Blake Edwards obituary | Film | The Guardian Blake Edwards obituary Film director best known for the Pink Panther, Breakfast at Tiffany's and 10 Blake Edwards with Julie Andrews in 2000. His maverick spirit and ego made him an uneasy partner with Hollywood studios. Photograph: Uppa Thursday 16 December 2010 14.36 EST First published on Thursday 16 December 2010 14.36 EST Share on Messenger Close The film-maker Blake Edwards , who has died aged 88, will be best remembered as the creator of the Pink Panther films, and as the husband of the entertainer Julie Andrews. But Edwards was a third-generation show-business figure whose complex and controversial career spanned more than 50 years, initially as an actor and writer and subsequently as one of America's most prolific producer-directors, primarily concerned with the popular genres of comedy and musicals and with creating television series. Despite working in mainstream cinema, his maverick spirit and ego made him an uneasy partner with Hollywood studios. He famously savaged the hand that had fed him so well with S.O.B.

(1981), a raucous, vitriolic attack on Tinseltown. His sophisticated work drew strongly on his love of early cinema (his stepgrandfather had directed silent films), and on his own life and psychological problems (he wrote two movies with his psychoanalyst, Milton Wexler). He also reworked his own films and remade those of other directors. Edwards was born William Blake Crump in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His parents divorced when he was young and he moved to Los Angeles with his mother. He began work as an extra, partly thanks to his stepfather, Jack McEdward, a film production manager. During his early 20s he appeared in some decent movies, including A Guy Named Joe (1943), which gave him income and time to write. He created a radio series, Richard Diamond: Private Detective, for Dick Powell in 1948, and that year also wrote and starred in a modest western, Panhandle.

He followed this with the screenplay for another western, Stampede (1949), and then concentrated on screenplays for the actor-turned-director Richard Quine, including All Ashore (1953) and the racing drama Drive a Crooked Road (1954), which starred Mickey Rooney. Edwards then devised a sitcom for Rooney, called Hey, Mulligan (1955). Also in 1955, he cleverly updated My Sister Eileen for Quine, who had starred in the 1942 version. This bright musical introduced him to Jack Lemmon, one of many actors to feature regularly in Edwards's later films. Edwards then wrote and directed two films for the popular singer Frankie Laine, Bring Your Smile Along (1955) and He Laughed Last (1956). By the age of 35, Edwards had served a successful Hollywood apprenticeship. In 1957 he joined forces with Tony Curtis on their first movie together, Mister Cory, starring Curtis as a guy who uses the path of a crooked gambler to escape the Chicago slums.

Edwards enjoyed his first real commercial hit with the second world war comedy Operation Petticoat (1959), cleverly uniting Curtis with the actor's hero Cary Grant. This and two successful TV series, Peter Gunn (1958-61) and Mr Lucky (1959-60), led him into the most successful decade of his career. The 1960 Bing Crosby vehicle High Time (in which Crosby dresses as a woman – an early example of one of Edwards's fixations) was followed by the sparkling Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), an adaptation of Truman Capote's novel, starring Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard and Rooney. It compounded his longterm relationship with Henry Mancini, whose score and theme song, Moon River, both won Oscars. They collaborated from High Time onwards, not least in the Panther movies, on a total of more than 20 movies. Until 1962, Edwards had mainly worked on comedies and musicals, so he seemed an unlikely choice to direct Days of Wine and Roses, in which Lee Remick and Lemmon played a married couple whose descent into alcoholism is depicted in harrowing detail.

Often recalled as his best feature, it contains performances of great intensity and probes darker corners than any of his other films. He hit the jackpot with The Pink Panther (1963) and its first sequel, A Shot in the Dark (1964), with Peter Sellers as the bungling Inspector Clouseau. As the writer, producer and director of such hits, he could subsequently do as he wanted. The result was Hollywood's most expensive comedy to that date, The Great Race (1965), starring Curtis and Lemmon. This sprawling homage to silent cinema was dedicated to Laurel and Hardy. Although popular, it was not the box-office success its cost demanded. In 1967, Edwards revived the private eye character from his earlier TV series and directed the feature film Gunn (1967), a quirky thriller in which Craig Stevens reprised his role. The clever but protracted comedy The Party (1968) revealed Edwards's disillusionment with the movie world, and starred Sellers as a famous Indian actor who, when invited to a swish Hollywood soiree, totally wrecks it.

Apart from Edwards's marriage (after a divorce from the actor Patricia Walker) to Andrews in 1969, the decade had ended less auspiciously than it began. He devised an elaborate wedding present for Andrews in the form of a lyrical love/spy story, Darling Lili (1970), set during the first world war. Time has been kinder to it than contemporary critics and audiences. It was the first of his films to suffer studio interference. When both his western Wild Rovers (1971) and a thriller, The Carey Treatment (1972), were also re-edited, he and Andrews set up home in Switzerland and began to work in England. Another romantic spy drama, The Tamarind Seed (1974), enjoyed only modest success, so Edwards revived the Clouseau series with The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) and Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978). The first was highly successful, but the last suffered from Sellers's increasingly mannered performance.

