{"id":3900,"date":"2024-09-07T03:48:18","date_gmt":"2024-09-07T03:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3900"},"modified":"2024-10-13T18:49:50","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T22:49:50","slug":"curse-of-the-pink-panther","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/07\/curse-of-the-pink-panther\/","title":{"rendered":"Curse of the Pink Panther"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Curse of the Pink Panther <\/strong>(1983)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MGM\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 110 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, comic violence, adult humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Blake Edwards\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Blake Edwards and Geoffrey Edwards\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Henry Mancini\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dick Bush\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 12, 1983 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Ted Wass, David Niven, Herbert Lom, Robert Loggia, Joanna Lumley, Capucine, Robert Wagner, Burt Kwouk, Leslie Ash, Andre Maranne, Harvey Korman, Liz Smith, Denise Crosby, Michael Elphick, Roger Moore (billed as Turk Thrust II).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $3.3M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0After the dismal failure that was Trail of the Pink Panther, it\u2019s not at all surprising audiences avoided Curse of the Pink Panther<\/strong> like the Black Plague. The two movies were filmed concurrently with the ultimate goal of relaunching the series with a new lead. So who did they get? They got Ted Wass from the TV sitcom Soap (1977-81). That is, after Dudley Moore (Arthur) and John Ritter (Three\u2019s Company) turned down the part.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Wass plays incompetent New York cop Sgt. Clifton Sleigh, basically Inspector Clouseau\u2019s American counterpart. He\u2019s been assigned to locate the missing Clouseau much to the exasperation of Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Lom) who would rather the bumbling detective, the bane of his existence, stay missing. I HATED Trail of the Pink Panther with a passion and didn\u2019t expect to like Curse of the Pink Panther<\/strong> any better. To my great surprise, it\u2019s not too bad. It\u2019s not particularly good either. It\u2019s a big improvement over its immediate predecessor though. At least director Blake Edwards appears to be trying this time around albeit not very hard.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s been a year since Clouseau went missing and Interpol wants some answers. Dreyfus has been assigned to oversee Operation Paragon which entails using their computer to find the world\u2019s greatest detective to find the world\u2019s greatest missing detective. Since he\u2019d rather never see Clouseau again, Dreyfus sabotages the computer to find the world\u2019s worst detective. Enter Clifton Sleigh who wastes no time in showing off his clumsiness by knocking Dreyfus out of his office window. With that, his investigation is off and running.<\/p>\n

\u00a0He talks to several of the same people the reporter spoke to in the previous movie including Cato (Kwouk) who turned Clouseau\u2019s old apartment into an honorary museum and Mafia boss Bruno Langlois (Loggia, Psycho II) who orders the new detective\u2019s assassination. He also meets with Sir Charles Litton (Niven in his final role), his wife Lady Simone (Capucine) and nephew George (Wagner, Hart to Hart). During the course of Sleigh\u2019s investigation, it\u2019s suggested that Clouseau\u2019s disappearance and the theft of the Pink Panther diamond from the previous movie may be connected.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Not all of Curse of the Pink Panther<\/strong> works. The scene where we first meet Sleigh as he bungles a routine undercover assignment goes on too long and is simply not funny. There\u2019s also an amusing bit with an umbrella and windy rainstorm that could have been handled better. The comedy is still clunky, but the movie actually gets better as it goes along. It starts to feel more like a real Pink Panther movie except for Peter Sellers\u2019 conspicuous absence. Wass is a likable guy, but he\u2019s no substitute for the late actor in his signature role. He has a handful of funny moments, but he\u2019s just not the real thing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As for the rest of the cast, some of them look like they\u2019re having a good time. Although it\u2019s sad that this is Niven\u2019s swan song, it\u2019s nice seeing him and his two companions from the original 1963 movie again. Once again, Rich Little dubs his dialogue and you can tell.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Unlike Trail, I actually laughed a few times. There\u2019s a funny bit that has Sleigh parasailing onto a private island in order to interview Countess Chandra (Lumley), the aristocratic owner of a health spa, who might have information regarding Clouseau\u2019s whereabouts (if he\u2019s still alive).<\/p>\n

\u00a0The best part in Curse of the Pink Panther<\/strong> is a cameo by Roger Moore who filmed it during a break from Octopussy. I won\u2019t go into detail suffice to say that he has a surprising flair for physical comedy, similar to Leslie Nielsen. Of course, the animated opening titles and Henry Mancini\u2019s theme song are always a highlight. He tries a different arrangement this time, using synthesizers to make it sound more 80s. It\u2019s actually pretty good. I hate to admit it but I kind of like Curse of the Pink Panther<\/strong>. Is it as good as the earlier installments? Not really, no. But it doesn\u2019t suck either. I guess you can chalk this up as a minor guilty pleasure.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Curse of the Pink Panther (1983)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MGM\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 110 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, comic violence, adult humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Blake Edwards\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Blake Edwards and Geoffrey Edwards\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Henry Mancini\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dick Bush\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 12, 1983 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Ted Wass, David Niven, Herbert Lom, Robert Loggia, Joanna Lumley, Capucine, Robert Wagner, Burt Kwouk, Leslie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guilty-pleasures","category-sequels-remakes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Curse-of-the-Pink-Panther-P.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3900"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5980,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3900\/revisions\/5980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}