Alan Arkin is a very funny man and a comedian with great timing. Check out his work with Peter Falk in The In-Laws, if you have any doubts. Also, he like Sellers, the man he's filling in for, he's a great scene-stealer and upstager. However, this film fizzles, farts and fails. It's like a good idea that never got done. The script starts, stalls, coughs, chugs, falls again, struggles to get up and then, dies. There's no story. Just gag after gag-- all we have seen before by the Master of the prat-fall and sight gag, Sellers himself. Arkin is fighting an uphill battle from the git-go and does his usual professional self. He turns in a competent performance but to what end? The story is disjointed and pointless, the characters unbelievable and forgettable, the cast is faceless (one reviewer asks, "Who else besides Frank Finlay can you name?") and the direction (what direction?) is sadly lacking. Yorkin is very disappointing as indeed, this entire venture was. I recall that it bombed at the box office. I was doing exams when it showed up and didn't make it the week it was released and it was gone the next.
You can howl about unfair comparisons to Sellers until the cows come home but the simple fact remains: every one of the Pink Panther films were well received and are classics in their own rights. This film, however, remains a paean to Alan Arkin's talent and an abysmal failure on the part of the producers, writers and director.
You can howl about unfair comparisons to Sellers until the cows come home but the simple fact remains: every one of the Pink Panther films were well received and are classics in their own rights. This film, however, remains a paean to Alan Arkin's talent and an abysmal failure on the part of the producers, writers and director.