Movies - The Pink Panther

Home > Listing Index > Movies > The Pink Panther

	Movies - The Pink Panther

The Pink Panther refers to a series of American comedic films which feature the bumbling French police detective Jacques Clouseau. The role was originated by and is most closely associated with Peter Sellers, and most of the films were directed and co-written by Blake Edwards, with theme music by Henry Mancini.

"The Pink Panther" itself is a large and valuable (and fictitious) diamond which is the macguffin of the first film in the series. It bears that name because the flaw at its center, when viewed closely, is said to resemble a pink panther. The phrase reappears in the title of the fourth film, The Return of the Pink Panther
, in which the theft of the diamond is again the center of the plot, the film in which Sellers returned to the role after a one film hiatus. The phrase has been used for all the subsequent films in the series, even when the jewel does not figure into the plot.

The first film in the series had an animated opening sequence set to the theme music by Henry Mancini that featured the Pink Panther cartoon character. This character would get its own series of animated films (as well as being featured in the opening of every film in the series except A Shot in the Dark
) and come to be known simply as "The Pink Panther".

The cartoon series' generally centered on the same idea, of the Panther trying to paint things in his own pink color. This theme is hinted at in the original film opening, as the Panther tries to interpose himself, his name and his color here and there.

The Pink Panther cartoon character also appears at the very end of the first film, intermixed with live-action footage of a car driving through the streets of Rome, and holding up a scroll with "THE END" in pink letters.

Films and themes

The best-known of the films starred Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau and were directed and co-written by Blake Edwards. The popular jazz-based theme music was composed by Henry Mancini. In addition to the credits sequences, the theme accompanies any suspenseful sequence involving "the Phantom" at work on a theft, both in the first and in subsequent films.

Mancini's other tunes for the first film include an Italian-language set-piece called "Meglio Stasera" whose purpose seems primarily to introduce young actress Fran Jeffries. Portions of its instrumental version also appear in the underscore of the film several times. Other segments include "Shades of Sennett", a "honky tonk" piano number introducing the film's climactic chase scene through the streets of Rome. Most of the soundtrack album's other entries are early 1960s orchestral/jazz pieces, befitting the style of the era. Although variations of the main theme would be reprised for many of the Pink Panther series entries, as well as the cartoon series, Mancini composed a different theme for A Shot in the Dark.

The Pink Panther of the title is a diamond supposedly containing a flaw which forms the image of a "leaping panther", which can be seen if held up to light in a certain way. The beginning of the first film explains this, and then the camera zooms in on the diamond to reveal the blurry flaw, which focuses into the Panther (albeit not actually leaping) to start the opening credits sequence. The plot of the first film centers on the theft of this diamond, which is mentioned in only two other films in the series (The Return of the Pink Panther
and Trail of the Pink Panther
). The name stuck once the Pink Panther became synonymous with Inspector Clouseau, in much the way that Frankenstein was used in film titles to refer to Frankenstein's Monster or The Thin Man
was used in a series of detective films.

A Shot in the Dark
, a film which was not originally intended to feature Inspector Clouseau, but which was quickly re-written to capitalize on the popularity of the original film, is the only film in the series that features neither the diamond nor the distinctive animated Pink Panther in the opening credits and ending. Ironically, some critics, including Leonard Maltin, regard this entry as the best in the series.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Pink Panther ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article The Pink Panther; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Movies - The Pink Panther

Films and themes

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay