Qt3 Movie Club #22: The Return of the Pink Panther

[Houngan]

It was hard deciding which way to go, until I asked someone at work whose opinion I usually respect what the best Pink Panther movie was. She said "You mean Steve Martin?" Obviously the world is woefully ignorant of Peter Sellers.

"Return" was the most profitable movie, I believe, and is a bit faster than the earlier installments, but not as over-the-top as the last few, so it's probably the best representative.

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The_Ret...0?trkid=174833

Watch Instantly doesn't hurt, either. If you like it, put The Party in your queue.

H.

[Christien Murawski]

At first when I saw the title I thought, "Huh?"

After a few moments I warmed to it, and I'm excited to see it again. It is an especially neat choice so close to Father's Day. I just remember my dad being totally nuts for the Pink Panther films. We watched a couple together, and I didn't always get it, but it so delighted me to see him laugh like that. I don't know which film it's from, but I remember in particular this scene in an elevator (maybe) where Clouseau is doing this Godfather thing and choking on cotton balls. My dad could not stop crying he was laughing so much. There's just something about witnessing that at a young age.

To this day whenever we are around each other and see a dog one of us is bound to say, in a crappy French accent, "Does your dog bite?"

Plus, there is a nice juxtaposition between this and the last French film.


-xtien

[Rimbo]

I have been able to do the entire "How was I to know he was the bank manager?" scene from memory since I was, oh, 11 years old or so. EXCELLENT choice. Can't wait to see it again.

[Houngan]

I'm hoping there are folks who haven't seen the Sellers Pink Panthers. I waffled since we're all pretty old and sharp for the internet average, but I watched the first few minutes of the first Cato fight and couldn't resist. Just his expressions alone are enough to get me going.


Second choice was Blake Edwards' S.O.B., which is obscure and disturbing (Julie Andrews naked,) but this was going to be a lot easier on everyone.

H.

[Houngan]

At first when I saw the title I thought, "Huh?"

After a few moments I warmed to it, and I'm excited to see it again. It is an especially neat choice so close to Father's Day. I just remember my dad being totally nuts for the Pink Panther films. We watched a couple together, and I didn't always get it, but it so delighted me to see him laugh like that. I don't know which film it's from, but I remember in particular this scene in an elevator (maybe) where Clouseau is doing this Godfather thing and choking on cotton balls. My dad could not stop crying he was laughing so much. There's just something about witnessing that at a young age.

To this day whenever we are around each other and see a dog one of us is bound to say, in a crappy French accent, "Does your dog bite?"

Plus, there is a nice juxtaposition between this and the last French film.


-xtien

I love them for exactly the same reason. The elevator scene was in the next one, Strikes Again, which is the one with the death ray and the biting dog. I chose this one because it isn't quite as over-the-top as that one, and it was on Watch Instantly.

H.

[Dave Long]

The cotton balls Godfather scene is in Revenge. We just watched it with the kids last night on Netflix instant. That film is slower and more disjointed than the others, but there are some good scenes that save it. Dreyfus chasing Clouseau toward the end and Clouseau shouting, "It's me!" and Dreyfus continues shooting at him... "I know!"

Other good ones... Kato and Clouseau trying to break into the club, Kato with the coke bottle glasses and all the hilarity that ensues from those things, and Clouseau in the Swedish sailor getup faking a swedish accent while faking a french accent as a British actor with an inflatable bird on his shoulder and a peg leg he gets stuck in the dock. Then he does a palm reading... in Swedish! lol!

Also... Dyan Cannon... who's no Elke Sommer, but still hot!

Return is very good, but Strikes Again and A Shot in the Dark are probably the best of them. Strikes again has one of my favorite comedic scenes in any of the films... the parallel bars.

[Jon Rowe]

Put this in my queue, I remember seeing these films when I was really young. I am happy to go back and watch this one again.

I am a HUGE fan of Peter Sellers... so odds are... I am going to like it.

[Christien Murawski]

Boy, what a disappointment. I'm pretty bummed.

I watched this last night, getting pretty excited as I settled in during the standard opening heist bit. I had forgotten this opening and how much I like the details of those things. It's a nifty switch to get that right up front when the standard structure of a heist film is to build up to that.

Beyond that though I was appalled by how clumsy the film was. The humor in the film is all gags. All winking at the camera and 'har-har' without any actual laughter. Obvious and tired and essentially humorless. Clumsy physical gags. That whole glue/phun scene is a perfect example. Not a creative or nuanced moment in the lot. I felt like I was watching a Mr. Bean video.

That word will suffice actually. Clumsy. It's not that I object to the character being clumsy. I knew that going in. What I didn't expect was how clumsy the film itself was going to be, how it was going to equate clumsy with being funny. The two are not the same.

As the end nears, the girl's laughter becomes a relief. She's the only one who seems to see reality. At first she annoyed me, because nobody else was getting it. They were all just pretending and I thought she should be playing the same game. But by the time he buys her a drink I found her a relief because at last I felt I could identify with somebody.

