With: Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Christopher Plummer, Catherine Schell, Burt Kwouk, Graham Stark, Peter Arne, André Maranne, Grégoire Aslan, Peter Jeffrey, David Lodge
Peter Sellers returned to play Inspector Clouseau after an 11-year absence (and after the ill-fated 1968 movie Inspector Clouseau with Alan Arkin in the role). It Sellers's third time in the role, and he would go on to play it three more times, including the posthumous, patchwork Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), which was made up largely of outtakes and deleted scenes. In The Return of the Pink Panther, the pink diamond has been stolen again. Clouseau, who has been demoted to beat cop by the rage-filled Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), is called in to investigate and departs for Lugash. His attempts to solve the case are interrupted, both by his own bungling and by what appears to be a mysterious assassin. Meanwhile, master thief Sir Charles Litton (Christopher Plummer) realizes he has been framed for the theft and sets out to clear his name. With Blake Edwards at the helm (and co-writing the screenplay), this movie has a generous helping of slapstick and jokes, and, thanks to Sellers's skill, they are still funny today. (I loved these movies as a kid.)
Kino Lorber released the movie on a new 4K and Blu-ray set for 2026, featuring a new 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative, with a nice array of bonuses. We get a commentary by Jason Simos of the Peter Sellers Appreciation Society, three featurettes: "A Bit of Passion and Lots of Laughs with Catherine Schell" (21:48), "Production Designer Peter Mullins on Making the Pink Panthers" (28:03), and "The Return to Laughter: 1975" (8:21), plus three theatrical trailers, four TV spots, four radio spots, and trailers for seven Pink Panther movies and the Sellers film The Party.
