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Disc 1: THE PINK PANTHER Disc 2: REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER Disc 3: THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN Disc 4: A SHOT IN THE DARK Disc 5: TRAIL OF THE PINK PANTHER Disc 6: BONUS DISC
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Cue the Henry Mancini music and watch out for Cato--the gist of the Pink Panther series has been gathered in a six-disc boxed set. At the center of it is Peter Sellers's incarnation of inspector Jacques Clouseau, a hopelessly bumbling detective with a genius for resting his hands in the wrong place (on the surface of a spinning globe, for instance) and mangling the English language.
Writer-director Blake Edwards cast Peter Ustinov as Clouseau in The Pink Panther, but Ustinov dropped out just before shooting began. Edwards (who recounts this story in a spotty commentary track included here) and Sellers bonded over their affection for Laurel and Hardy, and immediately transformed the character of Clouseau into a walking sight gag. The first film has a delicious swinging sixties vibe, while jewel thief David Niven, Claudia Cardinale, and Capucine occupy as much screen time as Sellers. Sellers really hits his stride in A Shot in the Dark, an elegantly funny tale of Clouseau sleuthing out a murder investigation. This one introduced Herbert Lom, as the increasingly frazzled Inspector Dreyfus, and Burt Kwouk, as Clouseau's houseboy-nemesis Cato. Sellers and Edwards, whose relationship was stormy, put Clouseau aside for over 10 years, until a trilogy of mid-1970s comedies restored the character to commercial (and dare we say cultural) primacy.
Unfortunately, the very funny comeback picture, Return of the Pink Panther, is absent from this set due to rights issues with the studios involved. The Pink Panther Strikes Again has Dreyfus going bananas and targeting Clouseau; Revenge of the Pink Panther puts Clouseau in a hilarious series of disguises, climaxing in a wonderfully mounted sequence in Hong Kong. (Throughout the series, the calm, classical staging of gags by Blake Edwards reminds you of what a lost art this has become.) Trail of the Pink Panther looks better now than it did when originally released in 1982, shortly after Sellers's death; it's a batch of unused Sellers routines from previous pictures, strung together with a loose plot. In other words, it's a "deleted scenes" extra, and quite funny at times.
Subsequent efforts Curse of the Pink Panther and Son of the Pink Panther are neither included nor mentioned. A half-hour documentary gives pleasant memories from Edwards, but feels incomplete. The cartoon Panther gets his own 11-minute mini-doc, plus six cartoon shorts including the Oscar-winning "The Pink Phink." --Robert Horton
The Pink Panther Film Collection (The Pink Panther / A Shot in the Dark / Strikes Again / Revenge of / Trail of the Pink Panther) Reviews
The Pink Panther Film Collection (The Pink Panther / A Shot in the Dark / Strikes Again / Revenge of / Trail of the Pink Panther) Reviews
| 82 of 85 people found the following review helpful  Like Old Friends, They're Always Great To See!, Amazon Verified Purchase This review is from: The Pink Panther Film Collection (The Pink Panther / A Shot in the Dark / Strikes Again / Revenge of / Trail of the Pink Panther) (DVD) Having been a fan of "The Pink Panther" series from childhood, I was ecstatic that this set was being released, as the films are otherwise out of print on DVD (although luckily I still have my trusty VHS copies in reserve). I am tempted to give the set five stars simply because it is a wonderful day to see these films back in print, but realistically I had to take it down a notch as there a couple of negative considerations, the most obvious of which, of course, is the absence of "Return of the Pink Panther" from the collection, ostensibly because of legal hang-ups. Whatever the cause, the absence of the first of the 1970s-era "Panthers" is sorely missed. The other minor negative is the relative absence of special features on the movie DVDs, although the original "Pink Panther" has a wonderful trivia track. I would have really loved commentary tracks with Blake Edwards and some of the actors. I am somewhat ambivalent on the extremely unusual... Read more 65 of 69 people found the following review helpful Great Collection but......, By Serrano (Florida) - See all my reviews This review is from: The Pink Panther Film Collection (The Pink Panther / A Shot in the Dark / Strikes Again / Revenge of / Trail of the Pink Panther) (DVD) This is a great collection but there is a big problem, it did not include the best film of the series, "The Return of the Pink Panther (1974)", with this film the collection would have been "Perfect" 27 of 28 people found the following review helpful  Decent package, but missing essential material!, By This review is from: The Pink Panther Film Collection (The Pink Panther / A Shot in the Dark / Strikes Again / Revenge of / Trail of the Pink Panther) (DVD) I was very excited when I heard they were releasing a Pink Panther collection on DVD. So much so that I held off on buying any of the currently available individual DVD titles. The day the set arrived I raced home to watch... and disappointment struck.In the first place, the set does NOT contain RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER; one of the best/funniest in the series (in my opinion). I now understand this was because of legal/copyright issues, but still a major disappointment. If you buy this set, you will need to go out and purchase Return separately to have all the Sellers' renditions of the film. Secondly, the other (non-Sellers) films in the series are not included. I wasn't too disappointed about this because Peter Sellers is, in my opinion, what made the Pink Panther series so great, but the other films are pretty decent as well (and this is supposed to be a Pink Panther collection, not necessarily a Peter Sellers collection). Son of the Pink Panther was a... Read more |
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