BLAKE EDWARDS RETURNS WITH 'CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER'

Title:  CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER Year: 1983 Rating: ***

Blake Edwards held onto the Peter Sellers legacy for two entire films, beginning with TRAIL OF THE PINK PANTHER in which Inspector Jacques Clouseau is infamously brought back to life...

This was done using deleted scenes from THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN: a lousy patchwork with cameos by original PANTHER alumni David Niven and Capucine with a forgettable subplot involving Robert Loggia as a mobster...

Opening credit cartoon Pink Panther sequence for CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Leading here to CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER, attempting to move the franchise along with new blood in dopey, spectacle-wearing Ted Wass as New York's un-finest Clifton Sleigh, chosen by a police computer rigged by Herbert Lom’s Chief Inspector Charles LaRousse Dreyfus to do the opposite of whatever gets punched in...

Basically, the dumbest/clumsiest cop is chosen to find the so-called legendary Clouseau, known to everyone but Dreyfus as a crime-solving genius...

Ted Wass in CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Wass fills some pretty big shoes using rubber feet, providing physical comedy more written for the action-packed storyline than to get laughs outright...

In other words, his expressions alone don't cut the mustard, and, like REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER, Loggia’s goons keep moving in for the kill while Sleigh, tripping himself up at the last minute, always survives as the villains — including Dreyfus himself — wind up screwed in the process, again... 

Ted Wass and Patrick Murray with a real doll in CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Meanwhile, particular sequences, like Sleigh trying to keep a sexy blowup doll from deflating and the return of Harvey Korman’s snooty costume-maker, are overlong and pointless, but the best aspects are the well choreographed car chases and fight scenes: one pitting Sleigh’s love interest Leslie Ash against a group of karate-chopping gangsters during a Mardi Gras parade so, even when it's not particularly funny, you just might be breezily distracted by all the running around...

And for nostalgia's sake, the sly original films' socialites, played by David Niven (posthumously dubbed by Rich Little), Robert Wagner and Capucine, sit around their mansion or yacht discussing The Pink Panther... 

Opening credit cartoon Pink Panther sequence for CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Not the lanky cartoon cat featured in the opening title sequences but the priceless diamond (i.e. "McGuffin") the franchise is named after: all leading to Clouseau himself returning with a brand new face, very familiar to fans of real secret agent films, and, yes, it's true, Ted Wass is no Peter Sellers... then again, everyone is no Peter Sellers...

But he sure does try, and his character — more of a vulnerable deer-in-headlights than bumbling buffoon — has a few good moments: one involving an umbrella in a rainstorm and subtle gestures, like kissing the wrong hand and having a diamond ring stab him in the eye... which are lightly humorous bits perfectly befitting a lightly humorous and surprisingly fulfilling vehicle.

Opening credit cartoon Pink Panther sequence for CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Opening credit cartoon Pink Panther sequence for CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Ted Wass in CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Ted Wass in CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER with Robert Wagner

Ted Wass in CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER with Herbert Lom

Roger Moore in the end of CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Opening credit cartoon Pink Panther sequence for CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Opening credit cartoon Pink Panther sequence for CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Ted Wass in CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Ted Wass in CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Burt Kwouk in CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Opening credit cartoon Pink Panther sequence for CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Opening credit cartoon Pink Panther sequence for CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Opening credit cartoon Pink Panther sequence for CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Opening credit cartoon Pink Panther sequence for CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Opening credit cartoon Pink Panther sequence for CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Robert Loggia and moll Denise Crosby in CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

David Niven & Capucine  in CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER w/ Ted Wass & Robert Wagner

The umbrella in the rain scene from THE CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER

Leslie Ash aka  Juleta Shane aka Julie Morgan in CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER