Pink Panther

Year: 1963

Grade: C

Country: UK

Director: Edwards

Review

pretty overrated comedy. it’s possible that the other films in the series are better, but this particular installment didn’t produce many laughs. there were some gags that i know were funny, but didn’t make me laugh and i hate it when a comedy does that because i feel like the film could have easily been much better. a lot of the comedy occurred off screen and employed sound, which are technically interesting items to note, but not necessarily more effective. there was one really great sequence in the hotel room that got some good laughs from me, and was well-choreographed. other than that the laughs were few and far between. one reason for this is the first 45 minutes. with comedies it’s very important that you get the audience loosened up and this film failed to do that. i think there were a few attempts at doing it (the title sequence being one of them), but nothing really got the ball rolling for me. planes, trains and automobiles is great example of how to open a comedy. peter sellers was clearly the highlight of the film, he usually is. the plot was mostly pretty thin, though there were attempts to add intrigue they were mostly half-hearted. that, i think, was the second biggest problem of the film. what was driving this film? ostensibly it should have been clouseau’s search for the bandit, but very little of the narrative was actually dedicated to that. this causes two problems: 1) our protagonist takes a back seat to sir charles’ relatively unfunny character which means we don’t see enough of one of the funniest actors of the time (sellers) and 2) the purpose of the film shifts almost entirely to laughter, which this movie doesn’t exactly deliver. if the plot were more interesting then the lack of laughs would have been more forgivable. conversely, if the laughter were more plentiful then the plot wouldn’t have been as important.