Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ted Wass is VERY good in a difficult situation!!, September 13, 2005
I can't imagine having to even TRY to fill Peter Seller's shoes by being the bumbling detective type in a movie with the NAME and namesake of Pink Panther. Ted Wass does a fabulous job of making this role his own.
PEOPLE, he is not TRYING to be Peter Sellers!! Get a clue (or a cleau-a as the case may be)! Wass is brilliant in this movie as the guy who truly can't figure out how he wound up in this situation (and recall please that he wound up in this situation because a computer was created to find a detective EXACTLY like Clouseau who could then find Clouseau...there is a hilarious bit in which everyone inputs their impressions of Clouseau using adjectives like: brilliant, master of disguise, genius and so forth - however Dreyfus DOES NOT WANT another Clouseau on his hands so he sets the computer on OPPOSITE...the hilarious result of course is that he ends up with someone who really is LIKE Clouseau...the opposite of brilliant and genius!!) This bit alone would put Blake Edwards' final tribute to the Pink series up there with the likes of A Shot In the Dark.
No, it isn't "Return" and it doesn't have Peter Sellers who truly was a genius, but it does have the same kind of comic relief that we've come to expect from the Pink Panther movies. The jobs done by Ted Wass, David Niven, and Robert Wagner are more than commendable!
Now, all that said, I won't give away the final "surprise" cameo either, but let me say this: that particular actor was AWFUL in this movie and should have been better schooled in the Clouseau accent and voice (as far as I'm concerned, this is the only Blake Edwards fall-down on the job for this film). That done, the ending would have been brilliant, not the least bit confusing as some have said, and conclusive!
Meanwhile, potential viewers, don't let the naysayers tell you this isn't worth watching! I've been patiently waiting for the DVD for my collection and am elated that it is finally on the way. If you love this series for more than just Peter Sellers, then you'll love this piece of the pie as well. If you just like the Peter Sellers role, you won't want to see this, but then you aren't really a fan of the Pink Panther movies at all, but a Sellers fan. While that's fine, hello-o-o-o-o? He isn't in this and this movie shouldn't be judged by that, but by how well it fits in the Pink Panther series - and it does so WONDERFULLY!!
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
No Sellers, no laughs, July 13, 2003
After watching The Trail Of The Pink Panther, it's hard to imagine that writer-director Blake Edwards could make a worse film. However, he sinks to a new career low with this feeble effort to wring a few more bucks out of the franchise.Sellers does make brief appearances here via some lines of dialogue from earlier films looped over a stand-in who at first appears in shadow in the pre-credits sequence and then wrapped in bandages later on in scenes with a bewigged Joanna Lumley. Clouseau does make a more substantial appearance in the final 30 minutes but is played by....well, let's just say he's played by an actor who is quite well known for having played another iconic character in another famous movie franchise. He gives an embarrassingly unfunny performance and I can only imagine that he owed the director a favour. The new lead character in this film is Ted Wass as NYC policeman Clifton Sleigh. He's just as inept as Clouseau but Wass handles the pratfalls without the grace and skill that Sellers had. Whatever Wass' shortcomings are as a comic actor he doesn't get a chance to step out of Sellers shadow because this film, like the one preceeding it, concentrates on the search for Clouseau. We see Sleigh visit cast members and sets from previous films just as Joanna Lumley did in the last movie. And yes, David Niven appears again with his voice still dubbed by Rich Little. Rather than waste any more time and effort writing about this film, I recommend that you avoid this and The Trail Of The Pink Panther and check out much better films like A Shot In The Dark and The Pink Panther Strikes Again. By all means take a look at the final sequel starring Roberto Benigni (The Son Of The Pink Panther) but only for Benigni's performance and to imagine what a new PP series could have been like with Benigni in the lead role and a new production and writing team at the helm.
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13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
All the Panthers were Valiant, September 20, 2001
As much as I wanted to like this film I think we should have admitted to ourselves that Peter Sellers and Inspector Jacques Clouseau were both no more. TRAIL OF THE PINK PANTHER was ingeniously edited from Sellers' outtakes and new footage and would have been a befitting end and homage to the actor and the character. I have to admit that I take this film out once in a while and watch it. There is certain sentimentality by seeing some of the actors from the original PINK PANTHER and A SHOT IN THE DARK reprise their roles here. Herbert Lom as Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus and Burt Kwouk as Kato are ever present and a comfort to see. However it was a real treat to see David Niven as Sir Charles Lytton, Robert Wagner as George Lytton his nephew and Capucine as Simone the ex-Misses Clouseau. As for the plot of this film it is rather buoyant and sketchy. Ted Wass as Clifton Sleigh a bumbling police officer from America does the best with what material he is given but he really lacks the charm and any clear definition of his character if in fact director Blake Edwards had any intentions of reviving the series with him. There are a few genuinely funny moments but they are too few. There is a surprise ending that you can interpret two different ways but there is no point revealing it here. Besides the cast I also did like the score composed by Henry Mancini. Mancini was a true professional. He never compromised the quality of his music no matter what the merits of the film appeared to be. He actually composed a very good theme for the Clifton Sleigh character. Unfortunately there was no soundtrack to this film issued and so Clifton Sleighs theme remains jut a fond memory.
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