The Pink Panther Movies

If you haven’t watched The Pink Panther films, you are greatly missing out on comedy genius. The comedic timing of Peter Sellers is truly something to behold. The character of Inspector Clouseau is a classic and will hold a special place in my heart at least (and I know it does in many other people’s too). 

I rewatched all of them recently and had a great laugh. They are just the best! As good as they all are, I wanted to rank them in order from worst to best. (Hey, I’m bored.)

First, just in case someone isn’t familiar with The Pink Panther movies, I’ll go over the general idea: The movies follow bumbling, clumsy, yet extremely lucky French detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseau as he investigates crimes and tracks down criminals. Most commonly, he is tracking down/protecting the valuable Pink Panther diamond (which is where the film series gets its name), but not always. Each movie focuses on something different and has its own plot, but the overall idea is the same: Clouseau being an idiot.

So I would like to begin my list (I am only including the movies with Peter Sellers in the lead role.):

6) Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978)

French mobster, Phillip Douvier is losing respect with other countries’s syndicates. To prove his power, he decides to kill Clouseau whom everybody thinks is a genius (and few know of his actual stupidity). Because of a mixup with an escaping criminal stealing Clouseau’s car and clothes, the mobsters kill him instead of Clouseau. The world believes Clouseau dead. Clouseau, still very much alive, decides to take advantage of his “death” to discover who killed him.

I have this one at the bottom of my list because it’s just really not that funny. The plot is pretty uninspired and most of the jokes fall flat. There’s a lot of sitting around and talking and not a lot of jokes like the other movies. It’s weird to see Clouseau just talking to someone and not accidentally setting himself on fire or something. Clouseau was way too clever and less bumbling than usual in this movie. Too many of his plans worked out and he understood too much of what was going on. It was weird to see. 

Also, there is a surplus of racially-insensitive humor that has you sitting there cringing for half the movie. I mean, there are some jokes like that scattered through the other movies, but only a couple (and that’s often to be expected from movies coming out in the 60’s/70’s), but this movie takes it to a whole other level. 

There were some funny moments though like Clouseau and Cato falling into the unfinished apartment and getting covered in paint while fighting, or Clouseau’s inflatable bird that keeps deflating, also Dreyfus’s eulogy at Clouseau’s funeral to name a few.

5) Trail of the Pink Panther (1982)

The Pink Panther is stolen yet again and the authorities call in Inspector Clouseau to investigate. On his way there, Clouseau’s plane goes down and disappears. Presumed dead, a journalist sets out to solve the mystery by interviewing everybody who was intimately connected with Clouseau, both friend and foe, who tell of their run-ins with the Inspector over the years.

I know a lot of people saw this one as disrespectful because it was made after Peter Seller’s death, but I still found it funnier and more interesting than the last one. The first half of it is composed of outtakes and bloopers from the first few films all mushed together in an effort to make a coherent story. It’s pretty obvious too because in one scene, Clouseau is wearing a plaid suit and then the next scene he’s wearing a blue suit. I think the scenes were pretty unnecessary (even though some of them were funny) because the stuff with the reporter was sufficient enough to be its own movie. It could’ve started right off the bat with an announcement of Clouseau’s presumed death and then diving right into the reporter’s story.

It was interesting to learn about Clouseau’s past and to sort of reminisce about a character we love so much. The film was made in dedication to Peter Sellers so it was a nice little tribute to his performance and it even ended with a montage of his funniest moments as Clouseau. It certainly wasn’t the strongest movie in the series, but it at least got some laughs out of me. My favorite part is Dreyfus’s interview where he’s trying to cover up how much he hates Clouseau. 

4) The Pink Panther (1963)

Bumbling French detective, Inspector Clouseau, is the world’s leading expert on the renowned jewel thief only known as The Phantom. He believes the largest gem in the world, The Pink Panther, will be his next target so he follows its owner, Princess Dala of Lugash, to Switzerland where he also meets Sir Charles Lytton who, unbeknownst to him, is actually the Phantom.

The very first film in the franchise. It’s lower on the list because most of the focus isn’t actually on Clouseau, but on the Phantom, Sir Charles Lytton since originally, the series was going to revolve around him and his exploits. However, Peter Seller’s performance was so well received that the series was reworked to focus on him instead. 

