Revenge of the Pink Panther

1978  PG  COMEDY  1h 38min

CAST— Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Dyan Cannon, Robert Webber, Tony Beckley, Paul Stewart

MUSIC— Henry Mancini  DIRECTOR— Blake Edwards

     Peter Sellers returns as that imbecilic inspector (uh, Chief Inspector, if you please) Jacques Clouseau in the sixth Pink Panther film and, sorry to say, the charm is wearing thin. This time Clouseau gets involved in the infamous French Connection, that decades-long heroin smuggling operation involving multiple national borders (and Gene Hackman, but that’s another film). Though our hero is absolutely clueless as to what’s clearly going down, he inexplicably takes down the bad guys with regularity. When the leader of this particular smuggling operation decides to take out Clouseau in order to prove his still potent villainous prowess, Clouseau of course inadvertently avoids the villain’s ploys. Even Claude Dreyfus, supposedly cured once again (and apparently reintegrated after his demise in The Pink Panther Strikes Again [1976]) gets in on the action as he is reinstated as an inspector. But will his constant run-ins with Clouseau drive him right back to the funny farm? Not as inspired as Clouseau’s last go-round, where the antics came fast and furious, but one can still appreciate the globe-trotting madness herein.

OUR RATING— ** ½

PRECEDED BY— The Pink Panther (1963), A Shot in the Dark (1964), Inspector Clouseau (1968), The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)

FOLLOWED BY— Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), Son of the Pink Panther (1993)