Trail of the Pink Panther (1982)
Peter Sellers, who played the bumbling yet highly effective Inspector Clouseau, died on July 24, 1980, and to whom Trail of the Pink Panther, which was released 2.5 years after his death, would be dedicated. Sellers had been slated to appear in a different Pink Panther film, one entitled, The Romance of the Pink Panther, which he co-wrote himself (with help from Jim Moloney, who had also helped Sellers write 1980’s The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu) would have been his first without the guiding hand of Blake Edwards as writer-director. Sellers had originally wanted to direct, but Sidney Poitier was originally picked by the studio to helm. Poitier would leave the project after delays with the script, and Clive Donner (who directed Sellers in What’s New Pussycat?) would end up getting attached at some point. One person who was not to be the director would be Blake Edwards, as they had a falling out that made Sellers vow he would never work with him again, though that may have been overstated, given that Sellers did do a cameo for Edwards’ 1979 comedy, 10, which ended up not making the final cut.
Sellers promised that his movie would expose deeper sides to Clouseau than just a buffoon, reacting to a woman, a jewel thief no less, who would fall deeply in love with him, the man who sought to apprehend her. Clouseau would have no knowledge that the woman he was seeing and the world-renown cat burglar named The Frog were one and the same until the end. Pamela Stephenson was slotted to play the role. The intended conclusion of the film would have the novelty of seeing Clouseau choose love over duty, retiring from sleuthing and marrying into her life of crime, literally. (Perhaps not coincidentally, Edwards would end up doing that with the character in his next film after Trail, Curse of the Pink Panther) It would also be a lucrative deal, with a guaranteed $3 million and 10% of the gross as part of the contract. Heart failure assured that it would never get made, but Sellers would indeed appear in at least one more Edwards film 1.5 years later, albeit without his consent, in Trail of the Pink Panther.
Blake Edwards, who had directed Sellers as Clouseau in all of the previous five films, was approached about continuing the series in Sellers’ absence several months after his death, though it would have to wait, as Edwards had already moved on to Victor/Victoria as his next film. MGM, who had just purchased the financially troubled United Artists after their Heaven’s Gate debacle, had wanted Dudley Moore to take over the Clouseau role, perhaps to complete The Romance of the Pink Panther, which he would only do if Blake Edwards were the director, having had a great relationship working with him in 10. Moore claimed he only wanted to play Clouseau once, just to give the character a proper ending, but the studio pressed him to enter into a four-picture deal, so the fit was not there. Moore had already been in talks with Edwards on an intended spy comedy spin-off from the Pink Panther series called, “The Ferret” before Edwards decided to use more as a last-minute replacement to take the lead role in 10.
Even so, Edwards felt that only Sellers could ever be Clouseau and decided against this (although it should be noted, he uses different actors to play Clouseau in this very film at various ages in this very film, not to mention a body double to complete some scenes). Edwards felt that there should be a new detective with a new actor, which lost the interest of Moore (who didn’t want to get typecast into a recurring role), and effectively meant The Romance of the Pink Panther was not going to be used, though Edwards had already tried to make a similar film with Rough Cut before he was fired from it.
Still, MGM was keen on getting some returns for United Artists’ most lucrative franchise at the time and pressured Edward to continue the series somehow. Edwards felt that there was plenty of unused footage from the other Pink Panther films that he could almost make another movie out of them (in 1982, most people did not have VCRs, so they would not mind as much watching clips they haven’t seen in some time), and he could use that movie to springboard this into another series with a different bumbling detective to follow, which would be kicked off on Curse of the Pink Panther, which he would make simultaneously to save costs.
The plot of the film as finished involves the theft of the infamous and priceless Pink Panther diamond from the fictional country of Lugash, and Chief Inspector Clouseau, at the request of the president of Lugash, is brought in yet again to investigate its whereabouts, against the wishes of Commissioner Dreyfus. In the course of the globe-hopping investigation, a plane carrying Clouseau goes down into the ocean, where it is presumed he might have finally met his fate. In an echo to Citizen Kane, a television reporter is called forth to talk to those who knew Clouseau well, from co-workers to those he helped put away, as well as those who knew of his activities prior to joining the police, from his childhood upbringing to becoming a resistance fighter for France in World War II.
