![]() ![]() Talented and beautiful though she was, Capucine was not a star. In a bind, Edwards cast French actress Capucine in the role. Then Janet decided against it since she'd just re-married and didn’t want to leave her new husband. However, Ava made too many demands and wanted too much money. To play the inspector’s unfaithful wife, Edwards wanted either Ava Gardner or Janet Leigh. He’d followed this up with such high-profile pictures as “ The Sundowners” (1960) and “ Billy Budd” (1962). ![]() Ustinov was an established name, having broken out in Stanley Kubrick’s “ Spartacus” three years earlier. (A few years later, this coolest of cats would win his own animated series on Saturday morning TV!)Īs to the role of the bumbling French inspector investigating the theft, Edwards had top character actor Peter Ustinov in mind. The actual Pink Panther character only took shape when Edwards decided the film could use an animated opening, and animators David DePatie and Friz Freleng came up with the slim, cheeky panther on two legs that would swiftly take on a life of its own. Surprisingly often, success in Hollywood is the result of happy, fortuitous accidents.įor example, when writer/director Blake Edwards first came up with the idea for the first “ Pink Panther” outing, he envisioned a spoof of a heist film, with veteran star David Niven playing a suave jewel thief, much like Cary Grant in “ To Catch A Thief.” Oh and also, finally, there's a nice scene or two showing cars rushing about in a chase, although we dont witness the full chase itself but I thought it was fun to see the old cars whizzing by regardless.In the majority of cases where a single film evolves into a highly successful franchise, no one has any clue this might happen at the outset. ![]() I liked the madcap feel to the final few scenes of this film and I'd recommend the film to fans of David Niven, Peter Sellers, fans of the Pink Panther franchise obviously and farcical comedy film fans in general I suppose. I also recognised John Le Mesurier present in one of the final scenes - whenever I see him, I think of Dad's Army (British WWII based sitcom) of course!. Oh and it almost goes without saying that it features the iconic, animated comic-type title sequence with the titular cat, who went on to have his /(her?) own spin off animated cartoon show. It certainly takes a somewhat more surreal turn and I can't say I wasn't entertained by then but the first half I didn't find especially engrossing, although what I can say is that I liked how the female characters were able, on ocassion, to stick up for themselves and issued some fairly decent put downs to the somewhat lecherous male characters - good for you!. It did feel a little bland to start with, although it became more amusing in the 2nd half, when there's a costume party and some of the more comic, farcical type comedy/plot elements come out. Inspector Clouseau doesn't feature as much in this first/initial film and the film is less action oriented, with most scenes taking place in a bedroom (hotel room?), with Sir Charles Lytton (played by David Niven) schmoozing a young lady. This is a mildly amusing film - the first in a long series of films, such as 'Revenge of the Pink Panther' etc. This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. ![]()
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