[00:00:00] Clip: It is against the law for you to play your musical instrument. The law? What? You say is against the law? Yes, unless you have a proper license. Uh, what kind of license? A license that permits the playing of any musical instrument in a public place for the purpose of commercial enterprise. Commercial enterprise? Yes. You play that thing, and people give you the money. People give the monkey the money. It is the same. Oh, not at all, monsieur. I am a musician, and the monkey is a businessman. He doesn't tell me what to play, and I don't tell him what to do with his money Do you have a rim? A rim? What? You said, do I have a rim? [00:00:56] Matthew: Hello, and welcome once again to the IMMP podcast from the Inter Millennium Media Project. My name is Matthew Porter. [00:01:04] Ian: And I am Ian Porter. [00:01:08] Matthew: I'm his dad, he's my son. And, uh, in case you're joining us for this episode and haven't heard us before, for every episode of the IMMP, I, I get Ian to watch some movie or TV show or listen to a record or some kind of media from my youth. So we find out what Ian thinks of it, often coming to it for the first time, what I think of it, sometimes coming back to it after decades, and we share that with you. Absolutely. And this time it's a little bit different in that, instead of just picking a movie or a TV series, we're actually going with a series of movies. That's why we're calling this episode, our discussion of The Pink Panther trilogy- [00:01:53] Ian: Yeah ... [00:01:54] Matthew: to focus on three specific movies of this weird, sprawling franchise of The Pink Panther movies. [00:02:03] Ian: In some ways this is a series that is impactful. It's one that I knew of. It's, it's part of the zeitgeist. So the idea of getting to finally watch these films was very fascinating. And so, yeah, we watched The Pink Panther, The Return of the Pink Panther, and Pink Panther Strikes Again. [00:02:22] Matthew: Um, wait a minute. That's, that is not my trilogy. [00:02:26] Ian: What? [00:02:28] Matthew: I mean, I've s- I've seen those movies, but to me, the Pink Panther trilogy is The Return of the Pink Panther, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, and Revenge of the Pink Panther. And the reason for that is those are the three movies that I saw when they came out, and I saw them in theaters, main- mainly because my dad was a big fan [00:02:50] Ian: Okay, audience. If you look very closely at our podcast, in the right light, you can see a distinct flaw in the shape of an overly complex and long franchise. This will of course be an nominative to the entirety of this episode, but it won't actually affect the plot as much as you think. [00:03:12] Matthew: So that means between the three of us... Wait a minute, now I'm confused by numbers. Between the two of us- ... we have four movies to talk about because we each have a different trilogy, and some of them overlap fortunately. [00:03:27] Ian: Yeah. They, they do. I'm delighted and surprised because I got to see The Pink Panther first. I actually watched these in order. Although I watched them in order and then learned that I didn't watch them in sequential order. [00:03:44] Matthew: Oh, you didn't? [00:03:44] Ian: Because I watched the first, the fourth, and the fifth film in The Pink Panther franchise here. [00:03:52] Matthew: Yeah. [00:03:54] Ian: Because The Pink Panther franchise is continual. From 1963 for years. [00:04:04] Matthew: And it has weird branches and attempts to, to expand it. [00:04:11] Ian: Yeah. [00:04:12] Matthew: But the original movie, The Pink Panther, was in many ways a fairly straightforward mystery, wasn't it? [00:04:20] Ian: Yeah. The original Pink Panther is a comedy mystery, and it is a comedy of errors very much in the style, to some extent more than I expected, of things like The Court Jester that we saw. An older film that has that similar comedy of errors, one person making their way through as chaos erupts around them kind of scenario. [00:04:45] Matthew: Oh, your comparison to The Court Jester is interesting because in a similar way it's also a parody of a particular kind of genre. A popular- Mm-hmm ... sort of movie. But taking it to ridiculous extremes or using its own tropes to comment on it. [00:05:00] Ian: Yeah, it's about , a thief stealing the Pink Panther, the largest diamond in the world. a huge gem with a pink flaw that makes it look like a leaping panther inside, which is the, the running reference as to why it's named that. But it's just a MacGuffin. The Pink Panther is the MacGuffin, this giant rock that gets traded back and forth. And there's this whole thing about our Inspector Jacques Clousteau, who is a bumbling fool of an investigator. His