When rich M. Ballon’s spanish driver is found shot dead, Inspector Jacques Clouseau is the first official on the scene. All evidence suggests Maria Gambrelli, the maid, to be the murderer. But Clouseau, being attracted to the beautiful girl, is convinced that she is hiding something. So, he has her released from jail and tries to follow her secretly. Things do not work out the way the inspector wanted and people keep being murdered, and each time innocent Maria seems to be the killer. But with someone important wanting Clouseau and nobody else to cover this case, his tolerance-challenged boss Charles Dreyfuss is close to losing his mind when casualties keep turning up. And Clouseau keeps on causing trouble without knowing it… —IMDb
Blake Edwards’ stepfather’s father J. Gordon Edwards was a silent screen director, and his stepfather Jack McEdwards was a stage director and movie production manager. Blake acted in a number films, beginning with Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942) and wrote a number of others, beginning with Panhandle (1948) and including six for director Richard Quine. He created the popular TV series “Peter Gunn” (1958), “Mr. Lucky” (1959) and “Dante” (1960). He directed a diverse body of films, from comedies to dramas to war films to westerns, including such pictures as Operation Petticoat (1959), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Experiment in Terror (1962), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The Pink Panther (1963) and A Shot in the Dark (1964). After The Great Race (1965) he began fighting with studios. In England he surfaced again with The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), then went back to Hollywood and a real hit, 10 (1979). Victor Victoria (1982) won him French and Italian awards for Best Foreign… read more
As I was watching this I just kept thinking; Peter Sellers is so much better than this. I agree w/ Chris, bird poop and nudist colony jokes in any era are lame as fuck. To say "you have to place it during its time" is like someone saying Al Jolson doing blackface was funny during its time. The opening scene while flawlessly choreographed, is simply not funny.
After 30 years of edgier and sometimes R rated comedy such as Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, A Fish Called Wanda, Clerks, There's Something About Mary, American Pie, and of course The Hangover, the early Pink Panther films are too innocent for today's audiences. The humor is dated. Do we laugh at bird poop anymore? Is the nudist colony scene funny in the age of The Hangover? See my point?
Johnny is on point. There's a lot to be said for schtick and solid joke construction.
"Blake Edwards, the veteran writer-director whose films include the Pink Panther comedies, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Days of Wine and Roses