Nevertheless, the director's rehabilitation seemed complete enough for the US to welcome him back, and he made the riotously successful 10 (1979), with Dudley Moore as a randy, middle-aged composer who grades his girlfriends numerically. Andrews co-starred, but it was Bo Derek who took the attention and the project was his greatest non-Panther hit. It allowed him extraordinary licence resulting in S.O.B., in which a suicidal director, played by one of his stalwarts, Richard Mulligan, is so dismayed by the response to a film that he revamps it as a porn flick. Edwards surrounded himself with other regular collaborators, headed by Andrews, who famously appeared topless, bringing an end to her wholesome Mary Poppins image. S.O.B. was described as tasteless. It was also a virulent and comic attack on the idiocies of showbusiness and a complex referral to both Edwards's past work and Hollywood itself. Edwards once more returned to movie history with Victor Victoria (1982), a triumphant revamping of a 1933 German film.

Andrews played a destitute singer who, with the connivance of a gay friend, poses as a man, impersonating a female singer. The film challenged the audience's notions of sexuality, not least through the hero (James Garner), who finds himself attracted to the (supposedly) male singer. It was an archetypal Edwards film with a glittering, stylish surface and a dark undertone. Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) and Curse of the Pink Panther (1983) enjoyed less acclaim, especially the former, which dredged up material from earlier films, after the death of Sellers in 1980, and constructed a movie around them. Edwards was now co-writing with his son Geoffrey, and they were joined by Wexler for The Man Who Loved Women, a reworking of a 1977 François Truffaut film. The project gave full rein to the director's concerns with death, psychoanalysis and sex. He resorted to his writing pseudonym, Sam O Brown, after an extremely unhappy period of work on the crime comedy City Heat, starring Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds, which he had been slated to direct.

He went on to direct Micki and Maude (1984) after the collapse of yet another project, then settled to reworking a Laurel and Hardy masterpiece, The Music Box (1932). The resulting film, A Fine Mess (1986), was to feature a version of the duo's great piano-moving sequence from the original film, but it was removed by the studio and the film stands as one indebted to silent cinema as a whole, not to a specific film. For a modest $1.5m, Edwards made the apparently autobiographical That's Life (1986), again co-written with Wexler. He described it as a belated follow-up to 10, with Lemmon playing a 60-year-old character. The film was shot at Edwards's Malibu home and starred Andrews as well as his daughter Jennifer (a regular performer in his films) and many other friends and collaborators. He enjoyed popular success by directing Blind Date (1987), in which Bruce Willis played an executive who arranges a business date, only to discover that she is dangerously incapable of holding her drink.

He then returned to television, directing Justin Case (1988) and a remake of Peter Gunn (1989). Of his final features, among the best was Sunset (1988), in which Willis played the silent movies western star Tom Mix opposite Garner's ageing Wyatt Earp. A delightful portrait of a lost Hollywood, combined with a factually based thriller, the film failed commercially. It was followed by the comedies Skin Deep (1989), infamous for its luminous condoms, and Switch (1991), starring Ellen Barkin, in which a chauvinist male is returned to earth as a woman. This complex, very funny movie showed that Edwards had retained his stylish, ironic and adult view of sexuality and relationships – a sophisticated attitude increasingly at odds with mainstream audiences. Once again aiming at popular appeal, he returned to Clouseau, directing Son of the Pink Panther (1993), which starred Roberto Benigni as the illegitimate son of the legendary inspector. Aged 73, Edwards then directed Andrews in a Broadway production of Victor/Victoria, which opened in 1995 and ran for more than 700 performances.

He was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2004 and had been preparing a stage musical based on the Pink Panther films. Andrews survives him, along with their children Amy and Jo, his stepdaughter Emma, and the children from his first marriage, Jennifer and Geoffrey. • Blake Edwards (William Blake Crump), film director, screenwriter and producer, born 26 July 1922; died 15 December 2010 Blake Edwards, director of the Pink Panther films, has died aged 88. We look back over his career in clips Published: 16 Dec 2010 The Pink Panther (1963) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends.

Error Inspector Clouseau travels to Rome to catch a notorious jewel thief known as "The Phantom" before he conducts his most daring heist yet--a princess' priceless diamond with one slight imperfection, known as "The Pink Panther." Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON TV a list of 25 titles created 18 Jun 2011 a list of 26 titles created 13 Aug 2012 a list of 48 titles created 15 Aug 2012 a list of 41 titles created 07 Oct 2013 a list of 21 titles created 21 Jun 2014 Title: The Pink Panther (1963) 7.2/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins & 6 nominations.

See more awards » Videos Charles Dreyfus, who has finally cracked over inspector Clouseau's antics, escapes from a mental institution and launches an elaborate plan to get rid of Clouseau once and for all. Director: Blake Edwards Inspector Jacques Clouseau investigates the murder of Mr. Benjamin Ballon's driver at a country estate. Director: Blake Edwards Inspector Clouseau is put on the case when the Pink Panther diamond is stolen, with the Phantom's trademark glove the only clue. Director: Blake Edwards 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X To prove that he still is strong and powerful, Philippe Douvier decides to kill Clouseau. Once news of his "death" has been announced, Clouseau tries to take advantage of it and goes undercover with Cato to find out who tried to kill him. Director: Blake Edwards Inspector Clouseau mysteriously disappears and a journalist attempts to uncover the mystery. New scenes are interspersed with old footage of Peter Sellers from the previous films. Director: Blake Edwards A clerical mistake results in a bumbling Indian film star being invited to an exclusive Hollywood party instead of being fired.

