The Pink Panther (1963)

Posted By: TinyBear
Date: Aug. 4, 2012

The Pink Panther (1963)
BRRip 480p - TinyBearDs | MKV | 848 x 360 | x264 600kbps 23.976fps | HE-AACv2 64kbps 2CH
Language: English | Subtitle: English/Czech/French/Spanish/German/Italian/Portuguese/Danish/Swedish/Greek/Serbian/Slovenian/Polish/Romanian Included | 115min | 548.63MB | 3% Recovery
Genre: Comedy | Crime | Family | Nominated for Oscar. Another 6 wins & 5 nominations
IMDb Rating: 7.2/10 (22,897 users)

Director: Blake Edwards
As a child, Princess Dala is given, by her father, the largest diamond in the world, in which if you stare into it can be seen a "Pink Panther" hence the name. However, now as a young woman, rebels in her home country have seized power and are demanding the return of the jewel. Dala relaxes on holiday in an exclusive skiing resort but noted British playboy, Sir Charles Lytton is in town. He is secretly "The Phantom" - infamous jewel thief who has eyes on the Pink Panther. Charles's playboy nephew George follows to the resort in an attempt to steal it and blame it on "The Phantom", not knowing that it's his uncle. On the Phantom's trail is Inspector Jacques Clouseau, from France, and his wife who, unknowingly to Jacques, is the lover of Charles and helper in the Phantom's crime. Jacques tries to stop the attempts but he is so clueless that when several attempts are made at a fantasy-dress party…

An IMDb Review: Elegance in advance of slapstick:
It is said correctly that the first two Pink Panther movies, this and "A Shot in the Dark," are more sophisticated and for adults, compared with the later series of films that began ten years later, which are more blatant slapstick and somewhat juvenile. The latter are more purely entertaining, because they cause people (even adults) to break out and laugh, whereas the humor here is more elegant and less loud, not to say it is not very good. Still, I rate the original "Pink Panther" film very highly because of its own brand of entertainment and humor, and I put it above most of its successors ("Returns" and "Strikes Again" are at least as good, but I think most people would agree that with the end ones things go downhill).

Clouseau is one of the five main characters in the film, but he is only the fourth most prominent. It might be said that David Niven as the many-times-over thief Sir Charles Litton is the most prominent, followed by Claudia Cardinale as Central Asian Princess Dala, owner of the Pink Panther diamond that is the bait to be stolen, but I would argue that Clouseau's wife Simone (played by Capucine) is as at least equal to Sir Charles, if not more prominent. After all, she is effectively a double agent — Clouseau's wife, while aiding and abetting Sir Charles — and she even has a fling with Sir Charles's nephew George Litton. Two different affairs, but all of an extremely classy and gorgeous woman, just like Claudia Cardinale, and she seems to like all three men equally. Within her romances and the intrigue of the plot there is lots of hotel bedroom-to-bedroom back and forth and hiding, etc. Simone's humor, combined with her good bearing, is great, and she is the highlight of the film to me.

Clouseau's bumbling and klutziness is there, just less-pronounced, less loud and dominant. The film flows well, with good dialogue and comedy, and elegant settings of upscale hotels and fancy parties. The wit and humor are perhaps not described as subtle, but just less loud and more intelligent and refined than that of the later films. It seems that many comedies have idiotic, goofy characters, to such an extent that they may not be funny, but in this film the five main characters are urbane and smooth. Even Sellers has that bearing, while being a klutz too. But sometimes the presence of such more refined characters does not matter if the people are not appealing and the comedy is not funny. Here, however, the characters are definitely very appealing and poised, within a well-written good script, making for a good chemistry.

There is a great scene in which Sir Charles attempts to seduce the princess, who is laying stomach down on a tiger skin. The verbal reigns over the slapstick there, as in many other parts of the movie. Still, the ending is not without the latter, and it has a good ironic twist. Yes, there will be more slapstick to come…
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