Anyways, the film isn’t a bundle of laughs all the way through and there’s a lot of long scenes focusing on Sir Charles and his accomplices. However, every single scene with Clouseau is golden! He is hilarious! The film is set up in such a way that you don’t know who to root for and it’s quite enjoyable.

3) The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)

The Pink Panther diamond has been stolen again with the Phantom’s trademark glove left behind at the scene of the crime. Inspector Clouseau is called in to catch the thief again and he is convinced the Phantom has returned. He tracks down the original Phantom, Sir Charles Lytton, and trails his wife in hopes she will lead him to her husband.

This film is filled with tons of laugh out loud moments; like the bathroom flooding, “do you know the way to the Palace hotel?” “Yes”, Clouseau versus the security measures at Lugash, fixing the doorbell, Clouseau watching the girl jump in the pool, “your fly is undone”, and so on. One of the funniest moments where I seriously burst out laughing (sorry to ruin it for anyone) is when he walks into the hotel and a guy walks up to him asking, “Can I have your coat? Gloves? Hat?” and Clouseau gives them to him, thinking he’s a chauffeur or something, but then the guy just thanks him, walks out the door, and drives away. The other one moment I was laughing hysterically is when Clouseau tells a cab driver “follow that car!” and you think the driver is going to drive away without him, but something else totally unexpected happens. I absolutely died! 

There’s also some super stressful (but still funny) moments. Like the whole vacuum cleaner scene, or when he and the bellboy are in the steam room and are about to get caught, or when he’s disguised as the telephone repairman and totally demolishes the room.

The stuff with Sir Charles is a little slow and not super entertaining, but I understand why it’s there so *shrug*

2) A Shot in the Dark (1964)

When the chauffeur of rich and important Monsieur Ballon is found dead, Inspector Clouseau is first on the scene to investigate. While all evidence points to the beautiful maid, Maria Gambrelli, Clouseau suspects otherwise and believes she is hiding something. The bodies continue to pile up as Clouseau continues to set her free and follow her, much to the disgruntlement of his superior, Commissioner Dreyfus.

Even if Clouseau were not in this one, it would still probably work as a pretty solid murder mystery film. However, Clouseau makes it a thousand times better. This is the first movie where classic characters Dreyfus and Cato are introduced. As fantastic and funny as Clouseau is, the series definitely wouldn’t be the same without those two. I love how Dreyfus is slowly driven mad by Clouseau (his twitching eye, haha!). And Cato and Clouseau’s stupid fights are so hilarious! I love this movie for everything it sets up for future movies. 

There are some great moments unique to this one though like the whole nudist colony scene, or how Clouseau keeps getting arrested whenever he’s following the maid, or “good thing I checked my reflexes, I could’ve killed you with a karate chop”, and many others.

1) The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)

Dreyfus finally cracks after another unsuccessful attempt to kill Clouseau. He gathers together all the top criminals Clouseau has jailed and uses them to kidnap the world’s most renowned scientist to build a doomsday device. He then threatens the world that if they don’t eliminate Clouseau, he will wipe out entire cities with it. With dozens of assassins tailing him, Clouseau decides to track down Dreyfus himself and put him back in the asylum.

Although there are some weird parts (mostly at the end), this film is by far the funniest Pink Panther movie; so many laughs from start to finish. If you want a good idea of who Clouseau is, what he’s about, who all the characters are, what the general tone of the movies are, what kind of jokes are included, and so on, this is the movie to watch. I can’t think of any jokes that fall flat. Everything is hilarious! Almost all the most classic jokes that people remember from this franchise come from this movie: the parallel bars, “that is a priceless Steinway!” “not anymore”, “does your dog bite?”, Clouseau falling in the moat, and some of the best Cato fights out of all the movies. And there’s just so many other things that always have me busting a gut. 

Something that the reboot series with Steve Martin was missing (among other things) was Dreyfus’s madness and pure hatred of Clouseau. He’s not just mildly annoyed with him and inconvenienced, he hates him and constantly tries to kill him. It’s part of what makes this series so hilarious. This movie showcases the extent he goes to in order to eliminate Clouseau because “he’s terrible, he’s the worst” and “it’ll take all of the great nations with all of their trained assassins and all of their sophisticated murder weapons” to get rid of him. And this movie showcases that so well. I love it!

Funny clips of Inspector Clouseau:

Funny Scene from The Pink Panther Strikes Again: