Trail of the Pink Panther (1982)

Purely Joyful Movie!

Fresh and Exciting

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Peter Sellers died in 1980, but Blake Edwards made two more installments of the Pink Panther series without him, both of which were a little hard to watch for those who missed him. In Trail of the Pink Panther, the film used archival footage from previous films, so Peter Sellers is still seen in the movie. Depending on your point of view, that's either comforting or even sadder. In the next film, Curse of the Pink Panther, Peter was completely absent from the film.Other old standbys from the original series were in this seventh installment, including David Niven, Herbert Lom, Capucine, and Burt Kwouk. The plot tries to make sense of Peter's lack of sufficient screen time by explaining that he's gone missing, and everyone's out to find him.It's up to you whether you want to see this one to support the famous slapstick series, or if you'd rather only watch the Peter Sellers ones. David Niven was ill during the making of the movie, so if it will upset you to see him without his usual vigor, you might want to just stick to the original. But, if slapstick is the name of your game, and you can appreciate the spirit of the series, go for it!

In the early '80's, United Artists was in serious trouble. Having lost a king's ransom on Michael Cimino's epic Western 'Heaven's Gate', the studio now faced bankruptcy. The only way for it to keep afloat was to churn out as many hits as possible. Luckily, U.A. owned two of the most profitable franchises - 'James Bond' and 'The Pink Panther'. The main problem with the latter was that Peter Sellers had died of a heart attack in 1980.Nevertheless, the studio commissioned Blake Edwards to construct not one but two new 'Pink Panther' comedies. The first of these was 'Trail' and it was partly composed of unused material from earlier movies but mostly old clips. It begins in Lugash where ( surprise, surprise! ), the Pink Panther diamond is stolen yet again. Clouseau is called for, but for some unknown reason goes to London ( in disguise ). While there, he mysteriously disappears. Investigative reporter Marie Jouvet ( Joanna Lumley ) begins to piece together the detective's life by interviewing people from his past, such as 'Hercule' ( Graham Stark ), and 'Sir Charles Lytton' ( David Niven returning to the role he first played back in 1964 ). At this point the movie becomes a sort of 'That's Pink Panther!' as clip after clip is unveiled. To be fair, there's new footage too, such as the appearance of Clouseau's father ( Richard Mulligan ), who looks like Gepetto out of 'Pinocchio'. The flashbacks to Clouseau's childhood are amusing but marred by poor dubbing. Nudity rears its head for the first time in the series as we see two lovely girls treading grapes in a barrel. The movie ends with Clouseau's whereabouts still a mystery.I went to see this when it was released mainly out of curiosity to see how Edwards ( or Blake 'Entertainment' Edwards as he is listed in the opening credits ) had managed to make a movie out of all these bits and pieces. Thanks to the unused footage we found out Mel Brooks' regular Harvey Korman was cast originally as 'Professor Auguste Balls' ( the owner of the shop where Clouseau gets his disguises from ) in 'Revenge Of The Pink Panther' before Graham Stark. The audience laughed heartily for the first twenty or so minutes, but then when Clouseau vanished so did the comedy. No offence to Ms.Lumley but she is no substitute for Sellers. Niven was ill when he made the movie ( he was dubbed by Rich Little ) and it shows. As well as being a homage to the earlier pictures, 'Trail' doubles as a lead-in to 'Curse Of The Pink Panther' ( 1983 ), starring Ted Wass as 'Clifton Sleigh'. It seems a pity they could not have made a single movie combining the best elements from both. After the Sellers off-cuts, they should have brought in Wass and bypassed Lumley.Sellers' widow Lynne Frederick went to court to stop 'Trail' from being released. U.A. won its case but it did not matter. Neither 'Trail' nor 'Curse' did well at the box office and it would be a decade before another 'Pink Panther' appeared - 'Son Of The Pink Panther' starring the incredibly unfunny Roberto Benigni as Clouseau's illegitimate son. 'Trail' is a strange movie alright. It purports to be a tribute to Sellers', but is basically a tasteless money making attempt. He deserved a better send-off.

It could've been better movie and smarter greeting in the memory of (Peter Sellers). It wasn't that difficult to write a script which can make all the characters unites to find the real criminal especially with the existence of (Herbert Lom) as (Dreyfus), (Burt Kwouk) as (Cato), and (David Niven) himself, instead of this boring idiot TV report which deceived the audience by another (Peter Sellers)'s movie to discover eventually that it's just a miser scenes of him (deleted of previous movies of the series) then a program about him with some already used scenes from the series' previous movies !Maybe the shock of (Sellers)'s sudden death was stronger than everybody so they couldn't do anything. Maybe they were too loyal to seize the opportunity and occupy the movie of the great late icon after his absence. Or maybe (Blake Edwards) had something else in his mind.. in fact he wanted to push the franchise with another lead and I mean (Ted Wass) who'll appear at the next year in (Curse of the Pink Panther - 1983), so he made (Trail of the Pink Panther) as just the first volume however it was very odd and silly enough (the movie, the idea of another Clouseau, moreover THAT Clouseau !!). There isn't any bright thing in here : The pace is deadly, the performance is average which means bad in a Pink Panther's movie !, the personality of the father was pathetic; just a fabricated pretext to capture the lost presence of (Sellers), maybe the music of (Henry Macini) was the smartest element; you can sense its strong sad feeling while the elevator's simple scene which became like a small elegy honors and misses a star's uniqueness.So it could be a 20 minutes movie for the original Pink Panther as his last brief sketches, or a half movie; a forever deficient one which was too lame and proudly doesn't try to compensate its weakness with anything close to cohesive (Not to mention comic !), or it's nothing but a phantom of a dead star, lovely personality, or nice movie. In one word it's how to define demise or fizzle cinematically !

This message goes to all fans of The Pink Panther Series. Do not buy or even rent this horrible movie. I am a fan of pink panther films and when I finished the movie I was left crying and not they way the movie wants you to. I was sad that they ruined the series. I was sad because they killed Inspector. I mean, just because Peter Sellers died. I'm not saying that I'm not sad that he died it's just that I think that Peter Sellers would also not like this movie. The first part is very funny and original but by the time Inspetor Clouseau dies there is no comedy what so ever. Please fans do not watch this movie because it will ruin your idea of The Pink Panther for ever.