This was the fourth big screen appearance for Inspector Jacques ClouzotAlthough the third is with the main people involved in the two pioneering films: Pink Panther (1963) and Shot in the shadows (1964) Because even though no one remembers it, it’s a painkiller Inspector Clouseau (1968) had Alan Arkin as the goofy police officer who, between gags and gags, solves the most complex cases almost by accident. This substitution of Arkin in Sellers’ place, with Ken Thorne in place of Henry Mancini’s distinctive score, and with Blake Edwards left aside by director Bud Yorkin, in the already turbulent year of 1968, had two specific reasons: on the one hand, the three were filming The unforgettable party On the other hand, Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers swore never to return to The Pink Panther again, because they fought all the time over what the character should be like, leading to a relationship filled with pain.
Aware of the success and failure of films that automatically built a mythical character, The unforgettable party It is reminiscent of The Pink Panther with the song “It Had Better Be Tonight”, the Samba Mancini present in the first part of the saga, and with the stuffed animal that appears in the palace room where the events take place. Almost in parallel, producer Walter Mirisch decided to continue without them and called in Alan Arkin for the role. But the audience did not accompany the new inspector, and the criticism was generous: “Arkin presents some funny scenes, but they are the exception rather than the rule,” wrote legendary critic Roger Ebert. Between original equipment problems and failed and abnormal replacements, It appears that Inspector Clouseau’s cinematic days are over.
But what ends by chance is sometimes restarted by chance. And so on The unforgettable partyPeter Sellers’ career was on the decline and so was he There’s a girl in my soup (1970) was a success. Blake Edwards continued filming, but nothing brought him closer to the joint success with Sellers, and from the early 1970s he enticed United Artists with a new Pink Panther film, but the studio saw declining numbers of actors and directors and continually rejected the proposal.
In early April 1974, British producer Lou Grade offered Blake Edwards to produce the film if he convinced his star wife, Julie Andrews, to appear in his other projects. A month later, Sellers confirmed his participation in the project. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was announced as the new “Sir Charles Lytton”, the evolving villain of the saga, as David Niven was unavailable to return to the role finally established by Christopher Plummer. United Artists agreed to give the producer the project in exchange for retaining worldwide distribution, although they did not agree to include a single dollar in its production. The convention was launched and filmed The return of the pink panther It was held in Gstaad (Switzerland), Marrakesh and Casablanca (Morocco), and in the French city of Nice. Although filming also took place during Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, and with additional scenes in the UK, post-production extended until September of that year, and was even delayed by a week due to an emergency appendicitis operation the director had to undergo.
Blake Edwards later admitted that his relationship with Sellers was one of gradual deterioration due to the actor’s personality.: “At three in the morning the phone rings. I wake up. ‘Blake, it’s Peter.’ I just talked to God and he told me how I should do the scene tomorrow. ‘Show business.’ He was angry and didn’t show up all day,” he recalls of the years in which they built one of the most famous epics in the history of cinema and, despite its complexity within the walls, undoubtedly the most enjoyable.
Everything moved forward and the return was celebrated with a campaign that was ahead of its time. On December 31, 1974, the short film was released. It’s also a great laugh.written and directed by Ed Anderson, Bill Gunter, and Jeff Edwards, who announced the return and its makers; In the book It was not easy at all: following in the footsteps of Inspector Clouzot“Like the character of the Panther, Inspector Clouzot, among many others, will be acclaimed by audiences, seduce audiences all over the world and will be placed from that moment on in the non-exclusive showcase of pop music, which has a lot to do with cinema. Or is there someone more similar to a movie star than Andy Warhol?”, points out researcher Monica Satarin, reflecting those years that in this case added a new album with Henry’s distinctive music. Mancini and 450 products, ranging from dolls to soap, will be distributed in more than forty countries.
These included a showcase for the professional press in twenty countries, including Argentina: “Master Liu, together with the principal managers of United Artists in the United States, became a gracious host for the press in the last month of September…” noted the famous critic Armando Rapallo to the newspaper Heraldo del Cinema. “Two Argentine journalists were lucky enough to share the joys of the ‘Pink Weekend’, attended – first of all – by the Pink Panther who was waiting for us in every corner of the paradisiacal Swiss city, and one by one by those responsible not only for the film’s release, but also by its heroes themselves,” he admitted. At the farewell concert, Julie Andrews sang a series of her songs, as part of the ceremony in which Henry Mancini played songs from the soundtrack of the upcoming film, which was attended by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, among other personalities. “(Peter Sellers) remembered our country with sympathy through his knowledge of the sport of polo,” while producer Fred Goldberg recalled his visit to the province of Salta on the occasion of filming the film. Taras BulbaWith Yul Brynner.
The tale that brings the audience together with Clouzot is simple: the Pink Panther Diamond has been stolen from the fictitious kingdom of Lugash, leaving as a white-glove clue that would point to the return of the supposed jewel thief “Ghost”, who swears his innocence and leads the inspector to a trail of clues to a possible suspect. But the main point of this film is the inevitably strained relationship between Clouzot and his boss, Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus (an unforgettable Herbert Lom), whose relative calm is constantly broken by his subordinate’s untold entanglements, driving him insane and attempted murder. Rounding out the cast will be the beautiful Hungarian actress Catherine Schell as Claudine Lytton, Peter Arne as Colonel Sharkey, and Bert Kwok as the unforgettable Cato Fung, Clouseau’s loyal assistant who must keep him “always on his toes”, and which generates confrontations that invariably lead to devastation on an incredible scale.
The film contains, perhaps, the best opening credits of the entire saga and the most memorable moments that form part of the long list of “Clouseau the Sublime”, such as when he argues with a blind beggar while robbing a bank behind his back and the following dialogue with Dreyfus, when he rebukes him: “How can a fool be a police officer? Tell me,” and the inspector replies: “I think he should just sign up.”
This was the film that United Artists’ Eric Pliskov would never forget, by not having the company involved in its production: The return of the pink panther It cost $5 million, totaling approximately $42 million in the United States and Canada and $75 million worldwide.. It brought critical acclaim, massive audience support (which led to several films being made), and a resurgence in the career of Peter Sellers who would later star in titles of enormous importance. Crime by death Written by Neil Simon. The new version of Prisoner of Zenda Or basic From the gardenWhich was directed by Hal Ashby based on a script by Jerzy Kosinski.
The return of the pink panther It arrived in Argentina in Gran Rex, Capitol and Premiere cinemas on January 1, 1976, the same day it was released in our country. Hell in the towerdirected by John Guillermin and The Godfather 2By Francis Ford Coppola. They were all successful, they all filled those huge public palaces, but only one, yesterday and to-day, is still the absolute owner of the public’s laughter; Because The Pink Panther was the cinematic diamond that made possible the celebratory return of an entire universe’s anxiously awaited impossible dreams. But sometimes, with a smile, those dreams come true.