Director: Blake Edwards Inspector Clouseau disappears, and the Surete wants the world's second best detective to look for him. However, Clouseau's enemy, Dreyfus, rigs the Surete's computer to select, instead, the... See full summary » Director: Blake Edwards A string of robberies has occurred in Britain and it's up to Inspector Clouseau to catch them. Director: Bud Yorkin Charles Dreyfus encounters Jacques Gambrelli, who reminds him painfully of Inspector Clouseau, the man who drove him insane. With good reason: Gambrelli is Clouseau's son. Director: Blake Edwards A simple, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful businessman and an insider in Washington politics. Director: Hal Ashby Edit Storyline The trademark of The Phantom, a renowned jewel thief, is a glove left at the scene of the crime. Inspector Clouseau, an expert on The Phantom's exploits, feels sure that he knows where The Phantom will strike next and leaves Paris for Switzerland, where the famous Lugashi jewel 'The Pink Panther' is going to be. However, he does not know who The Phantom really is, or for that matter who anyone else really is...

Written by Graeme Roy <gsr@cbmamiga.demon.co.uk> A Madcap Frolic Of Crime and Fun See more » Genres: 20 March 1964 (USA) See more » Also Known As: La pantera rosa See more » Filming Locations: 4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)| Mono Color: Did You Know? Trivia Blake Edwards decided the title sequence would benefit from animation. The Pink Panther, meant to be a personification of the title jewel (a pink-hued diamond with a tiny flaw resembling a large cat), was created by David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng and chosen by Edwards from more than a hundred other panther sketches. See more » Goofs When Simone is holding George's graduation photo it has no border or white frame. Yet if you look very carefully when Charles hands it to her and after when he puts it under the ash tray on his night stand the photo has as a white frame border. See more » Quotes Gem dealer 1: As in every stone of this size, there is a flaw. Sultan: A flaw? Gem dealer 2: The slightest flaw, your excellency.

Gem dealer 1: If you look deep into the stone, you will perceive the tiniest discoloration. It resembles an animal. Sultan: An animal? Gem dealer 1: A little panther. Sultan: Yes! A pink panther. Come here, Dala. A gift to your father from his grateful people. Some day it will be yours. The most fabulous diamond in all the world. Come closer. See more » Crazy Credits The title animation reflects the functions of the credited persons, for instance, Pink Panther as the orchestra director (at the music credits), him before a photo camera (director of photography), the Phantom hand typing at the typewriter (screenplay). See more » Connections The Pink Panther (Franchise) - TV Tropes The Pink Panther You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share Timeline Think Pink! A comedy film franchise that spun off two animated ones . In its original form, it totaled nine films over 30 years. The first of them were directed and co-written by Blake Edwards and starred Peter Sellers . A 2006 reboot yielded two additional films.

The Films: The Pink Panther (1963): Sir Charles Lytton is a Gentleman Thief who operates under the identity of "The Phantom". Inspector Jacques Clouseau is a French detective who is trying to track him down in Switzerland before he can steal the prized treasure of the kingdom of Lugash, the Pink Panther diamond (a large gem so named because of a pink, panther-shaped flaw), from a visiting princess. Alas, Clouseau is such a fool that he is easily outsmarted by way of the combined forces of the Phantom, his nephew, the princess herself, and the Phantom's key accomplice...Clouseau's own wife. While the thieves were the focus of this film, Clouseau, as played by Peter Sellers , was the character the subsequent films were based around, starting with the Dolled-Up Installment ... A Shot in the Dark (1964): Clouseau, now single, is called to the aristocratic Ballon household to solve a murder. His judgment is immediately clouded by his infatuation with the prime suspect, Maria Gambrelli, even as more murders pile up around her.

His bungling drives his boss, Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), to homicidal madness. In the meantime, we also meet Cato Fong (Burt Kwouk), Clouseau's Chinese manservant who - on Clouseau's orders - keeps springing surprise martial arts attacks on him. Inspector Clouseau (1968): Sellers and Edwards opted out of this installment in which Clouseau, now played by Alan Arkin, investigates a bank robbery in England. Lacking any other recurring characters, this one is generally disregarded. The Return of the Pink Panther (1975): The Pink Panther is stolen from a Lugash museum, and Clouseau is called upon to seek it out once more. The evidence suggests the Phantom is responsible, but in fact Sir Charles Lytton has been framed. The film follows the parallel plots of Clouseau trailing Lytton's wife to Switzerland and Lytton's journey to Lugash to try and find out who actually did it. Dreyfus' attempts to kill Clouseau lands him in an institution at the end, leading directly into...

The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976): Three years later (though the film was only made one year after), Dreyfus is seemingly cured, but having to meet up with Clouseau before he can be released, the therapy is undone. Dreyfus escapes and organizes a criminal gang that kidnaps an inventor and his daughter. Forcing the former to build a Disintegrator Ray , Dreyfus threatens to unleash it on the world unless Clouseau is killed, and many countries immediately send assassins after Clouseau as he sets out to stop Dreyfus himself. Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978): Clouseau is now so famous that the head of the French mob, to prove his mettle to the American Mafia, puts out a hit on him - three actually, as Clouseau's luck saves him from death each time. The thing is, the third time appears to have been the charm to everyone else, leaving Clouseau to go undercover with Cato to figure out who wanted him dead. Oh, and Dreyfus is "cured" by the news of Clouseau's death, and set free again.

Revenge was unfortunately Peter Sellers' last performance as Clouseau, as he died in 1980. Edwards decided to continue the series with new lead characters. Trail of the Pink Panther (1982): Using mostly deleted scenes from Strikes Again and new footage with other regulars, Clouseau once again is called to Lugash to seek the stolen Pink Panther. When his plane vanishes, TV reporter Marie Jouvet (Joanna Lumley) decides to investigate his disappearance by interviewing those who knew him well, turning the second half of the film into a Clip Show . The film was shot alongside... Curse of the Pink Panther (1983): One year after Clouseau's disappearance, Dreyfus sabotages the search for a great detective to seek him out. Instead, the world's worst detective, Clifton Sleigh of New York City (Ted Wass), is put on the case. The audience learns the ultimate fate of Clouseau and the diamond, but Sleigh...not so much.

Son of the Pink Panther (1993): Ten years after the previous film's events, a Revision of what happened in A Shot in the Dark reveals Clouseau sired a son, Jacques Gambrelli ( Roberto Benigni ). One day on his beat in the south of France, his path accidentally crosses with those of the kidnapped Princess Yasmin of Lugash and Dreyfus all at once. Then Dreyfus realizes, given the father's track record, that it might not be such a bad idea to have this junior Clouseau track her down. This had the misfortune of being the final film of both Henry Mancini and Blake Edwards . In 2006, the franchise was rebooted under the original title The Pink Panther, with Steve Martin as Clouseau and Jean Reno as a new sidekick, Ponton. Aside from Clouseau, Dreyfus was the only character carried over from the original films (played by Kevin Kline in the first, and John Cleese in the second). This managed to yield one sequel in 2009. Despite their almost completely negative critical reception, the reboot films are remarkably faithful to the tone and spirit of the original films.

(Well, YMMV on that!) The Animated Characters: The first film had animated credits, produced by De Patie Freleng Enterprises , that featured a "literal" representation of the flaw in the eponymous diamond. This proved so popular with audiences that not only would all the subsequent films (including the reboot) have animated credits, the character — an anthropomorphic mute — was spun off into a series of animated shorts the following year, and warrants its own page . Because A Shot in the Dark did not involve the diamond itself, the Panther didn't feature in the credits (from Strikes Again onwards, he does even if the diamond isn't involved) but a caricature of Clouseau did. This went over well enough that a shorter-lived series of shorts focusing on " The Inspector " (voiced by Pat Harrington) and his sidekick Deux-Deux (a gendarme) was made in the mid-1960s. The Clouseau animated character appeared in the credits of all the subsequent films through Trail, always futilely pursuing the Panther. The Replacement Scrappy characters got their own animated equivalents for Curse and Son, and a Martin-styled Clouseau figure appears in the reboot.

Now has a character sheet ; there are loads and loads of them , so feel free to help it grow. The films feature examples of: All Asians Wear Conical Straw Hats : When Clouseau goes to Hong Kong in the third act of Revenge, he initially wears a stereotypical "Chinaman" disguise, conical straw hat and all. Amusing Injuries : Dreyfus in particular is prone to these. Animated Credits Opening : A series tradition. De Patie Freleng Enterprises (later Marvel Productions, Ltd.) produced them for most of the films, although Richard Williams ' studio did the honors for Return and Strikes Again. Animation Bump : Richard Williams ' Return and Strikes Again title sequences are a spectacular example of this trope. The Anticipator : Parodied when the late Peter Sellers plays Inspector Clouseau. Clouseau has directed his manservant Cato to attack him at random to sharpen his defensive skills. Though he knows Cato has The Determinator perseverance, only inconceivably foolish counters and stupefying luck have thwarted all of Cato's attempts.

This running gag is reversed in the reboots, in them Clouseau is the one trying to attack his partner and Ponton is the one anticipating and effortlessly fending them off, though in his case it's simply because Ponton actually knows how to defend himself. Anti-Hero : Clouseau. Also Dreyfus in A Shot in the Dark until his Faceï¿½Heel Turn , and again in the last four original-flavor films after two movies of straightforward villainy. He's strictly this in the reboot. Artifact Title : Strikes Again, Revenge, and Son don't involve the Pink Panther diamond at all, but they had to work in the animated character somehow... Artistic License ï¿½ Law : At the end of the first film, Sir Charles says that even though Clouseau has been falsely convicted of being the Phantom, he'll be set free again the next time the Phantom strikes. In reality, unless Sir Charles was caught during his next robbery and confessed to having framed Clouseau, nothing of the sort would happen. The police would almost certainly assume that either he had an accomplice who they failed to catch, or that the new theft was the work of a copycat.

Either way, Clouseau would still be sitting in jail. What the Fu Are You Doing? : Clouseau's impromptu "training sessions" with Cato. Writers Cannot Do Math : In Curse of the Pink Panther, Dreyfus' birth year is said to be 1900. This movie was made in 1983, placing this character in his early 80s. Never mind the fact that Dreyfus obviously doesn't look that old (Herbert Lom was only in his 60s), but then comes Son of the Pink Panther which takes place 10 years later, meaning in that movie he must be in his early 90s! Even if Dreyfus was in his early 80s in Curse..., shouldn't he be retired from the police force by then? You Look Familiar : Happens a lot in the original series. Graham Stark, a close friend and colleague of Sellers, appears in all the films from Shot through Son (save for Inspector Clouseau) as various characters, two of which, Hercule and Auguste Balls, are recurring.

