You may have forgotten, but before he became Oscar's lovable Furby, Roberto Benigni tried to fill the shoes of the British comic actor Peter Sellers in Blake Edwards' "Son of the Pink Panther" (1993). But playing the illegitimate offspring of Inspector Clouseau (Sellers) left even the usually irrepressible Benigni flat-footed.
The film's failure can be put down to it simply being a bad idea. As hard as he tried, Benigni was too often over the top, with the gags being more goofy slapstick than rising out of Clouseau's particular bumbling dim-wittedness.Edwards and Sellers were the two men most responsible for the success of "The Pink Panther" series, but the pair reportedly had an uneasy relationship at best, and a rivalry developed over who should get the most credit for the films' popularity.
Edwards' continuation of the series with "Son" was seen by some as an attempt -- a failed one -- to show that he was the comic genius behind the films. The film illustrates that the two of them probably needed each other more than they thought.
There were seven "Panther" films altogether, including "Son" and "The Trail of the Pink Panther," which was essentially a hodgepodge of outtakes strung together as a film. It was released in 1983, three years after Sellers' death from a heart attack at the age of 54. Now four of the best of the series -- "The Pink Panther" (1963), "A Shot in Dark" (1965) "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" (1976) and the last real collaboration of Sellers and Edwards, "The Revenge of the Pink Panther" (1978) -- are out on DVD (MGM Home Entertainment; $24.95 each), after having been released on videotape in letterbox form last year.
More than 20 years later (30 in some cases), the "Panther" movies hold up -- hilariously. Of course, neither Sellers nor Edwards probably realized what they had on their hands when they started making "The Pink Panther," an ensemble comedy-caper movie starring David Niven, Robert Wagner, Capucine and Claudia Cardinale. The inept Clouseau character is meant to supply most of the comedy.
Niven plays a sophisticated jewel thief (Sir Charles Lytton) the poor inspector pursues but never comes close to catching. The Pink Panther? Well, that's actually a priceless gem that Lytton is out to steal. But the real stealing in this picture is done by Sellers, with his impeccable comic timing, despite having less screen time than other cast members.
In the second film, "A Shot in the Dark," Inspector Clouseau and Sellers' comic genius were brought to the forefront. Edwards, who produced and directed the film, also co-wrote the screenplay with a comedy writer who would later come up with some head-spinning ideas, William Peter Blatty, author of "The Exorcist."
"A Shot in the Dark" is filled with one sight gag after another (Clouseau at a nudist camp is priceless). It also introduced the character of Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), the inspector's nervous superior. Dreyfus would find himself frustrated by Clouseau in subsequent films.
When Sellers returned to play Clouseau more than 10 years later, his numerous disguises were often the highlights of his films. This was a trademark of the actor, who played three roles in Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove," including the title role and the president of the United States. In "Revenge" alone his Clouseau impersonates the vertically challenged Toulouse-Lautrec, a rickshaw driver and a Swedish herring fisherman.
But Sellers often wasted his talents on turkeys like "The Blockhouse" (1974), where he played six roles, or "The Great McGonagall" (1974), where he played Queen Victoria. Remember either film? No, and it's probably better for your brain cells that you don't. Bad choices were often the case in Sellers' later career.
Sellers made his mark in the '50s on the legendary BBC radio series "The Goon Show" and then starred in a number of terrific comedies, including "I'm All Right Jack" and "The Mouse That Roared." Besides "Strangelove," in the '60s and early '70s Sellers was also known for those swinging comedies, "What's New Pussycat?" "After the Fox," "Casino Royale" and "I Love you Alice B. Toklas."
Except for the success of the "Pink Panther" series, most of Sellers' '70s films are forgettable with one notable exception -- the satirical "Being There" (1979), for which he received his second best actor Oscar nomination (after "Dr. Strangelove").