Over the years, Return is the film in the series I’ve seen the most often. Produced by Blake Edwards for ITC Entertainment At this point, neither Edwards nor Sellers was in a position to decline. Sir Lew then tactfully suggested a return of Inspector Clouseau as the second film in the deal. The first film was another underwhelming dud (the overwrought romantic drama The Tamarind Seed ). He wanted Julie Andrews to star in one of his TV specials, and if that meant giving her down-and-out husband a two-movie deal, it was a price he was willing to pay. Sellers hit the skids around the same time, appearing in a run of films of such appallingly low quality that one of them, Ghost in the Noonday Sun, was considered unreleasable and shelved.Įnter Sir Lew Grade, the British mega-mogul of ITC Entertainment, a colossus of both film and television. The series was dropped… for the moment.Įdwards had burned most of his Hollywood bridges with the Darling Lili fiasco, and was hunkered down in London trying to figure out how to resurrect his shattered career. But it was a flop with the critics, and though box office numbers are unavailable, they clearly weren’t strong. Had Sellers played the part, it is likely that Inspector Clouseau would be considered a worthy entry in the series. Arkin aside, the film itself is not any worse than any of the other Panthers before and after, and shares several traits - overlong “slapstick” setpieces that go nowhere, clunky direction (if anything, Yorkin has a touch of subtlety Edwards lacks), and a solid supporting cast working very hard. His round baby face (he looks a decade younger than his 34 years) just appears wrong under the inspector’s trademark hat. He is alternately sleepy (in an attempt to replicate Sellers’ deadpan), or shouting hysterically. Stepping into Sellers’ shoes as Clouseau was the rising newcomer Alan Arkin, who had received an Oscar nomination for his very first film, the Mirisch Corporation’s The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (1966).Īrkin is a great actor, but in 1968’s Inspector Clouseau he was badly miscast, failing to acquit himself convincingly as the title character. They went into production on a new Clouseau movie without Edwards or Sellers (or Mancini). The production company believed that the character of Inspector Clouseau was the true star, bigger than any actor who happened to portray him. When both Sellers and Edwards declined to participate, the project went forth anyway. Once again, Edwards and Sellers hated each other by the end of it.Īround the same time, the Panther series’ original production company, the Mirisch Corporation, decided that a third film in the series would be worth doing. Bakshi, is a thickly-accented collection of South Asian stereotypes. His character, the well-meaning but Clouseau-clumsy Hrundi V. Sellers and Edwards buried the hatchet to work on 1968’s The Party - an arguably funnier, or at least warmer, film than any of the Pink Panther s, but difficult to watch these days because Sellers is slathered in brown make-up and thick eyeliner. Newlyweds Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews
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