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By
WAYNE KLEIN
"The Pink Panther" movies
fell victim to the laws diminishing returns. Of
all the films in this set, the first two "The Pink
Panther" and "A Shot in the Dark." The latter film
really gave birth to all the sequels as it's here
that Peter Sellers truly came into his own as
Inspector Clouseau. This lavishly packaged boxed
set misses the third best of the series ("The
Return of the Pink Panther") due to contractual
issues. Really it was this film that introduced
Clouseau and Sellers to a new generation of film
audiences and this film also set the silly
template that the successive films followed. As a
result, its absence seems really noticable in this
set. Luckily, the film is available separately
from Artisan.
The films stand or fall based on the relationship
between Sellers and director/writer Blake Edwards.
If their relationship was good during the shooting
of the film and Sellers particularly inspired,
Edwards could channel his chaotic energy into a
structured, funny film that, at its best, recalled
the inventiveness of Buster Keaton and, at its
worst, The Three Stooges. As Sellers became more
eccentric and his health failed, the films began
to fall in quality as well. Edwards faced the
challenge of creating comic chaos out of nothing a
feat that only God seems capable of accomplishing
with our own little universe.
The wait was well worth it and clearly the release
was timed to Edwards' special achievement Oscar.
The vibrant picture hasn't looked this good since
the films appeared for the first time during their
respective release years. They improve on the
previously released DVDs for the most part. The
DVDs also highlight a fact lost in all the
admiration of Sellers comic insanity; Herbert Lom
became the lynchpin that held many of the better
films together. Lom, a brilliant poorly used
dramatic actor, comes to life as Clouseau's
increasingly unstable boss. Like wise, Burt Kwouk
who played Clouseau's servant Cato also brought
inspired lunacy in his performances as well. The
sound comes across as good as could be expected
considering that the early films were all recorded
and released in mono. While the later films were
released in stereo they have more audio punch but
are lesser efforts.
The extras could have been enticing but simply put
are somewhat disappointing. We get one documentary
on the final disc along with a number of the Friz
Freleng directed/produced Pink Panther cartoon
shorts released either in conjunction with or
after the films. While some of them certainly
belong on here, some are of questionable value.
What's bizarre, though, is the lack of the extras
available on the British edition of the same boxed
set released nearly 6 months ago. That edition had
a number of interesting extras including a
biography of Peter Sellers.
I don't bemoan the fact that the last couple of
Panther films are MIA; they were dreary affairs
that always made me thing there should be a law
banning on sequels or prequels (are you listening
George Lucas?)on the grounds of visual pollution.
It's also worth mentioning that when Sellers
couldn't be lured back to another sequel, Alan
Arkin did an admirable job in a so-so film called
"Inspector Clouseau" which should have been
included if only for his interesting performance.
He's certainly no Sellers but he pulls off the
performance and is let down by a substandard
script. It certainly deserved to be included in
this set again although, again, contractual
problems may have prevented this.
Since all of these films were available on DVD, I
have to wonder who this boxed set is really aimed
at. I understand this was supposed to celebrate
the 40th anniversary of the first two films
release but why with so little fanfare? With the
lack of extras, indepth commentary tracks by
actors Robert Wagner, Christopher Plummer and
director Blake Edwards this set single salvation
hinges on slightly improved picture quality (it
appears to be an anamorphic transfer which
translates to a sharper picture) and the
packaging. That alone doesn't make this worthwhile
but, again, fans may snap it up because they can
finally get their fix of Sellers pretty much all
in one set. My advice would be to wait for them to
be individually reissued on DVD as I've no doubt
that some of the British extras, the cartoons
included here and the various other minimal extras
included on this pathetic edition will be farmed
out to each disc. You'll be able to get the films
you want (the first two definitely, the fourth
maybe and the last two not at all) without all the
dross included here. Like Keaton's early silent
classics, the first two stand up to the test of
time pretty well while the rest resemble heated
leftovers; you know what they were when you first
ate them but, beyond a sneaking suspicion that
they'll make you sick, it's best to avoid them. |
