The Pink Panther

Details

The Pink Panther is one of the most valuable diamonds in the world, named after a tiny flaw within the stone which, if viewed in just the right way, resembles a leaping panther. Its owner is Princess Dala (Claudia Cardinale), who has rather inconveniently become the target of one of Europe's most notorious jewel thieves.

Sir Charles Lytton (David Niven) is everything a gentleman thief ought to be. Suave, sophisticated and seemingly irresistible to women, he travels in the finest circles while secretly operating as the Phantom, relieving the wealthy of their jewellery before disappearing without a trace. And now he has his sights set on the Pink Panther.

Unfortunately, Sir Charles isn't the only person interested in the diamond. His American nephew George (Robert Wagner) has arrived in Europe with plans to steal it himself and blame the crime on the Phantom, blissfully unaware that the notorious thief whose reputation he intends to exploit is actually his own uncle.

Also on the Phantom's trail is Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers), a French detective whose enthusiasm for catching his quarry is matched only by his remarkable ability to misunderstand almost everything happening immediately around him. This includes the activities of his wife Simone (Capucine), who just happens to be Sir Charles' lover and accomplice.

With everyone eventually converging on the exclusive ski resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo, the stage is set for an increasingly complicated game of deception in which almost everybody knows something that somebody else doesn't - and poor Clouseau generally knows rather less than anybody.

Picture & Sound

Remastered in 4K from the original camera negative, The Pink Panther looks absolutely fantastic. The image is remarkably clean, with only a minimal amount of visible grain which may disappoint those who prefer their film presentations to retain a more obvious texture, but personally I loved what I was seeing.

Photographed in Technicolor, the colours are wonderfully rich and vibrant, really allowing the fashions of the period to shine. Clothing in particular benefits enormously from the additional resolution, with patterns, textures and even individual stitching clearly visible. Given just how stylishly dressed everyone seems to be, the improved clarity provides plenty to admire beyond the faces of the stars themselves.

In fact, the image is so clear that at one point I spotted a fly wandering across a bed. For a moment I wondered whether it was a speck of dirt on the print, until it promptly flew away. It's hardly the sort of detail anyone needs to see, but it does demonstrate just how much information this restoration is capable of revealing.

The darker scenes are equally impressive. Blacks are wonderfully deep and solid without swallowing up the surrounding detail, while brighter areas remain nicely controlled with very little evidence of blown-out whites. The result is an image with plenty of contrast and depth, whether we're looking at a brightly lit interior or one of the film's more subdued nighttime sequences.

The snowy landscapes of Cortina inevitably make the underlying grain a little more noticeable, particularly across those large expanses of bright white, but even here the image remains hugely impressive. The snow retains plenty of detail without becoming a featureless white backdrop, while the colourful costumes positively leap from the screen against it.

Perhaps more importantly for a restoration this clean, I didn't notice any distracting outlining, pixelisation or other obvious digital artefacts. There's certainly been work done to produce such a polished image and the relative lack of grain may not please everyone, but it never struck me as artificially sharpened or processed simply for the sake of making an old film look more modern.

Sound comes courtesy of a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, alongside an uncompressed mono soundtrack for those who prefer something closer to the film's original presentation. Interestingly, the latter is noticeably louder, with the dialogue pushed much further forward, and purists may well gravitate towards it. Personally, though, I found the 5.1 mix the more enjoyable of the two. It's considerably more restrained and refined, with dialogue remaining clear and firmly anchored to the centre channel, and there's relatively little in the way of directional or surround activity, but it feels better balanced overall.

There is, however, one very good reason to favour the 5.1 track - Henry Mancini. That unmistakable Pink Panther Theme, with its famous saxophone and wonderfully rich big-band sound, fills out the soundstage beautifully. It's difficult to imagine The Pink Panther without Mancini's music now and, while the rest of the soundtrack may give your speakers relatively little to do, the moment that theme kicks in makes the 5.1 mix worthwhile all by itself. It's the perfect accompaniment to an animated Pink Panther.

