THE EXPLOSIVE REVIEW

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Starring: Alan Arkin, Frank Finlay, Delia Boccardo, Patrick Cargill, Beryl Reid, Barry Foster, Clive Francis, John Bindon, Michael Ripper, Tutte Lemkow, Anthony Ainley, Wallas Eaton, David Bauer, Richard Pearson, and George Pravda.

Directed by: Bud Yorkin.

Story:
When an organized crime syndicate makes their mark all over Europe, the Prime Minister suspects a possible mole in Scotland and therefore assigns Inspector Jacques Clouseau to solve the case. After dodging a couple assassination attempts, Clouseau is kidnapped by accident. The villains, led by Johnny Rainbow, use his face to make a series of masks that look just like him. Johnny and his goons plan to use these Clouseau masks to conceal their identities during a series of bank robberies.

Characters:
*Inspector Clouseau (Alan Arkin): The bumbling detective who needs no introduction, except here he is played by a different actor.
*Commissioner Sir Charles Braithwaite (Patrick Cargill): Clouseau’s new boss.
*Clyde Hargreaves aka Johnny Rainbow (Clive Francis): The lead villain.

Overall:
“Inspector Clouseau” is the third entry in the ‘Pink Panther’ series, following “A Shot In The Dark”. As you may notice, the title character has been replaced by Alan Arkin instead of Peter Sellers who had a bit of a falling out with director Blake Edwards who directed the first two, therefore, Sellers declined to return, that is until the fourth film in 1975. This was also not directed by Blake Edwards nor was it scored by Henry Mancini. It’s quite sad that they didn’t return for this outing as it would have been a huge improvement over what it currently is.

Alan Arkin isn’t really bad as Inspector Clouseau, actually, he’s quite equal to Sellers and he does grow on you after about ten minutes of watching him. But the laughs really don’t work as well as they should with the exception of a few moments, however, it is missing Blake Edwards’ touch and direction. Also disappointing is the absence of Herbert Lom’s Commissioner Dreyfus, Clouseau’s boss who wants nothing but to kill him, and is instead replaced by Commissioner Sir Charles Braithwaite who is calm and simply gets annoyed by Clouseau every now and then - Why? We don’t know, the film makes no reference as to why the change was made. I could understand if Patrick Cargill was playing Dreyfus this time (which would suck), but he’s clearly playing a different commissioner here. Burt Kwouk’s Cato, Clouseau’s martial arts servant, is also missing here. Where on Earth are these regulars of the ‘Pink Panther’ series? The first one didn’t have those two either, but it was held together by Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers.

The plot of the film isn’t actually bad though, villains trying to use Clouseau’s identity to conduct their crimes and blame him for it. However, I can see why many people don’t regard “Inspector Clouseau” as the official third ‘Pink Panther’ film and instead look to the following one, “The Return of the Pink Panther”. “Inspector Clouseau” is missing the direction of Blake Edwards, Peter Sellers in the title role with his regular co-stars, and a better script.

Rating: **1/2

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