Pink Panther Strikes Again
| The Pink Panther Strikes Again | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release affiche | |
| Directed past | Blake Edwards |
| Screenplay by | Frank Waldman Blake Edwards |
| Produced by | Blake Edwards Tony Adams (Associate Producer) Blitheness: Richard Williams |
| Starring | Peter Sellers Herbert Lom Colin Blakely Leonard Rossiter Lesley-Anne Down |
| Cinematography | Harry Waxman |
| Edited by | Alan Jones |
| Music by | Henry Mancini |
| Production | Amjo Productions |
| Distributed past | United Artists |
| Release dates |
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| Running time | 103 minutes |
| Countries | United Kingdom Usa |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6 1000000 |
| Box office | $75 million[i] |
The Pinkish Panther Strikes Again is a 1976 one-act film. The fifth film in The Pinkish Panther series, its plot picks upward three years later on The Return of the Pink Panther, with former Master Inspector Charles Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) about to be released from a psychiatric hospital after having finally been driven insane by new Master Inspector Jacques Clouseau's (Peter Sellers) unrelenting ineptitude in the previous films. A typically disastrous visit from Clouseau on the solar day of his release prompts a swift relapse which cancels Dreyfus'south scheduled discharge, but he shortly escapes anyway, and organizes an elaborate criminal plot to threaten the countries of the world with annihilation by a massive laser weapon if they do non electrocute Clouseau for him.
Unused footage from the pic was later included in Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), afterwards Sellers' death.
Plot [edit]
After three years in a psychiatric hospital, former Primary Inspector of the Sûreté Charles Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), has recovered from his obsession to impale Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers) and is about to exist released; Clouseau, who has since replaced Dreyfus every bit Chief Inspector, arrivies unannounced to speak on behalf of his onetime boss, and within minutes drives Dreyfus insane again. Dreyfus later escapes from the hospital and once once again tries to kill Clouseau past planting a bomb while the Inspector (by periodic arrangement) duels with his manservant Cato (Burt Kwouk). The bomb destroys Clouseau'south apartment and injures Cato, merely Clouseau himself is unharmed, being lifted from the room by an inflatable hunchback disguise. Deciding that a more elaborate plan is needed to eliminate Clouseau, Dreyfus enlists an army of career criminals to his cause and kidnaps nuclear physicist Professor Hugo Fassbender (Richard Vernon) and the Professor's daughter Margo (Briony McRoberts), forcing the professor to build a "doomsday weapon" in return for his girl'southward freedom.
Clouseau travels to the Britain to investigate Fassbender's disappearance, where he wrecks their family home and ineptly interrogates Jarvis (Michael Robbins), Fassbender'due south cantankerous-dressing butler. Although Jarvis is later on killed by the kidnappers, to whom he had become a dangerous witness, Clouseau discovers a clue that leads him to the Oktoberfest in Munich, West Deutschland. Meanwhile, Dreyfus, using Fassbender's invention, disintegrates the Un headquarters in New York Urban center and blackmails the leaders of the earth, including the President of the United States and his Secretary of State (based on Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger), into assassinating Clouseau. However, many of the nations instruct their operatives to kill Clouseau to gain Dreyfus'southward favor and possibly the Doomsday Machine. Every bit a consequence of their orders and Clouseau's obliviousness, all of the other assassins finish up killing one some other until only the agents of Arab republic of egypt and Russia remain.
The Egyptian assassin (Omar Sharif) shoots one of Dreyfus' assassins, mistaking him for Clouseau, just is seduced by the Russian operative Olga Bariosova (Lesley-Anne Down), who makes the aforementioned mistake. When the real Clouseau arrives, he is perplexed by Olga's affections only learns from her Dreyfus's location at a castle in Bavaria. Dreyfus is elated at the erroneous report of Clouseau's demise, but suffers from a painful toothache and sends for a dentist; when Clouseau hears a dentist is needed at the castle, he disguises himself as an elderly German dentist and finally gains entry to the castle (his earlier attempts at sneaking in the castle had been repeatedly foiled by his general ineptitude and the castle's drawbridge). Unrecognized by Dreyfus, Clouseau ends up intoxicating both of them with nitrous oxide. When 'the dentist' mistakenly pulls the wrong tooth, Dreyfus immediately figures out information technology is Clouseau in disguise. Clouseau escapes, and a vengeful and now totally insane Dreyfus prepares to utilize the auto to destroy England. Clouseau, eluding Dreyfus's henchmen, unwittingly foils Dreyfus's plans when a medieval catapult outside the castle launches him on top of the doomsday car, causing it to malfunction and fire on Dreyfus and the castle itself. As the remaining henchmen, Fassbender and his girl, and eventually Clouseau himself escape the dissolving castle, Dreyfus plays "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" on the castle's pipe organ while he himself disintegrates, until he and the castle vanish.
