Curse of the Pink Panther (1983) picks up the premise months later and spins it into an attempt to launch a new character under the Pink Panther brand. Clouseau's boss and nemesis Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) is directed to use a supercomputer to find the world's greatest detective to find France's greatest detective. Since only a complete moron on the level of Clouseau has any hope of figuring him out, he reprograms the computer search for Clouseau's perfect match: the worst detective in the world. Enter Sergeant Clifton Sleigh (Ted Wass) of the New York Police Department, a walking disaster area that his commanding officer is overjoyed to pack off to Paris. Immediately upon reporting to duty, his clumsiness sends Dreyfus to the hospital.
Edwards originally had wanted Dudley Moore, the star of his 1979 hit 10, to play the role of Sleigh but Moore turned it down, preferring not to tie himself to a series as his career was taking off. After considering British comic Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) and American actor John Ritter (of the hit sitcom Three's Company), Edwards cast a relative unknown in the lead. "Introducing Ted Wass" reads his screen credit and it was the actor's big screen debut, but he already made his name as one of the stars of the soap opera spoof Soap. "Blake Edwards says that if Clouseau is Charlie Chaplin, then Sleigh is Harold Lloyd," explained Wass in a quote featured in the film publicity materials. With his oversized glasses and neat, slicked-back hair, he evokes Clark Kent as much as Lloyd.
Top billing went to David Niven, who reprises his role as Sir Charles Litton, the jewel thief known as The Phantom who stole the Pink Panther diamond in the original 1963 The Pink Panther, even though he is only on screen for a few minutes. Niven was in declining health when he shot his scenes for Curse of the Pink Panther and it was apparent in his voice. It became his final screen appearance. Niven passed away before film was released and his dialogue was overdubbed in post-production by Rich Little for the finished film.
Along with Niven and Lom, Edwards brings back a handful of other supporting players and guest stars from films past. Sleigh tracks down Cato (Burt Kwouk), Clouseau's faithful servant and now the manager of the Clouseau museum; Litton's son George (Robert Wagner) and wife Lady Simone (Capucine), both reprising their original roles from The Pink Panther; and Clouseau's costume creator Prof. Auguste Balls (Harvey Korman), who first appeared in The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976). Graham Stark, who played Clouseau's assistant in A Shot in the Dark (1964) and Trail of the Pink Panther and various supporting roles in three other sequels, plays a waiter and Joanna Lumley, who played the reporter in Trail, is a Countess here. New to the cast is Robert Loggia, who plays European mob boss Bruno Langois in both Trail and Curse, and Roger Moore, who took a day off from shooting the James Bond film Octopussy (1983) to take a memorable cameo role under the name "Turk Thrust II." Moore took the name in tribute to his friend Bryan Forbes, an actor turned director who used the name Turk Thrust when he made a cameo in the 1964 Clouseau film A Shot in the Dark.
Curse of the Pink Panther also featured the defining animated credits with the sleek pink feline and the iconic music by Henry Mancini, who jazzed up the familiar theme for this take. Edwards shot on location in France (in Paris and Nice), Spain (in the streets of Valencia and on the island of Ibiza), the mountain resort town of Cortina in Italy, and New York City, while interiors were shot at Pinewood in England. Principal photography began immediately after Trail ended but Edwards economized by planning the two films together and shooting the parts of key co-stars simultaneously. Edwards' hopes of relaunching the series without Sellers were dashed when both sequels tanked at the box-office. Blake Edwards may have created Inspector Clouseau but to audiences there was only one actor for the Pink Panther series. Edwards made one more attempt to revive the franchise, Son of the Pink Panther (1993) with Roberto Benigni in the lead, before Steve Martin took on the role of Inspector Clouseau in the 2006 remake The Pink Panther, directed by Shawn Levy.
Sources:
Returning to the Scene: Black Edwards, Volume 2, William Luhr and Peter Lehman. Ohio University Press, 1989.
Pink Panther: The Ultimate Guide to the Coolest Cat in Town, Jerry Beck. DK Publishing, 2005.
IMDb
By Sean Axmaker