Robert Loggia plays an American gangster in Revenge and the current head of the French mob in Trail and Curse. Joanna Lumley plays a reporter in Trail and a countess in Curse. Claudia Cardinale plays Princess Dala in The Pink Panther and Maria Gambrelli in Son of.... The latter is also a case of The Other Darrin (Maria was played by Elke Sommer in A Shot in the Dark). Alternative Title(s): Inspector Clouseau, Trail Of The Pink Panther, Curse Of The Pink Panther, Son Of The Pink Panther, The Pink Panther 2, The Pink Panther 1963, The Pink Panther 2006 :: Indexes :: The ‘Pink Panther’ hits Sonoma on June 13 | Sonoma Index-Tribune | Sonoma, CA Film review: ‘La La Land’ The ‘Pink Panther’ hits Sonoma on June 13 (1 of ) Despite only a supporting role in the 1963 original, Peter Sellers stole the show as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau. (2 of ) Daivd Niven, Name and Peter Sellars embrace elegance in comedy.

DAVID TEMPLETON INDEX-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER | June 9, 2016 Behind the Scenes Pink Panther at the Movies When? Monday, June 13 at 7:00 p.m. Where? Sebastiani Theatre, 476 1st St. E in Sonoma. How Much? Admission is $9. What else? The Vintage Film Series is presented as a fundraiser for the Sebastiani Theatre Foundation, founded in order to preserve, enhance and maintain the historic old movie theater. For additional information visit sebastianitheatre.org Blake Edwards’ “The Pink Panther,” released to an unsuspecting public in 1963, is best remembered as the film that gave the world Inspector Clouseau. Unstoppably clumsy, relentlessly persistent, the infuriatingly funny crime-stopper is arguably Peter Sellers most enduring and beloved character. But he was never intended to be a leading man. Initially, Clouseau was merely a supporting character, barely appearing in “The Pink Panther” at all, in comparison to the film’s actual star, David Niven. That’s right.

David Niven is the real star of “The Pink Panther,” playing one night only on Monday, June 13, 7 p.m., at the Sebastiani Theatre. Niven plays Sir Charles Litton, a suave diamond thief secretly known as “The Phantom,” who attempts to purloin a famous diamond known as “the pink panther.” Inspector Clouseau is the comic relief, a clownish stooge whose drive to capture “The Phantom” has more to do with the fact that the jewel thief is his wife’s lover, than it has to do with his commitment to the law. As for Sellers’ performance, there is barely a hint of the outrageous French accent that would come to define Clouseau. Sellers’ acting in the film is almost tame compared to what would come in subsequent sequels. In fact, those follow-up films – which completely dropped the Phantom and focused solely on Clouseau – were also a bit of a surprise. Not just to the studio, which didn’t make enough money from “The Pink Panther” to see a sequel as a good idea, but especially to the author of the follow-up, which was never intended to be a “Pink Panther” film at all.

“The Pink Panther,” though favorably reviewed by critics as a clever, tightly plotted crime drama with exotic settings, some tense moments of suspense, and some juicy sex scenes, was not a popular hit. Audiences loved the entertainingly sneaky musical score by Henry Mancini, and the delightful title sequence featuring an animated Pink Panther. But the film’s constant bed-hopping and sex-farce gags tended to confuse the audience, which thought the film was going to be a traditional crime caper. Director Blake (“Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “Victor/Victoria”) however, had become so fond of the Clouseau character, he actually had his next movie, “A Shot in the Dark,” re-written, turning it into a starring vehicle for Sellers and Clouseau. Based on a play by Harry Kurnitz, “A Shot in the Dark” originally had no such bumbling detective in it, though Sellers was already attached to appear in the movie adaptation. In a brazen act of creative bait-and-switch, the script was transformed into a “Pink Panther” sequel, whether the audience wanted one or not. In fact, “A Shot in the Dark” began filming months before the “Pink Panther” had even opened in theaters.

It turned out to be a brilliant move, since the sequel did cause a sensation, instantly turning Sellers, and his indelibly dense creation, into one of the most famous comic characters of all time. Contact David at david.templeton@sonomanews.com Behind the Scenes Pink Panther at the Movies When? Monday, June 13 at 7:00 p.m. Where? Sebastiani Theatre, 476 1st St. E in Sonoma. How Much? Admission is $9. What else? The Vintage Film Series is presented as a fundraiser for the Sebastiani Theatre Foundation, founded in order to preserve, enhance and maintain the historic old movie theater. For additional information visit sebastianitheatre.org Most Popular Stories A Shot in the Dark (1964) — The Movie Database (TMDb) Play Trailer Overview A Shot in the Dark is the second and more successful film from the Pink Panther film series where both animated and real life sequences are mixed. A cult classic from Blake Edwards based on the play L’Idiot by Marcel Achard and Harry Kurnitz.