Returning to Paris, Clouseau is finally reunited with Olga. Still, their tryst is interrupted first by Clouseau'southward apparent inability to remove his clothes, then by Cato's latest surprise attack, which causes all three to be hurled into the river Seine when the reclining bed snaps back upright and crashes through the wall. Immediately thereafter, a cartoon image of Clouseau emerges from the water, which has been tinted pinkish, and begins swimming, unaware that a gigantic version of the Pinkish Panther character is waiting below him with a abrupt-toothed, open rima oris (a reference to the then-recent film Jaws, fabricated farther obvious by the thematic music). The motion picture ends as the animated Clouseau chases the Pink Panther up the Seine every bit the credits roll.
Bandage [edit]
- Peter Sellers as Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau
- Herbert Lom every bit Former Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus
- Leonard Rossiter as Superintendent Quinlan
- Lesley-Anne Downward as Olga Bariosova
- Colin Blakely every bit Inspector Alec Drummond
- Burt Kwouk every bit Cato Fong
- André Maranne as François
- Michael Robbins as Ainsley Jarvis
- Richard Vernon every bit Professor Hugo Fassbender
- Briony McRoberts as Margo Fassbender
- Dick Crockett as the President of the Us (Gerald Ford)
- Byron Kane as the Usa Secretarial assistant of State (Henry Kissinger)
- Paul Maxwell as CIA Director
- Gordon Rollings as Inmate
- Dudley Sutton as Inspector Mclaren
- John Clive as Chuck
- Damaris Hayman as Fiona
- Deep Roy every bit Diminutive Assassin
Cast notes [edit]
- Owing to Peter Sellers's heart condition, whenever possible he would have his stunt double Joe Dunne stand in for him. Because of the often physical nature of the comedy, this would occur quite frequently.
- Julie Andrews provided the singing phonation for the female person-impersonator "Ainsley Jarvis".[2] The scene in the nightclub when Jarvis sings is in many ways similar to scenes in Edwards's afterwards picture show Victor Victoria (1982), in which Andrews plays a woman pretending to exist a man who is a female person impersonator.
- Graham Stark, a longtime friend of Sellers, in one case again made an appearance in the serial, albeit in a small role every bit the desk-bound clerk of a pocket-size German hotel. Since his function equally Hercule LaJoy in A Shot in the Dark, he has appeared in small roles in every Pinkish Panther sequel except Inspector Clouseau, in which Sellers did not play Clouseau.
- Scenes featuring Harvey Korman as Professor Auguste Assurance and Marne Maitland as Deputy Commissioner Lasorde were deleted from the film, but were after seen in full in Trail of the Pink Panther in 1982. Graham Stark would assume the role of Professor Balls in the next moving picture, Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978).
- Omar Sharif appeared, uncredited, as the Egyptian assassin.
- Tom Jones sang the Oscar-nominated song "Come up to Me".
- The role of Olga Bariosova was originally played by Maud Adams, who was replaced after filming a few scenes. Blake Edwards so intended to cast Nicola Pagett after seeing her in Upstairs, Downstairs merely instead ended upwards casting Pagett's castmate Lesley-Anne Downwardly in the role.
- Though the grapheme of the President of the United States (portrayed past Dick Crockett) is unnamed in the film, it is plainly based on and so electric current Us President Gerald Ford; Crockett bore more than a passing resemblance to the President and Ford'southward somewhat exaggerated reputation for clumsiness equally depicted in the flick was a national joke at the time. The President's unnamed somber Secretary of State (portrayed by Byron Kane) is obviously based on then current Secretary Henry Kissinger.
- Blake Edwards fabricated a cameo appearance in the background of the nightclub scene.
Product [edit]
The Pinkish Panther Strikes Once more was rushed into product owing to the success of The Render of the Pinkish Panther.[3] Blake Edwards had adjusted one of ii scripts that he and Frank Waldman had written for a proposed "Pink Panther" Telly serial equally the ground for that film, and he adapted the other as the starting point for Strikes Again. As a result, information technology is the only Pink Panther sequel which has a storyline (Dreyfus in the insane asylum) that explicitly follows from the previous film. Oddly, the plot has nada to do with the famous "Pink Panther diamond" of previous films, but comes off more similar a parody of James Bail movies.
The motion-picture show was in production from December 1975 to September 1976, with principal photography taking identify between Feb and June 1976.[4] The strained relationship between Sellers and Blake Edwards had further deteriorated by the time product of Strikes Again was underway. Sellers was ailing both mentally and physically, and Edwards later on commented on the thespian'south mental state during production of the flick: "If y'all went to an asylum and yous described the first inmate you saw, that's what Peter had become. He was certifiable."[3]
The original cut of the film ran for around 180 minutes, but was drastically trimmed downwardly to 103 minutes for theatrical release. Edwards originally conceived Strikes Again every bit an epic, zany hunt film, similar to Edwards' earlier The Corking Race, just UA vetoed this long version and the film was edited downwards to a more than conventional length. Some of the excised footage was later used in Trail of the Pink Panther. Strikes Over again was marketed with the tagline Why are the world's chief assassins after Inspector Clouseau? Why not? Everybody else is. Like its predecessor and subsequent sequel, the film was a box office success.
