The Pink Panther 1963 by AverageMansReviews
Review Time
Warning: there is flashing effects/colourful
effects/drugs/shooting/animal cruelty/vehicle crash
Meanwhile, meanwhile, meanwhile eventually: briefly; Inspector Jacques Clouseau [Peter Sellers:] he is a very
clumsy French detective, is on the case to find out the identity of the individual
known as The Phantom, all we know is whoever this individual is they are going
for The Pink Panther diamond, oh yes he has brought his wife belonged to.
Generally speaking: the art; we get to
meet the animated Pink Panther in the opening credits and right at the end
where he appears in this real-life location; but he is still the animated
version of himself; this is fantastic art for back in the day of 1963 and let's
be honest; it is still holding up excellently in 2026 and it will be that way
until the end of time; you see this kind of art and vision has a timeless
quality to it and at some point we get a musical number this is also good.
The
storyline/script holds well together, I can say the same for the framework and
pacing of this 113 minutes film; where at the beginning we have this recurring
joke of Meanwhile [then we go somewhere] repeat the cycle or much later on we
had a split-screen of two characters dressed up in monkey costumes; looking
inside this safe [one from the top end and the other from the bottom end hence
split-screen and as things are not going too well at one point they
break-the-fourth-wall and for a brief second or less they look right at the
camera.] But there is a good section of this film where our lead lead
character/lead role Inspector Clouseau/Sellers is not in this film and because
of that; this film definitely suffers because of that, I mean don't get me
wrong we have a staged fight and then a skiing mishap; but it just doesn't have
the same kind of punch and on top of that when Inspector Clouseau/Sellers is
back it does take some time to warm up again.
Character
developments, comedy and action; Inspector Clouseau/Sellers; like I said
earlier he is incredibly clumsy for some examples; in one scene we have one of
these majestic very expensive looking globes that has its kind of standing nest
to sit in; well it must have been greasy or something because our Inspector
slides off it, falls to the floor and does this whole quickly get up and carry
on as if there is nothing to see here thing, later on he breaks his violin and
sometime later he has back repaired and he is under the great illusion he can
play the violin expertly, which he can't; he plays it and it sounds like a
squealing female cat in heat.
Somewhere
around the final quarter; brief description of the next sequence; I believe
that this old man is trying to cross the road or whatever it is; he gets stuck
now and again between different vehicles and different characters dressed up in
different costumes including may be walking as well; it is something like out
of Mario Kart on an extreme budget; so this old man, decides to go back to
where you once came from sit down on this chair and see some of the carnage/air
some of the carnage until we have this massive crash and then this old man
tried again to cross over to where he wants to go.
Character
developments and performances; broadly speaking the character developments
minus what I have already indicated are good versions of their character types,
the performances are also a good reflection of those character types and
finally for Inspector Clouseau/Sellers; we can already start to see and
experience why Sellers was and is crucial to this role as this character,
because you have to be really smart, to make this level of clumsiness this
natural.
This film receives: 6/10, this film is good; as I have already made
reference to it; this film wasn't quite the same even though Inspector
Clouseau/Sellers came back I mean it obviously got better and better, but it is
most definitely something they could have done without doing. This film also has some awards accredited to its name such as 5
Winners which include but not limited to Online Film
& Television Association 2024 OFTA Film Hall of Fame Character Peter
Sellers (Inspector Jacques Clouseau) and 9 Nominees which also include but not
limited to Academy Awards, USA Oscar 1965 Best Music, Substantially Original
Score Henry Mancini
