The Pink Panther is an American media franchise primarily focusing on a series of comedy-mystery films featuring an inept French police detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseau.
The phrase reappears in the title of the fourth film, The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), in which the theft of the diamond is again the center of the plot.
[1] The cartoon series gained its highest profile on television, aired on Saturday mornings as The Pink Panther Show.
A Shot in the Dark (1964) was released less than a year after The Pink Panther, and was the first to feature the Clouseau character as the protagonist of the film, investigating a murder set in a mansion in Paris.
Elke Sommer, George Sanders, Graham Stark, Tracy Reed and Douglas Wilmer also appeared in the film.
David Niven did not reprise the role of Sir Charles Lytton, who is portrayed in the film by Christopher Plummer instead.
In The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), Dreyfus' insanity reached its zenith, as he tried to blackmail the rest of the world into killing Clouseau.
It co-starred Leonard Rossiter, Lesley-Anne Down, Michael Robbins, Colin Blakely, and featured an uncredited cameo by Omar Sharif.
Clouseau returns, after having plastic surgery to disguise his identity, in a cameo appearance by Roger Moore (who is credited as "Turk Thrust II").
In Son of the Pink Panther (1993), Blake Edwards made one final attempt to revive the Pink Panther series, this time by casting Italian actor Roberto Benigni as Gendarme Jacques Gambrelli, Inspector Clouseau's illegitimate son by Maria Gambrelli, the murder suspect from A Shot in the Dark (1964).
Once again, regular Panther co-stars return – Herbert Lom, Burt Kwouk, and Graham Stark, and a star of the original 1963 film, Claudia Cardinale.
Not a remake of the original film, it forms a new starting point for a contemporary series, introducing the Clouseau and Dreyfus characters along with the famous diamond to a new generation.
[2] In March 2014, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer announced plans to develop a new live-action/CGI hybrid feature film starring the Pink Panther, which was set to be directed by David Silverman, with Walter Mirisch and Julie Andrews serving as producers.
As detailed in the director's commentary for the first film, the Inspector Clouseau character was originally conceived as a vehicle for David Niven, but once written it was decided he should play the raconteur/thief.
In the original film, released in 1963, the main focus was on David Niven's role as Sir Charles Litton, the infamous jewel thief nicknamed "the Phantom", and his plan to steal the Pink Panther diamond.
The popularity of Clouseau caused him to become the main character in subsequent Pink Panther films, which were more straightforward slapstick comedies.
Mancini's other themes for the first film include an Italian-language set-piece called "Meglio stasera", whose purpose seems primarily to introduce young actress Fran Jeffries.
Other segments include "Shades of Sennett", a "honky-tonk" piano number introducing the film's climactic chase scene through the streets of Rome.
Traditionally mute, the Pink Panther was given the voice of actor Matt Frewer for a 1993-1995 animated TV series.
The animated Pink Panther character has also appeared in computer and console video games, as well as advertising campaigns for several companies, most notably for Owens Corning Fiberglass insulation.
In 2014, MGM announced (see above) that it was planning an animation / live-action hybrid film reboot of the franchise,[34] to be directed by David Silverman and produced by Walter Mirisch and Julie Andrews.
The basic plot was to involve Inspector Clouseau becoming smitten with a cat burglar called "the Frog", played by Pamela Stephenson.