wife is having an affair with a thief who is there to steal the jewel, she's become a fence for the thief under the nose of her husband, and there are countesses and other famous people at a chateau in the Alps, I believe. It's this whole thing back and forth, but it's just a series of people going from room to room, having wild, crazy, slapstick moments. It's hard to almost describe because the narrative is just a constant series of bits. [00:06:05] Matthew: Yes. The, the plot, such as it is, is just a framework on d- on which to hang all of these bits and in which to plug in these tropes. And we've also got commentary. In addition to the bumbling police inspector, we have the gentleman jewel thief in the form of David Niven, one of the coolest guys- Yes ... ever to be on film. We saw him recently in The Guns of Navarone. [00:06:27] Ian: Yes. It was... Seeing him in this is such a different take. And I kinda wanna s- I, I kinda wanna take his lines from each of those two films and play them over the other one and just see the chaos it would cause. [00:06:46] Matthew: Yeah, you could put together an interesting super cut movie of, uh, David Niven playing opposite himself as all these different characters. [00:06:52] Ian: Oh, yeah But there's something about, um Something about that first Pink Panther film, it is just pure '60s slapstick, and it is very, very happy to just play around with the medium of film at times. Some ramping speed shots, some fun weird angles, a lot of prop comedy. [00:07:19] Matthew: In some ways it, it's an early commentary on what became ver- that very distinctive '60s comedy style [00:07:26] Ian: Yes There's a lot in the original Pink Panther that I think, uh, owes its humor to the works of Ernie Kovacs. [00:07:37] Matthew: Oh, that's interesting. I, I... You're absolutely right. I never made that connection. But there is- Mm-hmm ... a certain similarity there, that sensibility, that- [00:07:47] Ian: Mm-hmm ... [00:07:47] Matthew: that smart, ridiculous absurdity. [00:07:52] Ian: Yeah. And a smart, ridiculous absurdity that is always aware that there's a camera in the room. [00:07:57] Matthew: Right. Right. [00:07:59] Ian: And it means that The Pink Panther doesn't feel out of place, even in the modern era. Because so many other shows honestly still can trace their roots back to Kovacs's work. Pink Panther's in a discussion that's been happening for forever style-wise. This comedy hasn't aged the way you might expect old comedy to. It is still r- drive me up a wall sitcom awkward at times. [00:08:32] Matthew: Yeah. And, and there are definitely things about the Pink Panther movies that have not aged well. But you're right. No. In terms of the comedy itself, it still plays. [00:08:40] Ian: Yeah. There's pieces of the plot that age poorly, but pieces of the comedy don't. And that's a distinction that's hard to, to make sometimes, but I think this is a great example of that. [00:08:52] Matthew: And, and I'm getting distracted for a moment, but you mentioned Ernie Kovacs. Have we really talked about Ernie Kovacs on the podcast yet? [00:08:59] Ian: I feel like he's floated in the periphery- Yeah ... a couple times. He's- But I don't know if we've gotten to talk about him directly. [00:09:04] Matthew: Yeah, he is such a presence in my, uh, uh- Yeah ... media understanding and sensibilities, yet I don't know that we've ever even looked at a movie where he appeared or his TV stuff. That is going on the list. We've, we've gotta talk about Ernie Kovacs's TV stuff. But you're right- Mm-hmm ... there is a similarity there. Yeah. They're always playing to a camera that they know is there but don't really acknowledge. [00:09:29] Ian: A- and, and The Pink Panther is a very much a, a story of escalation because you wind up at the end with people, you know, hiding under beds, running from room to room while other people walk into a room. The gentleman jewel thief's, , brash American nephew Showing up and kind of becoming, and by the end, becoming an apprentice To do, to take over the jewel thief industry. So there's this weird, like, bonding story Between a pair of villain side characters But Jacques Clousteau is the, the through line through it all because he's our protagonist. [00:10:09] Matthew: He is, and yet he's not really the guy we're rooting for. No. In, in the structure of a crime story, he is the person trying to bring the criminal to justice. But the criminal is just so much cooler- Yes ... that we're kind of rooting for the criminal. And, and interesting, we, we get this character of, uh, Clouseau, and yet it's not solidified in the way that- Yeah it eventually becomes. He's more of a real person- Yeah, he's- ... in that first movie. He's