Trail of the Pink Panther (1982)

A journalist attempts to uncover the mysterious disappearance of Inspector Clouseau.

Directors:

Blake Edwards, Art Leonardi (uncredited)

Writers:

Blake Edwards (story), Frank Waldman (screenplay)

Stars:

Peter Sellers, David Niven, Herbert Lom

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Sellers	...	Chief Insp. Jacques Clouseau (archive footage)
David Niven	...	Sir Charles Litton
Herbert Lom	...	Chief Insp. Charles Dreyfus
Richard Mulligan	...	Clouseau's Father
Joanna Lumley	...	Marie Jouvet
Capucine	...	Lady Simone Litton
Robert Loggia	...	Bruno Langois
Harvey Korman	...	Prof. Auguste Balls (archive footage)
Burt Kwouk	...	Cato Fong
Graham Stark	...	Hercule Lajoy
Peter Arne	...	Col. Bufoni
André Maranne	...	Sergeant Francois Duval
Ronald Fraser	...	Dr. Longet
Leonard Rossiter	...	Superintendant Quinlan (archive footage)
Marne Maitland	...	Deputy Commissioner Lasorde

Storyline

The Pink Panther diamond is stolen once again from Lugash and the authorities call in Chief Inspector Clouseau from France. His plane disappears en-route. This time, famous French TV reporter Marie Jouvet sets out to solve the mystery and starts to interview everybody connected to Clouseau. Each interviewee Dreyfus, Sir Charles and Lady Lytton (an ex-wife of Clouseau), George Lytton, Hercule Lajoy (assistant in "A Shot In The Dark"), and Cato tell of their run-ins with Clouseau. She is also kidnapped by mobster Bruno Langlois who doesn't want Clouseau found but she continues and finds Clouseau Sr., Clouseau's father. Is Clouseau alive or is he dead? Each interview has not-yet-seen or famous clips from the previous movies (since Peter Sellers had sadly passed away) as Marie continues to get a honest view or impression of the great French detective.

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Plot Keywords:

interview | reporter | diamond | detective | pink panther | 

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Taglines:

The Newest and Funniest 'Panther' of them all.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Mystery

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 December 1982 (USA)

Also Known As:

La pista de la pantera rosa

Filming Locations:

Valencia, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$1,341,695, 19 December 1982

Gross USA:

$9,056,073

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$9,056,073

Company Credits

Production Co:

United Artists, Blake Edwards, Titan Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This movie is compiled from outtakes and deleted scenes from five previous Pink Panther movies featuring Peter Sellers. New material involving other actors other than Peter Sellers was filmed for the movie. Some of the older material dated as far back as eighteen years before this movie was made, to around 1964. Reportedly, at the time of theatrical release, some of the archival footage of Peter Sellers Inspector Clouseau had never been seen widely before.

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Goofs

Inspector Drummond's telephone switches position in between shots of him calling Dreyfus and Dreyfus talking to Drummond.

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Quotes

Hotel Clerk: [Clouseau rings the bell for service] Yes?
Insp. Jacques Clouseau: Do you have for me the 'massage'?
Hotel Clerk: Oh. You want a massage, ey?
Insp. Jacques Clouseau: If you have one for me, yes.
Hotel Clerk: Here. Why don't you try Tokyo Lil at the end of the block. Ask for Passionflower Shirley, the Yokohama Butterfly.
Insp. Jacques Clouseau: And why should I do that?
Hotel Clerk: Well, you want a massage, don't you?
Insp. Jacques Clouseau: Yes, but I want it from you.
Hotel Clerk: Sir, I don't give massages.
Insp. Jacques Clouseau: But you gave me one early this morning.
[...]

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Alternate Versions

All UK cinema and video versions were cut by 21 secs by the BBFC to remove the nunchaku footage previously edited from The Pink Panther Strikes Again. The cuts were fully restored in 2003.

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Connections

Spoofs Pac-Man (1980)

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Soundtracks

I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Music by Richard Rodgers
Performed by Herbert Lom

User Reviews

Jumped-up TV special

Cut 45 minutes of filler material and this would make a nice little hour-long network retrospective and a decent tribute to Peter Sellers. It mostly plays that way anyway, with a "plot" which is simply dropped halfway through, serving only as one of the framing devices to introduce the Sellers clips. The other framing device, a reporter's series of interviews with Clouseau's associates, is so inanely written and obviously "tribute-y" that it's shocking to remember that this was a theatrical feature film.

And that was Blake Edwards' major mistake. Some of the unused footage is amusing, but if it had been up to Sellers' usual hilarious standard, it wouldn't have gone unused. And the flashback sequences are made up of, well, flashbacks--scenes which we already saw in the previous movies. On a TV special, that would have been fine. Here, it just makes you wonder what Edwards could have been thinking.