Finally, I got really uncomfortable with the "my little yellow friend" stuff. Can we talk about that? I'm loathe to because I don't want to drag political correctness into this, but I just don't think we can overlook/ignore it. It's just embarrassing at first, but then we get to "nearly blew his little yellow skin off" and it goes beyond embarrassing. I'm open for rebuttals here.

Maybe I should have watched it with my dad.

This made me sad.


-xtien

[Rimbo]

Yeah, I hate to admit it, but this is not as good of a movie as I remembered. It's saved by Christopher Plummer, honestly. There are scenes I remember and adore, but I remember them so well that the impact is lost.

IMDB's "trivia" says that the actress was breaking character when she was laughing in those scenes. But they decided that it worked and kept the takes.

*sigh*... oh well. Not as good as I remembered.

[Christien Murawski]

IMDB's "trivia" says that the actress was breaking character when she was laughing in those scenes. But they decided that it worked and kept the takes.

I think I could believe that. It didn't seem like she was laughing because it was funny though. It seemed like she was laughing because it was ridiculous. But this may have been me projecting.


-xtien

[Rimbo]

That's just the greatness of Peter Sellers, though. While the role and the scenes are crap, he plays the role completely seriously.

[Christien Murawski]

This does put me in the mood to watch Dr. Strangelove again. What you said about the actress breaking reminds me of the Russian ambassador in the war room clearly struggling not to lose it.


-xtien

"I must confess. You have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor."

[John Sansker]

Which one had the scene with the motel desk clerk?

Clouseau "Does your dog bite?"
Clerk "No"
Clouseau goes to pet dog, growling, attempted biting.
Clouseau "I thought you said your dog does not bite"
Clerk "That is not my dog"


First time I can remember my dad laughing out loud.
Cause, hey, that is pretty fucking funny when ya get down to it.




Fuck Steve Martin

[Houngan]

Boy, what a disappointment. I'm pretty bummed.

I watched this last night, getting pretty excited as I settled in during the standard opening heist bit. I had forgotten this opening and how much I like the details of those things. It's a nifty switch to get that right up front when the standard structure of a heist film is to build up to that.

Beyond that though I was appalled by how clumsy the film was. The humor in the film is all gags. All winking at the camera and 'har-har' without any actual laughter. Obvious and tired and essentially humorless. Clumsy physical gags. That whole glue/phun scene is a perfect example. Not a creative or nuanced moment in the lot. I felt like I was watching a Mr. Bean video.

That word will suffice actually. Clumsy. It's not that I object to the character being clumsy. I knew that going in. What I didn't expect was how clumsy the film itself was going to be, how it was going to equate clumsy with being funny. The two are not the same.

As the end nears, the girl's laughter becomes a relief. She's the only one who seems to see reality. At first she annoyed me, because nobody else was getting it. They were all just pretending and I thought she should be playing the same game. But by the time he buys her a drink I found her a relief because at last I felt I could identify with somebody.

Finally, I got really uncomfortable with the "my little yellow friend" stuff. Can we talk about that? I'm loathe to because I don't want to drag political correctness into this, but I just don't think we can overlook/ignore it. It's just embarrassing at first, but then we get to "nearly blew his little yellow skin off" and it goes beyond embarrassing. I'm open for rebuttals here.

Maybe I should have watched it with my dad.

This made me sad.


-xtien

Hmm, I was always charmed by the clumsiness, everyone just orbits around Sellers while he does his thing. Something of the nature of ensemble casts, which is what the non-regulars were in these films.

Although, to be fair I haven't rewatched it entirely yet, so it may not have aged for me either.

H.

[Christien Murawski]

Let me know how you think it stands up, especially in relation to the other movies. I still think I want to give a couple other Pink Panthers a try.


-xtien

[Houngan]

I watched it today, and I have to admit, it was a letdown. I hadn't seen these in a long time, and I couldn't recall which was which, so I went with reviews to determine the better representative movie amongst them. I don't think this was it.

The scenes that were thought out and well-shot were great, don't get me wrong, but a lot of other scenes were obviously filler culled from the cutting room.

SPOILERS

The initial Cato fight was great, had me laughing out loud, which doesn't really happen with comedy movies being made today. The heist scene was fantastic, too, and I get the distinct impression that somebody handed Blake Edwards a great script for a caper movie, and he glommed it into the franchise.

Some classic one-off scenes as well, like leaning back into the pool, the lightbulb gag, etc. Sellers can sell "I'm just trying to get through this!" better than anyone. Ultimately it was disjointed, though.

I'm going to queue Strikes Back and some of the earlier ones, see where my memory has abandoned me.

H.

[Rimbo]

"Strikes Back" and "A Shot in the Dark" are the other two that I remember fondly. I don't think I've even seen the original.

I don't think you made a bad choice, Houngan. I think this is just a case of all of us remembering it far more fondly than it really deserved.

[Jasper Phillips]

Comedy is always a risky pick. I found it amusing (though not as much as I remembered) mostly because Peter Sellers does the role so well, but my wife just didn't like it.