About a third of the run time of Trail of the Pink Panther consists of eight scenes of excised and outtake footage from four of the prior films (almost all of them are from 1976’s the Pink Panther Strikes Again; reportedly, they did not want to pay to secure the rights to outtakes from 1975’s Return of the Pink Panther, which was owned by one of the producers, Sir Lew Grade of ITC Entertainment, so it was not used, though Edwards claims Grade told him that all outtakes were destroyed). After enough footage and concocted plot are put together to establish that Clouseau has gone missing, a second-half narrative is constructed surrounding a famous television reporter named Marie Jouvet, played by Joanna Lumley, who interviews friends and foes of Clouseau to get the scoop on whether they feel he might still be alive, complete with plenty of flashbacks to scenes from prior films. Needless to say for series’ fans, the enjoyment dips when Peter Sellers is off the screen, and since he is primarily absent in the second half, it’s only a halfway enjoyable movie.
The new scenes for Trail were written by Blake Edwards and his son Geoffrey, who were also busy working on a new Pink Panther movie with a different bumbling detective to continue the series in Sellers’ absence, which would be called Curse of the Pink Panther, released into theaters in 1983, about eight months after Trail. As both Trail and Curse were being worked on simultaneously, they could use many of the same sets, props, costumes, and actors. It would represent a cost-saving for both films, reportedly both made on a combined budget of about $17 million, with $6 million going toward Trail and the remained to Curse.
Longtime fans of the series have noted that Trail contains several plot points that are not in keeping with the events of the prior films, especially in retaining Herbert Lom’s Dreyfus character as Commissioner, despite having destroyed the UN building and attempts to ruin England in The Pink Panther Strikes Again. Clouseau also meets Alec Drummond in this film, though they had already met when that character appeared in Strikes Again, which is why the use of deleted scenes doesn’t quite work well. There are a number of other inconsistencies, but Edwards was making the film in a hurry, not to mention another concurrent film, and felt that few in the audience would likely remember or care given the nature of the film.
It is also frustrating because the two things that the plot hinges on – the recovery of the Pink Panther jewel and the ultimate fate of Clouseau – are not satisfactorily dealt with by the end of the film, pointing toward another upcoming film, Curse of the Pink Panther, as a possibility to help resolve what’s incomplete. Clouseau doesn’t come close to solving the mystery of the missing jewel, and the reporter doesn’t come close to solving the mystery of the missing Clouseau.
Like Citizen Kane again, the final shot reveals to us in the audience the key to the mystery of Clouseau, though it isn’t particularly revelatory of any deeper thematic truth, other than perhaps to suggest that Clouseau will always be alive so long as we have his movies to enjoy. Unfortunately, this relegates this movie as a rather pointless exercise in regurgitation for those who want to follow the story beyond just reminiscing about the series and Sellers’ funny performances.
The real mystery on the minds of most viewers, however, is not whether Clouseau continues to exist but rather if Clouseau actually can continue to exist beyond the death of its iconic actor to portray him. Edwards seeks to state that the character indeed can outlive the man that portrays him if the fans want him to, and he has come up with a scheme by which the character can have a life beyond death if you follow the two films he produced in the 1980s. New material includes the animated opening sequence, the excised outtakes, and scenes involving Clouseau’s father (Richard Mulligan) accompanied by flashbacks to Jacques Clouseau’s youth.
The television reporter’s investigation ties up all of the vignettes but raises more questions as to the intent, as she does not appear to be actually looking for what happened to the plane or searching anywhere in the vicinity of wherever Clouseau may actually reside, resolving that the way to understand if Clouseau is alive is through interviews with his associates. Even this angle makes little sense, as she interviews no one who had really known Clouseau in two decades, save for Dreyfus, who despises the man, and Cato, who seems to only have a relationship with him to attack him and sharpen his martial arts skills.