a ridiculous real person, but he's a real person. He's not a cartoon. [00:10:41] Ian: Absolutely. He is a ridiculous man with a lot of, with a lot of brashness to his attempts at hobbies. [00:10:51] Matthew: Yes. [00:10:52] Ian: That he is not good at. [00:10:54] Matthew: Oh, he is the epitome of the idiot who thinks he's a genius. [00:10:59] Ian: Yes. [00:10:59] Matthew: And that carries through every aspect of this character throughout the movies. He thinks he is brilliant. He thinks he is the world's greatest detective. He thinks he is capable of all of these feats of i- intelligence and strength and skill, and yet proves himself to be ridiculous every time. [00:11:19] Ian: And it's thanks to things like that that make him weirdly an effective chaos foil to the- suave professionalism of this jewel thief. Because the idea of like, well, I know how someone would act in this. They'll either go left or they'll go right, and Jacques Clousteau will fall straight through- ... the floor forward. And you can't predict that, which means that no matter how competent you are, Jacques Cousteau's incompetence will force you into a situation you're not ready for. [00:11:51] Matthew: I, I, I'm, I'll, I'll edit this out, but I, I can't help but mention, you're, you, you're giving him the name of the oceanographer. [00:12:02] Ian: Uh. [00:12:03] Matthew: He's, he's Jacques Clouseau. [00:12:05] Ian: Clouseau. [00:12:06] Matthew: And there's no T. I, [00:12:06] Ian: I, I [00:12:08] Matthew: keep on... Adding the T. [00:12:08] Ian: Leave, no, no, leave that in. I, what's the problem? His name is a joke of that, I believe. [00:12:13] Matthew: It is. Yeah, it must be. [00:12:14] Ian: And it's so easy- ... especially because you hear him say it with his awful fake French accent so long. [00:12:21] Matthew: Uh-huh. [00:12:21] Ian: Clouseau. Cl- like, that's the other thing. He is... His accent has not gotten into pure ridiculous levels, but it is there, and it is exaggerated compared to everybody else. [00:12:35] Matthew: I get that, And jumping ahead a little bit to something we comment on on this podcast is when did I see this movie? I saw Return of the Pink Panther in 1975 when I was about nine years old. And I was very confused. We saw it, like, at the, the 70 cent movie theater in a second or third run print. And I was very confused because I wanted to know where all the whales and fish and things were. Oh, yes. They- Because I had seen so many Jacques Cousteau- ... TV specials, and I thought they were really cool. And Dad was taking us to see this Jacques Cousteau movie, and I thought, "Oh, this is gonna be awesome." [00:13:17] Ian: Oh, [00:13:17] Matthew: that's so good. And once I realized this is different, I got into it. But that was so weird. [00:13:23] Ian: That is so wonderful. Oh, I love it Okay. But yeah, the Pink, the Pink Panther really just works as set up. It's a fine little romp, but I will say the first overlapping movie has more going for it. Getting to Return of the Pink Panther, which you're lea- y- which you were leading into there. Return to the Pink Panther is three movies later. [00:13:50] Matthew: Right. [00:13:51] Ian: That says something. Yeah, it's a weird way to do it, isn't it? [00:13:55] Matthew: It's kind of an accidental franchise. [00:13:58] Ian: Yeah. [00:13:58] Matthew: Because the second movie was A Shot in the Dark, which was an adaptation of a novel they'd gotten the rights to, and it had nothing to do with Clouseau. And Peter Sellers was working on this. And eventually he and Blake Edwards, who directed th- th- these movies we're gonna be talking about, they decided, "Let's make this a Clouseau movie, and we'll make it a broad comedy." So it was, it was never, the story was never intended to be a Clouseau story. [00:14:26] Ian: Yeah. And so they did another, they did Sh- A Shot in the Dark, which is now a comedy Clouseau-ification of a different story. And then they just did Inspector Clouseau, and I take it both of those did okay. [00:14:42] Matthew: Well, the, the third- But- ... movie, Inspector Clouseau, did not star Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau. [00:14:51] Ian: Yeah. [00:14:51] Matthew: It had Alan Arkin, and it did not do well. [00:14:56] Ian: Oh, it didn't, [00:14:57] Matthew: actually? No, it did not. And that was also, it was not, it had no involvement of Peter Sellers, no involvement of Blake Edwards. It was- Oh, so that was studio- ... essentially others trying to take over the franchise. [00:15:10] Ian: Oh, boy. That's such a different era of film. The idea that someone could just a few years later attempt to take over your franchise by having someone else play the character you made. It's such a, that's such