[Christien Murawski]

I agree with Rimbo. I'm glad I saw this even though it bummed me out a bit. One of the things I love about this club is having a little push to try something out I otherwise might not, or returning to something I've been curious about but would never get back to on my own because I've got such a backlog of new stuff I want to watch (queue movies as well as DVDs that have been in shrinkwrap for years).

Disappointment doesn't mean it was a bad pick. Not at all.

Shot in the Dark is a sequel. Huh. I've been going around thinking that it was the original for all this time. Silly.

I've been perusing his bio a bit (because I love him so) and I forgot he was in The Ladykillers. I've been meaning to see that for so many years. Any of you familiar with that film?


-xtien

[Rimbo]

Also, "The Party" was a classic Sellers/Blake Edwards collab. I saw that one as recently as grad school, and I remember it held up pretty well still.

"Num nums. Birdieeeeeeee num nums."

[madkevin]

I've been perusing his bio a bit (because I love him so) and I forgot he was in The Ladykillers. I've been meaning to see that for so many years. Any of you familiar with that film?

The original Ladykillers is a classic of the Ealing Studios fifties comedies, along with the amazing Kind Hearts & Coronets (easily Alec Guiness' finest hour), The Lavender Hill Mob and The Man In The White Suit. I love the movie, but I generally like British humour, especially the darker kind on display in The Ladykillers.

The Coen's remade it with Tom Hanks, switching the setting to America. It's not terrible, but the original is way better.

[Tman]

It wasn't that painful to watch, but I'll agree it doesn't age well. Gag after running gag, and I really didn't laugh a lot. I probably watched this as a kid and had a riot. I think we've all become jaded in our old age ;-)

[Joe O'Malley]

I'm hoping there are folks who haven't seen the Sellers Pink Panthers. I waffled since we're all pretty old and sharp for the internet average, but I watched the first few minutes of the first Cato fight and couldn't resist. Just his expressions alone are enough to get me going.


Second choice was Blake Edwards' S.O.B., which is obscure and disturbing (Julie Andrews naked,) but this was going to be a lot easier on everyone.

H.

I watched SoB again recently. I did not find it nearly so funny as I remembered it.

[Houngan]

I guess Blake Edwards is like Mel Brooks, humor for children and adults three decades ago. I still think when Sellers is doing his thing he's still hilarious, but the editing and script couldn't keep him fed.

H.

[Rimbo]

Yeah. Come to think of it, is it just me, or have movie comedies just gotten more sophisticated? Mel Brooks doesn't age so well largely because his fart jokes have been upstaged by the likes of Parker & Stone. I mean, once you've seen gay puppet sex, cowboys farting around the campfire doesn't quite have the same impact.

[Talisker]

Yeah. Come to think of it, is it just me, or have movie comedies just gotten more sophisticated? Mel Brooks doesn't age so well largely because his fart jokes have been upstaged by the likes of Parker & Stone. I mean, once you've seen gay puppet sex, cowboys farting around the campfire doesn't quite have the same impact.

I don't know that I'd call that more "sophisticated". It's definitely more something, though.

[Rimbo]

ehhh... yes, indeed, "sophisticated" maybe isn't quite the right word...

Well, OK, how about this. Take the 40-Year Old Virgin. Can you what that movie would've been like if made 15 years ago or more? I can't imagine the material would've been even remotely as frank nor as sensitive to the characters.

[madkevin]

Preston Sturges says hi.

[Hammet]

The original Ladykillers is a classic of the Ealing Studios fifties comedies, along with the amazing Kind Hearts & Coronets (easily Alec Guiness' finest hour),

Gonna go look for Kind Hearts & Coronets. If anything could even be considered to be on the same, let alone higher, level than Guiness as George Smiley I need to see it before I die.

Yeah I found both the Pink Panther movies and Mel Brooks movies absolutely hilarious 25-30 years ago and they have not aged well. Unlike, for example, the Monty Python movies.

The racism, yes. I think why I found it hilarious at the time was that it spun on the stereotypical racism found in almost all earlier, esp British crime novels and that Closeau believed in their outrageous descriptions of other nationalities. Esp since the tone is both admiring and mindbogglingly insulting. Cato is, to Clouseau, capable of cunning elaborate schemes created with his "twisted yellow mind". Which, to me, made both Closeau and the Agatha Christies look ignorant and stupid. Which I found funny. No idea where I'm going with this other than yes, Pink Panther movies contain lots of racist jokes.

The Comic Strip did a Enid Blytons Five parody which captures good oldfashioned British stereotyping beautifully called Five Go Mad On Mescaline. The first episode was Five Go Mad In Dorset but that title isn't as good. It's on youtube.

[Joe O'Malley]

I'm not so sure. I also recently re-watched Victor/Victoria and laughed my ass off. It was jsut a few years after SoB.

I think the thing that puts me off older comedy is when it is too reliant on cultural references. The 70s we a long time ago--I don't find a lot of stuff that was funny then to be funny now. My best guess would be if they'd gone for straight comedy or period comedy from a period no one really remembered (Like with Victor/Victoria) it goes okay.