Find out where to watch this on Featured Crew Blake Edwards, 88, director of ﬁlms comic and classic - The Boston Globe Obituaries Blake Edwards, 88, director of ﬁlms comic and classic Blake Edwards, shown on the set of ‘‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s,’’ specialized in comedy but also made (Paramount Pictures) Globe Staff / December 17, 2010 E-mail this article Add a personal message:(80 character limit) Your E-mail: Reprints | Text size – + Blake Edwards, the film director who brought old-school slapstick into the modern movie era with the “Pink Panther’’ series and who turned a tart novel about a Manhattan call girl into the elegant screen classic “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,’’ died at 88 yesterday at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif. The cause was complications of pneumonia; Mr. Edwards’s wife, actress Julie Andrews, and his children were at his side. During four decades as a director, Mr. Edwards established a freewheeling filmography notable as much for the acrid cynicism underneath the laughs as for the laughs themselves.

In effect, he gave the physical comedy of the silent era and the character-based humor of Hollywood forebears such as Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder a modern, neurotic spin. Late in life, especially, Mr. Edwards channeled his discontents with the film industry and his own life into hilarious cinema. His “S.O.B.’’ (1981) may be the most bitingly funny poison-pen letter to Hollywood ever made. If Mr. Edwards specialized in comedy, he could also make stark dramas, like 1962’s “Days of Wine and Roses,’’ an uncompromising tale of alcoholism.

The director had big hits — “Tiffany’s’’ (1961), “The Pink Panther’’ (1963), the midlife crisis comedy “10’’ (1979), the gender-bending farce “Victor/Victoria’’ (1982) — but he also presided over some of the more notorious bombs of his era, and he almost killed his wife’s career with their first two films together, “Darling Lili’’ (1970) and “The Tamarind Seed’’ (1974). Mr. Edwards found success in radio, television, and even on stage, with the successful 1995 Broadway adaptation of “Victor/Victoria.’’ The movies, however, were where he made his mark.

The “Panther’’ series, starring Peter Sellers’s bumbling Inspector Clouseau, became a personal franchise for the director, established with the first film and “A Shot in the Dark’’ in the early 1960s, arguably peaking with 1975’s “The Return of the Pink Panther’’ (“Do you ’ave a lee-sance for your minkey?’’). Mr. Edwards also worked multiple times with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis; and the director’s relationship with composer Henry Mancini extended over three decades and resulted in 12 Oscar nominations for music and four wins, including for “Moon River’’ in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.’’ The considerable pain in Mr. Edwards’s personal life took some time to surface in his films. Born William Blake Crump in Tulsa in 1922, he was abandoned by his father at an early age. His mother relocated to Los Angeles and married Jack McEdwards, a Hollywood assistant director. The young Blake escaped into movie theaters and the world of slapstick pioneers such as Laurel and Hardy and Buster Keaton.

Serving in the Coast Guard during World War II, he took a drunken dive into a shallow swimming pool and spent five months in an LA naval hospital with a broken neck. Even when he was in traction, comedy wasn’t far away: Mr. Edwards woke up one day to find Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the sitting president, at his bedside, asking in what battle he’d been wounded. A stint as a child actor energized Mr. Edwards for his postwar career. He wrote and starred in a low-budget 1948 Western called “Panhandle’’ and created the oddball singing-detective radio series “Richard Diamond.’’ Working his way into television in the mid-1950s, Mr. Edwards created the “Peter Gunn’’ series (1958), with its memorable Mancini opening theme, and “Mr. Lucky’’ (1959), both of which enjoyed healthy runs.

By then, he had made the leap to movie directing, after a fertile writing apprenticeship with director Richard Quine, best remembered for the delirious 1957 army comedy “Operation Mad Ball.’’ The similarly rambunctious “Operation Petticoat’’ (1959) starred Cary Grant and Tony Curtis and established the young director as an up-and-comer, and when John Frankenheimer was taken off “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,’’ Mr. Edwards had his chance. To him can be charged the film’s bittersweet chic, its softening of the original Truman Capote novel, its timeless veneration of star Audrey Hepburn, and the appalling racial caricature of Mickey Rooney’s “Japanese’’ neighbor. The next few years saw Mr. Edwards trying out different genres with “Days of Wine and Roses’’ and 1962’s darkly bizarre suspense film “Experiment in Terror.’’ With “The Pink Panther’’ and the superior “A Shot in the Dark,’’ though, the director found his métier: impeccably staged physical madness.

Jack Lemmon, in a 1991 Los Angeles Times article, said of his six-time helmer, “I don’t know a director better at visual comedy than Blake. He’s the best I’ve ever worked with at what is not shown on the screen.’’ Lemmon cited an example in the “Pink Panther’’ movies in which Clouseau moves off-screen into a hotel bathroom and is followed seconds later by the hurtling body of his manservant Cato (Burt Kwouk); sounds of mayhem and a jet of water ensue. “Ninety-nine percent of directors would have hired two stunt guys . . . it would not have been as funny,’’ said Lemmon. The working relationship with Sellers was legendarily fraught: Mr. Edwards once surmised the reason the two fought so much was that they were so alike. In addition to the “Panther’’ films, Mr. Edwards and Sellers collaborated on the outrageous 1968 comedy “The Party,’’ as politically incorrect a film as can be imagined — the star plays a clueless East Indian at a wild Hollywood bash — and probably the purest and funniest distillation of Mr. Edwards’s gift for comedy timing.

