Product Description

Disc 1: THE PINK PANTHER Disc 2: REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER Disc 3: THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN Disc 4: A SHOT IN THE DARK Disc 5: TRAIL OF THE PINK PANTHER Disc 6: BONUS DISC

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7621 in DVD
• Brand: MGM STUDIOS
• Released on: 2004-04-06
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, Color, DVD, Dolby, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 6
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 520 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Cue the Henry Mancini music and watch out for Cato--the gist of the Pink Panther series has been gathered in a six-disc boxed set. At the center of it is Peter Sellers's incarnation of inspector Jacques Clouseau, a hopelessly bumbling detective with a genius for resting his hands in the wrong place (on the surface of a spinning globe, for instance) and mangling the English language.

Writer-director Blake Edwards cast Peter Ustinov as Clouseau in The Pink Panther, but Ustinov dropped out just before shooting began. Edwards (who recounts this story in a spotty commentary track included here) and Sellers bonded over their affection for Laurel and Hardy, and immediately transformed the character of Clouseau into a walking sight gag. The first film has a delicious swinging sixties vibe, while jewel thief David Niven, Claudia Cardinale, and Capucine occupy as much screen time as Sellers. Sellers really hits his stride in A Shot in the Dark, an elegantly funny tale of Clouseau sleuthing out a murder investigation. This one introduced Herbert Lom, as the increasingly frazzled Inspector Dreyfus, and Burt Kwouk, as Clouseau's houseboy-nemesis Cato. Sellers and Edwards, whose relationship was stormy, put Clouseau aside for over 10 years, until a trilogy of mid-1970s comedies restored the character to commercial (and dare we say cultural) primacy.

Unfortunately, the very funny comeback picture, Return of the Pink Panther, is absent from this set due to rights issues with the studios involved. The Pink Panther Strikes Again has Dreyfus going bananas and targeting Clouseau; Revenge of the Pink Panther puts Clouseau in a hilarious series of disguises, climaxing in a wonderfully mounted sequence in Hong Kong. (Throughout the series, the calm, classical staging of gags by Blake Edwards reminds you of what a lost art this has become.) Trail of the Pink Panther looks better now than it did when originally released in 1982, shortly after Sellers's death; it's a batch of unused Sellers routines from previous pictures, strung together with a loose plot. In other words, it's a "deleted scenes" extra, and quite funny at times.

Subsequent efforts Curse of the Pink Panther and Son of the Pink Panther are neither included nor mentioned. A half-hour documentary gives pleasant memories from Edwards, but feels incomplete. The cartoon Panther gets his own 11-minute mini-doc, plus six cartoon shorts including the Oscar-winning "The Pink Phink." --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

Like Old Friends, They're Always Great To See!
Having been a fan of "The Pink Panther" series from childhood, I was ecstatic that this set was being released, as the films are otherwise out of print on DVD (although luckily I still have my trusty VHS copies in reserve). I am tempted to give the set five stars simply because it is a wonderful day to see these films back in print, but realistically I had to take it down a notch as there a couple of negative considerations, the most obvious of which, of course, is the absence of "Return of the Pink Panther" from the collection, ostensibly because of legal hang-ups. Whatever the cause, the absence of the first of the 1970s-era "Panthers" is sorely missed. The other minor negative is the relative absence of special features on the movie DVDs, although the original "Pink Panther" has a wonderful trivia track. I would have really loved commentary tracks with Blake Edwards and some of the actors. I am somewhat ambivalent on the extremely unusual packaging the set comes in. It is hard to adequately describe the case, but suffice it to say that removing half of the DVDs is annoyingly difficult, although it looks very stylish.

On the positive end, you get four great "Panther" movies and the bodged-together "Trail of the Pink Panther", plus a disk of extras. Some people have dismissed the extras disk as inconsequential, but I rather enjoyed it. I particularly liked the documentary "The Pink Panther Story" which was heavy on interviews and insight. I had no idea that Sellers hated "A Shot in the Dark", whereas I (and many others) think it is a perfect movie in every way. I knew that Sellers could be somewhat Mercurial to work with, but I had no idea, for instance, that he had certain colors that he would not tolerate around him, and in fact made the producers of one of the movies once repaint a train because he couldn't stand the color! Also on the disk is a documentary about the animated Panther, which is quite interesting, as well as several of the short subject cartoons, which seem selected at random. They did include the Oscar winning "Pink Phink", the first cartoon short of the Pink Panther, which was an excellent choice. "Psychedelic Pink" included an annoying laugh track, and "Pinkfinger" was one of the weaker of the cartoons, which I have great recollection of from childhood. Interestingly enough, there are two related subject cartoons, one each of the Ant and the Aardvark, and The Inspector (in a fairly weak episode) to round out the extra disk.

This is a great set overall, with just a couple of things bringing it down to a four rating. I recommend it to all "Panther" fans everywhere, and to anyone who loves to laugh.

Great Collection but......
This is a great collection but there is a big problem, it did not include the best film of the series, "The Return of the Pink Panther (1974)", with this film the collection would have been "Perfect"

Decent package, but missing essential material!
I was very excited when I heard they were releasing a Pink Panther collection on DVD. So much so that I held off on buying any of the currently available individual DVD titles. The day the set arrived I raced home to watch... and disappointment struck.

In the first place, the set does NOT contain RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER; one of the best/funniest in the series (in my opinion). I now understand this was because of legal/copyright issues, but still a major disappointment. If you buy this set, you will need to go out and purchase Return separately to have all the Sellers' renditions of the film.

Secondly, the other (non-Sellers) films in the series are not included. I wasn't too disappointed about this because Peter Sellers is, in my opinion, what made the Pink Panther series so great, but the other films are pretty decent as well (and this is supposed to be a Pink Panther collection, not necessarily a Peter Sellers collection). Son of the Pink Panther was a box office dud, but one of my personal favorite non-Sellers' Clouseau movies. Roberto Benigni, who played Clouseau's son was just great! And the movie, in general, had the feel of one of the older Panther films. It also featured the brilliant Herbert Lom (Chief Inspector Dreyfus) and Burt Kwouk (Cato Fong); both a pleasant surprise! Curse of the Pink Panther is also not included in this set, which had a brilliant soundtrack.

Thirdly, the extra features are duds! And there's only slight mention in the commentary of Alan Arkin's film, Inspector Clouseau, and absolutely no mention of Steve Martin's upcoming rendition.

I think a nice added feature would have been to maybe include a new soundtrack featuring music not included on previously released soundtracks of the films (along with the classics). For example, none of the previous soundtracks include the spectacular song Meglio Stasera, sung by the beautiful Fran Jeffries in the first film. And some of the great music from Shot In The Dark that was never included on albums. It would have been nice to have all these.

But, we are left with only a mediocre collection of Pink Panther movies and no real advantage over buying the titles separately, except that you might save a buck or two.

I give this package 3 generous stars since it's not an ideal package and could have been MUCH better. But, it's still the Pink Panther and the DVD's are very good quality. Definitely an upgrade from the VHS copies. It comes in a very attractive, well-protected package and does include a few extra features. So, it's not bad, but certainly not perfect. Fans will be disappointed that Return of the Pink Panther is not included and none of the non-Sellers Panther movies are included either, so it's not a complete set by any means. Perhaps one day the movie studios will work out their differences and create a new (deluxe) Panther collection with ALL the movies and some better extras. For example, I know there are outtakes from the films (I've seen them on TV Bloopers shows). Those would have been a nice addition to the DVD's. For now, it's all we've got and it's not too terrible. 3 Stars. Enjoy! :)

NOTE: See my review concerning the first Pink Panther movie too on Amazon.com