This is Blake Edward's own 'Plan 9 From Outer Space'...only Ed Wood did a better job.
The film is just an excuse to wring a few extra bucks out of Sellers as Inspector Clouseau by using previously unused footage of the late actor and linking it together with new material. The problem is that the early Clouseau scenes are linked by an obvious stand-in and a terrible impersonator dubbing a few lines over Sellers original dialogue. One attempt is so bad that a sound effect of a passing motorcycle is dubbed over the looped dialogue.
Once Edwards has run out of old Sellers footage (from The Pink Panther Strikes Again) we see Joanna Lumley as a reporter visiting old cast members from previous Panther films as an excuse to show superior scenes from earlier films like The Pink Panther and A Shot In The Dark. And if using excised Sellers footage wasn't bad enough, we are also witness to an ailing David Niven having his voice dubbed by Rich Little. This is very obvious as clips of Nivens performance in The Pink Panther are included during his new scenes.
What of the plot itself? There is no plot. The PP diamond is stolen again in the pre-credits sequence and it's forgotten about once Clouseau disappears and Lumley begins her interviews. We see clumsy inserts of newpaper headlines and messages from Dreyfuss incorporated into Sellers scenes in an effort to fit his unrelated sequences into the PP plot, but there's no point as the storyline leads nowhere. Watch out for a bit of looped dialogue of another character mentioning the PP diamond in a scene with Sellers (The Pink Panther Strikes Again had nothing to do with the diamond). The same actor appears in the linking sequences but it becomes obvious that his scene with Sellers was years before as he has less hair in the linking scenes.
The only parts of this film that contains any laughs are the scenes from The Pink Panther and A Shot In The Dark, and the 'best of Clouseau' compilation during the end credits. Apart from that, we see nonsensical new scenes of Dreyfuss dreaming of Clouseau filling his swimming pool with Jello, and a latter sequence with another actor playing the young Jacques Clouseau who bears no physical or vocal resemblance to Sellers at all. To add insult to injury, the film proper finishes with a Sellers stand-in being defecated on by a seagull with the aforementioned impersonator dubbing in some dialogue.
Was this film Blake Edwards revenge on Sellers for the actor choosing to replace Edwards with Clive Donner as director on the proposed The Romance Of The Pink Panther (it's also well documented that Sellers and Edwards cared very little for each other during Sellers final years))? Or was it made purely for contractual obligation reasons? Whatever the reason, what we have here is an insult to the memory of Peter Sellers and his great comic character of Clouseau, and a travesty of a motion picture from a usually terrific director. However, Edwards sunk to new depths as he also directed The Curse Of The Pink Panther (filmed at the same time), replacing Sellers with Ted Wass as a new lead character...and featuring a big name star as Clouseau who has undergone plastic surgery.
Edwards had a chance to redeem himself and the franchise with The Son Of The Pink Panther starring the wonderful Roberto Benigni as Clouseau's son...but it was too late by then to save the ailing series. Benigni was the films only saving grace as the rest of the movie stunk just as bad as Edwards previous two PP efforts.
This is Blake Edward's own 'Plan 9 From Outer Space'... only Ed Wood did a better job. The film is just an excuse to wring a few extra bucks out of Sellers as Inspector Clouseau by using previously unused footage of the late actor and linking it together with new material. The problem is that the early Clouseau scenes are linked by an obvious stand-in and a terrible impersonator dubbing a few lines over Sellers original dialogue. One attempt is so bad that a sound effect of a passing motorcycle is dubbed over the looped dialogue. Once Edwards has run out of old Sellers footage (from The Pink Panther Strikes Again) we see Joanna Lumley as a reporter visiting old cast members from previous Panther films as an excuse to show superior scenes from earlier films like The Pink Panther and A Shot In The Dark. And if using excised Sellers footage wasn't bad enough, we are also witness to an ailing David Niven having his voice dubbed by Rich Little. This is very obvious as clips of Nivens performance in The Pink Panther are included during his new scenes. What of the plot itself? There is no plot. The PP diamond is stolen again in the pre-credits sequence and it's forgotten about once Clouseau disappears and Lumley begins her interviews. We see clumsy inserts of newpaper headlines and messages from Dreyfuss incorporated into Sellers scenes in an effort to fit his unrelated sequences into the PP plot, but there's no point as the storyline leads nowhere. Watch out for a bit of looped dialogue of another character mentioning the PP diamond in a scene with Sellers (The Pink Panther Strikes Again had nothing to do with the diamond). The same actor appears in the linking sequences but it becomes obvious that his scene with Sellers was years before as he has less hair in the linking scenes. The only parts of this film that contains any laughs are the scenes from The Pink Panther and A Shot In The Dark, and the 'best of Clouseau' compilation during the end credits. Apart from that, we see nonsensical new scenes of Dreyfuss dreaming of Clouseau filling his swimming pool with Jello, and a latter sequence with another actor playing the young Jacques Clouseau who bears no physical or vocal resemblance to Sellers at all. To add insult to injury, the film proper finishes with a Sellers stand-in being defecated on by a seagull with the aforementioned impersonator dubbing in some dialogue. Was this film Blake Edwards revenge on Sellers for the actor choosing to replace Edwards with Clive Donner as director on the proposed The Romance Of The Pink Panther (it's also well documented that Sellers and Edwards cared very little for each other during Sellers final years))? Or was it made purely for contractual obligation reasons? Whatever the reason, what we have here is an insult to the memory of Peter Sellers and his great comic character of Clouseau, and a travesty of a motion picture from a usually terrific director. However, Edwards sunk to new depths as he also directed The Curse Of The Pink Panther (filmed at the same time), replacing Sellers with Ted Wass as a new lead character... and featuring a big name star as Clouseau who has undergone plastic surgery. Edwards had a chance to redeem himself and the franchise with The Son Of The Pink Panther starring the wonderful Roberto Benigni as Clouseau's son... but it was too late by then to save the ailing series. Benigni was the films only saving grace as the rest of the movie stunk just as bad as Edwards previous two PP efforts.