A 1953 marriage to Patricia Walker ended after 14 years and two children, Geoffrey Edwards and actress Jennifer Edwards. In the late 1960s, an indirect flirtation with squeaky-clean movie star Julie Andrews — she heard Mr. Edwards had said she had violets for pubic hair (or lilacs; the story varies) and sent him a bouquet of violets (or lilacs) in response — led to courtship, marriage, and two costly flops that soured the director on the American film industry. Front office intervention on “The Wild Rovers’’ (1971) and “The Carey Treatment’’ (1972) added insult to injury, and Mr. Edwards decamped to Europe for a few years, returning only to fire up the Clouseau series with Sellers again. Battles with the studio continued. At one point, an MGM executive flatly refused to green-light one of Mr. Edwards’s scripts. He bought it back and eventually turned it into “10,’’ the sex comedy (but not really) that returned him to the front ranks and briefly made star Bo Derek a household name.

His next film, “S.O.B.,’’ was frank revenge. It is a dark, crass, hilarious take-down of Tinseltown idiocies that climaxes with the unthinkable subversion of a topless Julie Andrews. “S.O.B.’’ offended all the right people and some of the wrong ones, but Mr. Edwards mended fences with the following year’s “Victor/Victoria,’’ one of the breeziest, most smartly written comedies of the 1980s. That was the high point: The rest of the decade saw the films slope off from antically funny (“Micki + Maude,’’ 1984) to the merely antic “Blind Date’’ (1987) and “Sunset’’ (1988). After one more ill-advised gender-bender (1991’s “Switch’’) and an attempt to restart the Clouseau franchise with Roberto Benigni (the unspeakable “Son of the Pink Panther,’’ 1993), Mr. Edwards called it a day.

The successful two-year run of “Victor/Victoria’’ on Broadway, with Andrews reprising her lead role(s), was a late-career highlight, and in 2004, Mr. Edwards was awarded an honorary Academy Award for his “extraordinary body of work.’’ The award was presented by Jim Carrey, a personal fan. Mr. Edwards’s only other Oscar nomination was for writing “Victor/Victoria.’’ He gloried in the nuances of timing; for him, comedy was close to ballet, especially during his peak middle years. You don’t remember scenes in his movies so much as you treasure precise moments: The gorilla in the sports car in “The Pink Panther’’; Holly Golightly and her cat in the rain; Sellers and the endlessly unrolling toilet paper in “The Party’’; the discreet crunch of Herb Tanney’s finger in the closet door in “Victor/Victoria.’’ Mr. Edwards liked big, messy pratfalls but he adored the tiny calamities far more, because he knew they built toward the kind of profound cosmic chaos that can only be faced with helpless laughter. In addition to his two children from his first marriage, Mr.

Edwards leaves daughters Amy and Joanna, two Vietnamese girls adopted during his second marriage; a stepdaughter, Emma Walton; seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Ty Burr can be reached at tburr@globe.com . Follow him on Twitter at @tyburr . Correction: Because of a reporting error, an earlier version of this obituary mistakenly credited actor Alex Karras with having his finger crunched in a closet door in a scene in “Victor/Victoria.’’ Actor Herb Tanney was the person who had his finger crunched. © Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company. Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Trail of the Pink Panther ( 1982 ) PG | Inspector Clouseau mysteriously disappears and a journalist attempts to uncover the mystery. New scenes are interspersed with old footage of Peter Sellers from the previous films.

Director: a list of 40 titles created 05 Sep 2011 a list of 23 titles created 24 Feb 2012 a list of 44 titles created 01 May 2014 a list of 27 titles created 3 months ago a list of 28 titles created 1 week ago Title: Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) 4.9/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Inspector Clouseau disappears, and the Surete wants the world's second best detective to look for him. However, Clouseau's enemy, Dreyfus, rigs the Surete's computer to select, instead, the... See full summary » Director: Blake Edwards 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X To prove that he still is strong and powerful, Philippe Douvier decides to kill Clouseau.

Once news of his "death" has been announced, Clouseau tries to take advantage of it and goes undercover with Cato to find out who tried to kill him. Director: Blake Edwards Charles Dreyfus, who has finally cracked over inspector Clouseau's antics, escapes from a mental institution and launches an elaborate plan to get rid of Clouseau once and for all. Director: Blake Edwards Inspector Clouseau is put on the case when the Pink Panther diamond is stolen, with the Phantom's trademark glove the only clue. Director: Blake Edwards Inspector Clouseau travels to Rome to catch a notorious jewel thief known as "The Phantom" before he conducts his most daring heist yet--a princess' priceless diamond with one slight imperfection, known as "The Pink Panther." Director: Blake Edwards Inspector Jacques Clouseau investigates the murder of Mr. Benjamin Ballon's driver at a country estate. Director: Blake Edwards A string of robberies has occurred in Britain and it's up to Inspector Clouseau to catch them. Director: Bud Yorkin Charles Dreyfus encounters Jacques Gambrelli, who reminds him painfully of Inspector Clouseau, the man who drove him insane.

