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Pinkie Pie
06-04-2005, 02:29 AM
Who's seen them? I love the movies, they're some of my favorite movies ever... Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom are hilarious in the movies.

For those not familiar with the movies, the more widely known cartoon character was inspired by the movies, not vice versa. The original movie is about a famous thief known only as The Phantom (David Niven) attempting to steal the famous Pink Panther diamond (so named because of a flaw in the diamond that resembles a leaping panther when held up to the light).

A French inspector, Jaques Clouseau (Peter Sellers) has been trying to catch The Phantom his entire career, and thinks that he can finally catch him in the act of attempting to steal the diamond. The problem? Clouseau is a complete idiot and a clutz.

The later movies introduced Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), who is driven insane by Clouseau's incompetence and makes repeated but unsuccessful attempts to kill the inspector. (One of the movies, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, was devoted entirely to this plot point).

There's a new rendition of the original movie coming out soon with Steve Martin playing the part of Clouseau, which I want to see... but Steve Martin's going to have a huge role to fill... Peter Sellers has defined Clouseau so completely that it's difficult to imagine anyone else playing the part.

Zelphiel
06-04-2005, 02:35 AM
I didn't know they were making a new one. Anyway... yeah, I've seen the old ones. Funny funny movies.

The Deity
06-04-2005, 02:37 AM
I haven't seen any. I did watch the cartoon show though.

Pinkie Pie
06-04-2005, 02:46 AM
I recommend looking them up if you can find them... they're great.

The cartoons are pretty different from the movies, aside from the opening credits of the movies, there's not really any similarities (the cartoon character is used in the opening credits... it's interesting seeing him in the first movie to see how he's changed since the original concept).

Recently there was a boxed set released that have all but one of the movies that starred Sellers (The Pink Panther, A Shot in the Dark, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, The Revenge of the Pink Panther, and The Trail of the Pink Panther). Very good movies, and I just got The Return of the Pink Panther today, the one missing from the boxed set. It was hilarious, although I wish that Niven had been in the movie rather than his character being re-casted. (Plus there's the gaping plot hole that occurs from giving his character a wife other than Clouseau's ex-wife... she has an affair with him in the first movie, and this fact isn't even mentioned in Return)

Also, for those that have seen it, what did you think of Trail? I liked some of the scenes in it... Herbert Lom is just as good as in the other movies... but on the whole it was a pretty crappy movie, especially when you consider that a good half of the footage from that movie was taken from deleted scenes or the other movies...

Kaffee
06-04-2005, 04:15 PM
The old Pink Panther movies were awesome, and I'm not sure if Martin can fill Sellers's shoes, but it should be interesting to find out.

Leknaat
06-04-2005, 08:22 PM
I'm looking forward to the new movie. I loved the old Pink Panther movies. I used to watch the cartoon as well^_^