Menu & Extras

This first pressing of the 4K edition is limited to just 3,000 copies and comes housed in a rigid slipcase featuring the original poster artwork. Also tucked inside is a nicely presented Limited Edition Picture Booklet, containing a collection of promotional photographs and publicity stills from the film. It's perhaps more of a visual souvenir than something you'll sit down and read from cover to cover, but it's a lovely addition and suits the presentation of the set rather nicely.

Whilst there's nothing newly produced amongst the on-disc extras, there's still a substantial collection to work through, although it's worth pointing out that almost all of them reside on the accompanying Blu-ray rather than the 4K disc itself. The UHD keeps things relatively simple, containing the film, audio commentary and theatrical trailer, while the Blu-ray is where you'll find the various featurettes and interviews carried over from previous releases.

The 10-minute Behind the Feline takes a look at the creation of the animated Pink Panther, with Blake Edwards, David H. DePatie and others discussing how a character originally devised for the film's opening titles took on a life of his own. There's also some interesting background on the Panther's subsequent adventures and how he went on to become the star of his very own series of cartoons. Given just how inseparable the animated character has become from The Pink Panther, it's a short but worthwhile look at something which ultimately grew far beyond its original purpose.

More substantial is the 28-minute The Pink Panther Story, which begins with Blake Edwards looking back at his own background and early career, including his progression into screenwriting and eventually filmmaking. From there the discussion naturally turns to The Pink Panther, how the film came about and some of the actors originally considered for roles before the cast we ultimately see on screen was assembled.

There's also plenty about the creation of Inspector Clouseau and the subsequent development of the series, with Edwards discussing films including A Shot in the Dark, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Revenge of the Pink Panther and Trail of the Pink Panther. Inevitably, any retrospective covering the history of The Pink Panther eventually comes back to Peter Sellers and Clouseau, and it's particularly interesting hearing how a character who wasn't even intended to be the star of the original film ultimately came to dominate the series. There's also a rather sobering reminder of Sellers' increasingly poor health, including the heart problems which plagued him for much of his later career and ultimately led to his death at the age of just 54. It's something I knew surprisingly little about, despite being well aware that Sellers had died from a heart attack.

Also carried over is the feature-length audio commentary with director and co-writer Blake Edwards. Inevitably there's some overlap with the retrospective material elsewhere on the disc, but hearing from the man responsible for the film gives it a rather different perspective, with Edwards discussing the production, cast and the creation of the animated Pink Panther for the opening titles. It's an interesting historical addition, although those who aren't normally drawn to audio commentaries will probably find the more concise featurettes an easier way of exploring much of the same history.

Three shorter archive pieces round out the more substantial extras. The 11-minute The Coolest Cat in Cortina catches up with Robert Wagner to look back at his involvement in the film and his memories of making it, while the 10-minute The Tip-Toe Life of a Catburglar takes a slightly different approach by talking to former jewel thief Bill Mason about the rather less glamorous realities of stealing valuable jewellery. Finally, the seven-minute Diamonds - Beyond the Sparkle provides some background on the precious stones themselves and the world surrounding them. None are essential viewing, but they're nicely chosen companions to a film built around one of the world's most valuable fictional diamonds and the people attempting to steal it.

Things are rounded off nicely with the Theatrical Trailer and Image Gallery.

Overall

Although it's almost impossible to imagine today, The Pink Panther wasn't originally intended to be a Peter Sellers vehicle at all. David Niven was the established Hollywood star and Sir Charles Lytton was supposed to be the film's central character, with Inspector Clouseau very much a supporting role. Sellers was already a successful and well-known comic actor by this point, but the character which would come to define much of his career was only just being born. The thing is, Sellers wasn't even originally cast in the role - that honour was supposed to go to Peter Ustinov.

Watching the film now, however, you can see exactly how the balance shifted. Niven is effortlessly suave and perfectly suited to the sophisticated gentleman thief, but whenever Sellers enters the frame he simply steals the scene from everyone around him. Working with director Blake Edwards, he turns Clouseau's misplaced confidence, physical clumsiness and determination to retain his dignity in the face of complete humiliation into something far funnier than the supporting character presumably had any right to be.

