When Peter Sellers died, you'd have thought they'd have let the 'Pink Panther' series die with him. But money talks and in 1981 we got the dire 'Trail Of The Pink Panther'. 'Curse', its successor, was an improvement, thanks to a funny performance from the likable Ted Wass, best known as 'Danny Dallas' from the long-running T.V. show 'Soap'. His character, Clifton Sleigh, had more than a touch of Harold Lloyd about him but alas Sellers proved irreplaceable ( Dudley Moore and Rowan Atkinson knew this too. They both turned it down ), and we never saw Sleigh again. Some good visual gags include Dreyfus falling from his office window and Sleigh's problems with an inflatable doll. The film might have stood a chance had it not been continually looking over its shoulder at what went before. Especially confusing was Joanna Lumley's appearance as Countess Chandra - a totally different character to the one she'd played in 'Trail'. The decision to turn Clouseau bad rankled with audiences as well. David Niven's final film, sadly.
Review of Curse of the Pink Panther