During the movie'due south title sequence, there are references to tv set'south Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Batman, also the films King Kong, The Sound of Music (which starred Blake Edwards's wife, Julie Andrews), Dracula A.D. 1972, Singin' in the Rain, Steamboat Pecker, Jr. and Sweetness Charity, putting the Pink Panther graphic symbol and the blithe persona of Inspector Clouseau into recognizable events from said movies. There is also a reference to Jaws in the ending credits sequence. The scene in which Clouseau impersonates a dentist and the use of laughing gas and pulling the wrong molar are conspicuously inspired by Bob Hope in The Paleface (1948).[5]
Richard Williams (subsequently of Roger Rabbit fame) supervised the animation of the opening and endmost sequences for the second and final time; original animators DePatie-Freleng Enterprises would return on the next film, but with decidedly Williamesque influences.
Sellers was unhappy with the final cut of the pic and publicly criticized Blake Edwards for misusing his talents. Their tense relationship is noted in the adjacent Pinkish Panther picture show's opening credits (Revenge of the Pink Panther) listing it as a "Sellers-Edwards" production.
French comic book writer René Goscinny of Asterix fame was reportedly trying to sue Blake Edwards for plagiarism at the time of his death in 1977 afterwards noticing strong similarities to a script titled "Le Maître du Monde" (The Master of the World) which he had sent Peter Sellers in 1975.[6]
Reception [edit]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sunday-Times gave the moving-picture show ii and a half stars out of four and wrote, "If I'm less than totally enthusiastic nearly The Pink Panther Strikes Again, perhaps it was considering I've been over this footing with Clouseau many times before," stating that a time would have to come "when inspiration gives mode to habit, and I think the Pinkish Panther series is just about at that indicate. That's not to say this motion picture isn't funny—it has moments every bit adept every bit anything Sellers and Edwards have ever washed—only that it's time for them to move on. They worked together once on the funniest movie either one has e'er washed, The Party. Now it's time to try something new again."[7]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the characters of Clouseau and Dreyfus "were made for each other," and further stated, "I'one thousand not sure why Mr. Sellers and Mr. Lom are such a hilarious team, though it may exist because each is a fine comic player with a special talent for portraying the sort of all-consuming, epic self-absorption that makes slapstick farce initially acceptable—instead of alarming—and finally so funny." Canby also enjoyed Clouseau'due south French emphasis, and wrote, "Both Mr. Sellers and Mr. Edwards please in one-time gags, and part of the joy of The Pink Panther Strikes Again is watching the way they spin out what is essentially a single routine".[8]
The film earned theatrical rentals of $nineteen.5 meg in the United States and Canada[9] from a gross of $33.8 million.[x] Internationally, it earned rentals of $ten.five million for a worldwide total of $30 million.[nine] By March 1978, the film had grossed $75 million worldwide and was hoping to earn another $8 million by the end of the twelvemonth.[one]
Awards [edit]
- The screenwriters, Blake Edwards and Frank Waldman received a 1977 Writers Guild of America Accolade for "All-time Comedy Adapted from Another Medium". The film besides won a 1978 Evening Standard British Film Award for "Best Comedy".
- "Come to Me", written by Henry Mancini (music) and Don Black (lyrics), received an Academy Honor nomination for "Best Song" at the 49th University Awards.
- The picture was nominated for a 1977 Golden Earth Accolade for "Best Move Moving-picture show", and Peter Sellers was nominated for "Best Motion Picture Actor – Musical/Comedy".[11]
- American Motion picture Institute Lists
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – Nominated[12]
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Moving-picture show Quotes:
- "Does your dog bite?" – Nominated[thirteen]
References [edit]
- ^ a b "New 'Pinkish Panther,' Set For July Bow, Tops $7-Mil in Bullheaded Bids". Variety. 22 March 1978. p. 39.
- ^ Allmovie Cast
- ^ a b Thames, Stephanie "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" (TCM article)
- ^ IMDB Business Data
- ^ Starks, Michael (October 1982). Cocaine fiends and Reefer madness: an illustrated history of drugs in the movies. Cornwall Books. p. 190. ISBN978-0-8453-4504-7.
- ^ (in French) Pascal Ory, Goscinny (1926–wall): la Liberté d'en rire, Paris: Perrin, 2007, ISBN 978-two-262-02506-9, p. 221.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (20 December 1976). "The Pink Panther Strikes Once again Review (1976)". Chicago Dominicus-Times . Retrieved 2 June 2017.
- ^ Canby, Vincent (16 December 1976). "Pink Panther Squad Unflappable In Fourth High-Spirited Caper". The New York Times . Retrieved 2 June 2017.
- ^ a b "UA Film Rental Highlights of 1977". Multifariousness. 11 January 1978. p. iii.
- ^ "The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Box Office Information". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
- ^ IMDB Awards
- ^ AFI'due south 100 Years...100 Laughs Nominees
- ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes Nominees
External links [edit]
- The Pink Panther Strikes Again at IMDb
- The Pinkish Panther Strikes Again at the TCM Moving-picture show Database
- The Pink Panther Strikes Once again at AllMovie
- The Pink Panther Strikes Once again at the American Picture show Institute Catalog
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pink_Panther_Strikes_Again
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