Depressing to think that Clouseau had no one at all to speak for him that truly cared. None of them know anything about his disappearance, so they offer no clues, making this angle all a bust other than as an excuse to fill up the run time with clips fans have seen before. Then again, what better way to celebrate the most incompetent sleuth who everyone thinks is a genius than by having the world’s least competent investigative reporter trying to track him down.
Actor David Niven was brought out to a huge rented villa near his home near the French Riviera to shoot a new scene for the film but was noticeably suffering from conditions brought on by ALS (aka Lou Gehrig’s disease) by this point. He didn’t really want to be there, but his loyalty to Blake Edwards saw him give consent to appear in the film. Unfortunately, Niven’s voice could not be used and would require dubbing, which is very common in films, but not for someone who was ailing as badly as Niven at the time. Comedian and celebrity impersonator Rich Little was brought in to mimic Niven’s voice for his post-production recordings, using his books on tape to practice the right pitch and cadence necessary.
Little had already mimicked Niven’s voice for the rare occasion that the Pink Panther actually talked in a couple of animated shorts from 1965, “Sink Pink” and “Pink Ice”. The dubbing was done in secret, as Niven was not told he was going to be dubbed and was rather depressed to find out someone else’s voice was used. Rich Little’s involvement would eventually be revealed after the actor’s death on July 29, 1983, shortly before the release of Curse of the Pink Panther. The incorporation of the old material is a bit more problematic, as presented, because they are meant to be memories, but are pieced together like fictional films.
At one point, David Niven’s character says, “To my dying day, I’ll never forget the old man trying to cross the street,” flashing back to a scene from 1963’s The Pink Panther in which his character is barely even a participant, as if the blending of Niven and his own character become a single entity, not only as a fictional character but one with meta-knowledge that knows he is part of a series of movies. But the fact remains, while it is a scene put in to help us remember our fondness of the past, it tells us nothing about Clouseau himself and does not push the story forward. It is, like so much of this film, more about Blake Edwards’ feelings about his Pink Panther films than anything else.
The film is still filled with good character actors, though the actual casting choices are suspect. Robert Loggia plays a sort of kingpin of the French underworld, Bruno Langois, but with his rough New York accent that suggests he’s spent little to no time at all in France. Further adding to the confusion, Loggia had already appeared in the prior entry in the series, Revenge of the Pink Panther, playing a different Mafioso character named Al Marchione, though done in a way that was nearly identical in performance (Curse of the Pink Panther reportedly reveals they are the same character). Denise Crosby (granddaughter of Bing Crosby) plays his moll, quite a few years before gaining some fame as Tasha Yar in “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, but fans should note there is little for her to do, having been cast because she was on the road to becoming Blake Edwards’ daughter-in-law at the time, engaged to Blake’s son Geoffrey, who co-wrote the film.
Trail of the Pink Panther is a bittersweet experience, disjointed and not nearly as enjoyable on its own as the prior entries in the franchise, but a nostalgic reminder of the genius of Peter Sellers. Most who aren’t huge fans of the series choose to ignore it, but it is a film made for the fans, after all. Indeed, as captured by the cameras and put together by Blake Edwards, we, those who’ve gotten to know Clouseau through these movies, as well as in our observances of Sellers’ portrayal of him, he can indeed never die, existing in perpetuity through our collective replays of their greatest cases on film.
Qwipster’s grade: C
MPAA Rated: PG for brief nudity, comic violence, and some language
Running time: 96 min.
Cast: Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Joanna Lumley, David Niven, Robert Loggia, Burt Kwouk, Graham Stark, Richard Mulligan, Peter Arne, Capucine, Denise Crosby
Small roles: Harvey Korman, Julie Andrews, Claudia Cardinale, Rich Little (voice), Robert Wagner
Director: Blake Edwards
Screenplay: Frank Waldman, Tom Waldman, Blake Edwards, Geoffrey Edwards