The second of the Pink Panther series, this is considered by most critics as the best of the lot, and for once I have to agree with them. It's almost a one-man show with Peter Sellers ("Inspector Jacques Clouseau") exhibiting his comedy talents, most of it the slapstick variety as he constantly runs into things and-or falls down. Some of that gets tiresome after a while but most of it works and gives the viewer a lot of laughs.
It was nice, after these years, to see the production in 2.35 widescreen. It made the photography a lot more impressive than the formatted-to-TV VHS. I had never realized how nice this movie looked. The sets in here - mainly George Sanders' apartment interior - were good, too, and Elke Sommer was always nice to ogle back in the '60s.
Sellers' boss, played by Herbert Lom, wasn't that funny but Burt Kwoul as "Kato," Clouseau's "trainee" is fun to watch in all his sneak attacks. Sanders was funny, too, and he didn't have to say a word to get a laugh. Just the deadpan looks on his face as he watched "Clouseau" bumble around were priceless.
This is a bit slow in the beginning, but once it picks up it's funny the rest of the way. From a film history angle, it was interesting to see how morals had begun to change and how rules were becoming relaxed. In here, director Blake Edwards went out of his way to show cleavage of Sommer and there was an implied sex scene you wouldn't have seen a decade earlier. Also, in the end - although played for laughs - it turns everyone was having an affair with somebody.
