THE PINK PANTHER
It was more than a vehicle for Peter Sellers.
Some 30 years ago, while doing a brief turn on a weekly one-hour show called Music of the Movies, my radio partner accused me of liking The Pink Panther too much. Needless to say, she was probably right since here I am, these many years later, writing about it.
But the Pink Panther deserves mention, and I’m not just talking about the great Henry Mancini theme and soundtrack, although the music alone would qualify it as a cinematic delight. So let’s break it down.
The Credits: Friz Freleng and David DePatie created the opening sequence with a character designed by Hawley Pratt. The rest, they say, is fiberglass insulation history. The Pink Panther went on to become a Saturday morning cartoon favorite and reappeared in all the Pink Panther films of the 70s.
The Director: Blake Edwards, who made a name for himself writing radio scripts for shows like Richard Diamond (good ones, too), had the sense to hook up with Mancini back when he needed music for his 1958 detective show, a little thing called Peter Gunn. Edwards directs Pink Panther in what I’ll call slick 60s style, using scenic European locales along with elements of comedy, mystery, and slapstick.
Peter Sellers: Inspector Clouseau wasn’t the bumbling fool he came to be in subsequent movies, but even a subtler Sellers grabs your attention. Making A Shot in the Dark as Inspector Clouseau (released a few months after Pink Panther) sealed the deal. Sellers had the role of a lifetime.
The cast: David Niven, Capucine, Claudia Cardinale, and Robert Wagner are all great. But then so are Burt Kwouk and Herbert Lom, who we see a lot more of in later Pink Panther films.
Fran Jeffries: You can’t forget the scene in the ski lodge where Fran sings Mancini’s “It Had Better Be Tonight” in Italian. It’s one of the most skillfully staged song scenes I’ve ever seen in any movie. The cast is all there at the ski lodge in their sweaters, and Fran (pictured below), who can also dance, faces the camera as she sings. It comes off as a real party, and you’re into it. Sellers shows what a genius actor he is, even without speaking.
Dueling gorillas: Not one guy in a gorilla suit but two!
Car chase: All for fun, including the pileup at the end. The poor devil trying to cross the road is an old movie bit we’ve all seen before but, guess what? It works.
I have always loved the PPs, and for that matter, all those madcap ‘60s movies like The Great Race, What’s New Pussycat, and such. It’s no accident that Peter Sellers was in a fair number of them - he had the right touch for the right moments in so many of these.