patrolling the streets of Paris by Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), who ultimately fires him for his perpetual incompetence (though Clouseau seems unaware how much Dreyfus hates him, even when his boss is pointing a gun at him). Reinstated, Clouseau sets out after his old nemesis Sir Charles, and is tricked by the aristocrat's fun-loving wife Claudine (Catherine Schell) to follow her to a Swiss ski resort.
Meanwhile, Sir Charles (Christopher Plummer, using James Bond 007 panache in taking over a dashing role originally acted by David Niven) claims he's retired from larceny and doesn't know where the Pink Panther is. He tries to prove his innocence by catching the real thief. He heads for Lugash and spends a lot of the movie in confrontations with shady police officers and chases involving armed underworld types, since the diamond theft has created a thinly-explained political crisis. Although filled with CASABLANCA references and caper-movie humor, the Lugash stuff may just have younger viewers waiting impatiently for the longish plot to return to Switzerland and the next appearance of Peter Sellers.
Clouseau accidentally ruins a museum crime scene, gets caught in a revolving door, grapples with a vacuum cleaner, misses noticing a bank robbery going on right behind him, and in two operatic scenes of comic calamity, defends against the sneak attacks by his servant Cato (Burt Kwouk) that the inspector had apparently mandated as an ongoing exercise to practice martial-arts self-defense skills. This was even more sidesplitting back in 1975, when kung fu was a new and exotic import, represented by the Bruce Lee craze.
But it's Sellers' mastery of characterization that makes Clouseau work. He's a bumbling oaf but conceitedly believes in himself as a cool crimefighter and master of disguise -- and good fortune seems to conspire to indeed make Clouseau look like a super-sleuth in the end, sending Drefus into a homicidal rage. Even though director Blake Edwards shows other characters (not Dreyfus, of course) laughing at Clouseau, a supposed violation of screen comedy's most sacred rule, it's still a riot.
There had already been one unsuccessful attempt to do the series with a different actor. RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER was a smash hit, and Sellers worked on Clouseau projects for the rest of his life, next doing THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentNone, unless you count Clouseau, attempting to trap Sir Charles, dressing up as a lounge lizard (with half his mustache missing) and trying to seduce the jewel thief's wife. |
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ViolenceSome slapstick fights. Chief Inspector Dreyfus tries to shoot/strangle Clouseau (harming himself and others instead). Some mildly 007-type action as Sir Charles tangles with armed thugs. Running joke about him bullying one of their flunkies by breaking the man's fingers. |
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Social BehaviorMixed, since Inspector Clouseau, while wholly on the side of righteousness and justice, is an arrogant clown, while the bright and good-looking Sir Charles is a professional thief (and his pretty wife is no better). |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoSocial drinking. |
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