With good reason: Gambrelli is Clouseau's son. Director: Blake Edwards Directors: Piers Haggard, Richard Quine, and 1 more credit » Stars: Peter Sellers, Helen Mirren, David Tomlinson A clerical mistake results in a bumbling Indian film star being invited to an exclusive Hollywood party instead of being fired. Director: Blake Edwards Edit Storyline The Pink Panther diamond is stolen once again from Lugash and the authorities call in Chief Inspector Clouseau from France. His plane disappears en-route. This time, famous French TV reporter Marie Jouvet sets out to solve the mystery and starts to interview everybody connected to Clouseau. Each interviewee Dreyfus, Sir Charles & Lady Lytton (an ex-wife of Clouseau), George Lytton, Hercule Lajoy (assistant in "A Shot In The Dark"), and Cato tell of their run-ins with Clouseau. She is also kidnapped by mobster Bruno Langlois who doesn't want Clouseau found but she continues and finds Clouseau Sr., Clouseau's father. Is Clouseau alive or is he dead?

Each interview has not-yet-seen or famous clips from the previous movies (since Peter Sellers has sadly passed away) as Marie continues to get a honest view or impression of the great French detective... Written by Lee Horton <Leeh@tcp.co.uk> The Official Site of Peter Sellers biography Master impressionist Peter Sellers was born Richard Henry Sellers on September 8, 1925 in Southsea, Hampshire, England. His parents, Agnes (Peg) and Bill Sellers, called him Peter in memory of his stillborn older brother. Sellers' parents were vaudeville entertainers, and at two days old, Sellers was carried onto the stage at King's Theatre. He spent his childhood traveling the vaudeville circuit, where he gained a fondness for entertaining and a desire to succeed beyond the realm of vaudeville. As a youth, Sellers attended Miss Whitney's School of Dancing in Southsea and Madame Vacani's Dancing Classes in London before enrolling in St Aloysius' Boarding and Day School for Boys. In the early 1940s, Sellers played the drums with touring jazz bands and also learned to play the banjo and ukulele.

Just after his 18th birthday, Sellers was drafted into the British Royal Air Force. He became an official RAF concert entertainer, and between 1943 and 1946, Sellers spent his free time performing comedy sketches and playing the drums for the other servicemen. After returning home from the war, Sellers pursued a position with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). By 1948 he had taken part in a few moderately successful auditions, none of which had resulted in an invitation to join the BBC. Having grown impatient for stardom, Sellers chose to take matters into his own hands. The comic made a telephone call to Roy Speer, producer of the BBC radio program, "Show Time." Sellers posed as a popular radio star and recommended himself to Speer. The producer, impressed with Sellers' "acting," gave him a spot on the air. Following his initial appearances on "Show Time," Sellers became a sought-after radio personality. On the long-running BBC radio show, "Crazy People" (later called "The Goon Show"), Sellers established himself as a master impressionist.

The show's zany collection of skits and Sellers' outrageous characters, including Major Bloodnok, Bluebottle and Henry Crun, have been recognized as the predecessors to Monty Python's Flying Circus. "The Goon Show" provided Sellers with a showcase for his improvisational skills as well as an outlet for life's frustrations. By the time "The Goon Show" was canceled in January 1960, Sellers had earned the exposure necessary to begin a career in film. After appearing in several British pictures, Sellers achieved success in the U.S. with "The Mouse That Roared" (1959). In 1960 he received international attention for his role in the film "The Millionairess," in which he co-starred with Sophia Loren. The incredibly versatile Sellers could slip in and out of characters with surprising speed. His genius was displayed through his depiction of multiple characters in "Mouse" as well as in several other films throughout his career. "Dr. Strangelove" (1964), considered Sellers' best film, earned him his first Oscar nomination in 1965.

In 1963, Sellers introduced the world to his best-known character, Inspector Clouseau, The Pink Panther's bumbling master of disguise. There were four sequels to this successful comedic film: A Shot in the Dark (1964), The Return of the Pink Panther (1974), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), and Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978). 1982's Trail of the Pink Panther is a posthumous collection of outtakes from the previous Panther films combined with new footage of other cast members. Sellers garnered his second Oscar nomination for the critically acclaimed film, Being There (1979), in which he played the child-like Chance, a gardener mistaken for an economic guru. Sellers' controlled performance was key to the success of this subtle comedy. The comedian's film career ended just before his death in 1980, with The Fiendish Plot of Fu Manchu. Though Sellers was a great success professionally, he did not fare as well in the personal realm. The son of an overprotective, controlling mother, Sellers often behaved like a child, throwing tantrums and demanding his wives' undivided attention.

Sellers married four times, to Anne Howe (Sept. 15, 1951), Britt Ekland (Feb. 19, 1964), Miranda Quarry (Aug. 24, 1970) and Lynne Frederick (Feb. 18, 1977). He also sired three children: Michael (April 2, 1954), Sarah (Oct. 16, 1957) and Victoria (Jan. 20, 1965). Sellers' wives and children were forced to suffer the effects of living with an obsessive perfectionist whose attentions focused mainly on himself and his career. After appearing in over 60 films as well as on numerous radio and television shows throughout his career, Sellers died of a heart attack on July 24, 1980. Displaying his unending sense of humor, the comic said good-bye with one last joke. At Sellers' request, the song "In The Mood" was played at his funeral, a tune that he hated.

According to biographer Roger Lewis, Sellers had told his son Michael that the song was "wonderfully inappropriate - hence, wonderfully appropriate - for solemn occasions."

Question: A Shot In The Dark was the follow-up to which successful 1963 comedy?
Answer: The Pink Panther