For all his bumbling incompetence, though, it's difficult not to feel rather sorry for Clouseau. He's completely besotted with Simone, yet she seems to spend half her time rebuffing his amorous advances while secretly enjoying the attentions of the very man her husband is trying to catch. Clouseau, of course, is far too oblivious to notice any of this and continues to adore her regardless. It's almost painful to watch at times; we may be laughing at Clouseau for much of the film, but there's something rather endearing - and even a little sad - about just how completely he trusts a wife who is quite happily using his position to keep her lover one step ahead of him.

Sir Charles, meanwhile, appears remarkably confident that his considerable charms are working on Princess Dala, although the more time they spend together, the less obvious it becomes exactly who is seducing whom. Dala is certainly no innocent bystander and seems perfectly capable of playing Sir Charles at his own game. Even so, with David Niven more than twice Claudia Cardinale's age, I couldn't help thinking that he's old enough to be her father. Nobody in the film appears particularly troubled by the considerable age difference, although more than sixty years later it's rather difficult not to notice it.

Some of the best moments come when Edwards simply lets the farce take over. The bedroom sequence is a wonderfully choreographed piece of chaos as Simone desperately attempts to keep Clouseau, Sir Charles and George from discovering one another, shuffling men between the bedroom and closet while her blissfully unsuspecting husband remains several steps behind everyone else. The timing is superb, with every entrance, exit and near miss adding another layer to an increasingly ridiculous situation.

And then there's the costume party, where any remaining restraint is gleefully abandoned. Before long we have a zebra, a suit of armour, several gorillas and an increasingly chaotic collection of characters tearing around after one another - before someone decides that what the whole thing really needs is fireworks. It's gloriously silly, meticulously staged and exactly the sort of escalating comic mayhem that Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers would make their own.

In hindsight, perhaps the biggest robbery in The Pink Panther isn't Sir Charles' attempt to steal the famous diamond at all. It's Peter Sellers quietly stealing David Niven's film from underneath him - and, ultimately, making off with the entire franchise. Yet Clouseau wasn't the only unexpected star to emerge from the film. The animated Pink Panther was created for the opening titles but proved so popular that he escaped from the film altogether and became a cartoon star in his own right.

And accompanying him, of course, was Henry Mancini's unforgettable Pink Panther Theme. That slinking saxophone melody became every bit as recognisable as the character himself and it's now almost impossible to imagine one without the other. It's quite a legacy when you think about it: a film built around David Niven's sophisticated gentleman thief ended up giving us Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau, an animated Pink Panther and one of the most instantly recognisable pieces of film music ever written.

The Pink Panther is also one of those films that has always stuck in my mind from childhood. I remember it being shown regularly on television and watching it together as a family - probably around Christmas time - with all of us laughing along. I'm sure plenty of the more grown-up jokes sailed straight over my young head, but Clouseau's increasingly disastrous antics certainly didn't.

Revisiting it all these years later, it's reassuring to discover just how much fun it still is. It's stylish, wonderfully silly when it needs to be and blessed with characters, music and comedy that have long since become part of cinema history. Better still, this fabulous 4K restoration makes a film I've known since childhood look better than I can ever remember seeing it. It's a fantastic release of a genuine comedy classic and, despite David Niven supposedly being the star, I still can't help thinking of it as a classic Peter Sellers film. Apologies, Mr Niven.

Special features

• Audio Commentary from Blake Edwards
• Behind the Feline Featurette
• The Pink Panther Story Featurette
• That's Panthertainment Featurette
• A Conversation with Robert Wagner: The Coolest Cat in Cortina Featurette
• The Tip-Toe Life of a Catburglar: A Conversation with Former Jewel Thief Bill Mason Featurette
• Diamonds - Beyond the Sparkle Featurette
• Trailer
• Image Gallery