Trail of the Pink Panther
| Trail of the Pink Panther | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Blake Edwards |
| Produced by | Blake Edwards Tony Adams |
| Screenplay by |
Frank Waldman Tom Waldman Blake Edwards Geoffrey Edwards |
| Story by | Blake Edwards |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Henry Mancini |
| Cinematography | Dick Bush |
| Edited by | Alan Jones |
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Production
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| Distributed by | MGM/UA Entertainment Company |
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Release date
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Running time
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96 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6 million |
| Box office | $9.1 million |
Trail of the Pink Panther is a 1982 British comedy film starring Peter Sellers for the sixth and final time. It was the seventh film in The Pink Panther series, the first film in the series following Sellers' death and also the last in which he appeared as Inspector Clouseau. Sellers died before production began. His performance consists only of deleted scenes from previous films.
When the famous Pink Panther diamond is stolen again from Lugash, Chief Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) is called on the case despite protests by Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom). While on the case, Clouseau is pursued by the Mafia. Clouseau first goes to London to interrogate Sir Charles Lytton (having forgotten that he lives in the South of France). Traveling to the airport, he accidentally blows up his car trying to fix a pop-out lighter, but mistakenly believes it an assassination attempt, and disguises himself in a heavy cast on the flight, which causes complications in the air and on land. He then is led to an awkward introduction to the Scotland Yard detectives at Heathrow. Meanwhile, Dreyfus learns from Scotland Yard that Libyan terrorists have marked Clouseau for assassination; but permits him to continue. Heretofore at the hotel, Clouseau has a miscommunication with the hotel clerk (Harold Berens) and even finds gets knocked out a window several times (even pulling the clerk right through the wall a la switchboard), trying to get his "message" from Dreyfus.
Clouseau's plane disappears en route to Lugash, and Marie Jouvet (Joanna Lumley), a television reporter covering the story, sets out to interview those who knew him best. Among the people she interviews are Dreyfus; Hercule Lajoy (Graham Stark); Cato Fong (Burt Kwouk); and former jewel thief Sir Charles Litton (David Niven) who is married to Clouseau's ex-wife Lady Simone (Capucine).
All of these interview scenes provides flashbacks to scenes of earlier Pink Panther films (The Pink Panther, A Shot in the Dark, Return of the Pink Panther, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, and Revenge of the Pink Panther); but Jouvet also interviews Clouseau's father (Richard Mulligan), at his winery in the south of France, providing glimpses of Clouseau's childhood (wherein he is played by Lucca Mezzofanti), and his early career during college, nearly leading him to commit suicide after a girl of his life gets married to another person, especially in the French Resistance (in which he is played by Daniel Peacock) involving him failing to detonate a bridge full of crossing Nazis. Jouvet also questions Mafia don Bruno Langlois (Robert Loggia), a mafia boss antagonist who would appear in the next film, and tries to file a complaint against Langlois with Chief Inspector Dreyfus; but Dreyfus refuses to press charges.
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