a different feeling [00:15:26] Matthew: It is. It is. And it's, so different today when directors and actors in, uh, at least those who have any power tend to also get various producer and exec producer roles, at least to have some control over what's happening, as opposed to being- Mm-hmm ... the person hired by the producer just to do a thing. [00:15:46] Ian: So yeah, we go from, from 1963. There's two more movies, but then they Thin Man themselves? [00:15:55] Matthew: Absolutely. They, they Thin Man themselves in a way, though, that at least in this first one, it makes sense. Yes. Because they bring back the Pink Panther, the diamond, the giant diamond with the, uh, the flaw in the middle. [00:16:10] Ian: Yep. [00:16:10] Matthew: And it is, it is a, a conscious reset because they bring back original characters. They essentially are retelling the same story as the original in many ways because it's the return of Sir Charles Litton. Mm. No longer played by David Niven. [00:16:27] Ian: I'm sorry, that rhymed a little too much. Return of Sir Charles Lytton. Yeah. No longer played by David Niven. [00:16:36] Matthew: Yeah, it's Christopher Plummer is now playing, uh, Sir Charles Lytton, the gentleman jewel thief. [00:16:41] Ian: Yeah. [00:16:42] Matthew: And Peter Sellers comes back as Inspector Clouseau. Yeah. And it is the, again, about a heist of the Pink Panther. [00:16:50] Ian: See, now I'm just trying to make the rhyme. Now he's played by Christopher Plummer, and do not worry, it's not a bummer. Sorry. Uh, no. But on, yeah, it's a return to the structure. It's a direct follow-up, which makes the previous two movies a tangent. [00:17:08] Matthew: Yes. [00:17:10] Ian: So you... In a way that very much fits for Clouseau and the comedy styles of this, I've never seen a, a franchise misfire like an old car before- Right ... before starting up. Which like the... Boom. [00:17:28] Matthew: It's like we're coming back to Clouseau 616 after being away for a while. [00:17:34] Ian: Oh, goodness. Is Cl- does Clouseau have a mutant gene? Does that explain stuff? [00:17:41] Matthew: It might. Oh, now I want the scene of, uh, of Clouseau interacting with Professor X. [00:17:46] Ian: I, I think that's just Professor X seeing Clouseau psychically and saying, "Never mind," and moving on. Because Clouseau is, ha- well, while there's a tangent of films, one of which didn't even have him, Clouseau has evolved or solidified into a different version of himself by the time of Return of the Pink Panther. [00:18:12] Matthew: Yes. [00:18:13] Ian: And I have in-world explanations of this, but without that context, it's just standard if something's true about a character, you turn it up. It's Flanderization, but this is effective Flanderization. [00:18:29] Matthew: Mm-hmm. [00:18:30] Ian: And to use that, if anyone doesn't know that reference, that's the idea of if you have a character with certain tropes, certain concepts they're core to themselves, the more times other writers will write them, the more time they stay in the spotlight, those aspects will be heightened over time. Kind of a, like, like sketching over a single line with a pen over and over, it'll get darker. This is, those specific points about this character will become more exaggerated with time. Everyone eventually evolves into a caricature of themselves on screen, unless you actively work against it. [00:19:10] Matthew: Mm-hmm. [00:19:11] Ian: But Clouseau works as a caricature a lot better, and he worked well before. [00:19:17] Matthew: He does in that it becomes more of that cartoon, but that means it's got more clear lines and drawn around it, and what does this character do and mean? [00:19:26] Ian: Mm-hmm. [00:19:27] Matthew: And it al- allows them to just go fully into the, uh, the comedy of it [00:19:31] Ian: And so yeah, we start out with this, Oh my goodness. the Phantom, this, this thief is back again." And the Pink Panther is now, you know, stored in a museum with a grand, security system. So of course we see the Phantom steal it. [00:19:50] Matthew: And that's a, a pretty cool heist scene, where we, we get the setup with all the high tech security measures, and all the ways the Phantom, counteracts them or, goes around them. [00:20:02] Ian: I will also say, though, there is a little bit of a, a loving shoestring budget at times. [00:20:10] Matthew: Yeah. [00:20:11] Ian: Because the, the grand security system of dropping walls have the obvious foam core bounce to them. [00:20:19] Matthew: Yes. [00:20:21] Ian: The, the, the complicated security system looks a little bit like something you could make out of a couple of pieces from Ace Hardware. [00:20:31] Matthew: Yes. Kudos to the sound designers. [00:20:34] Ian: Oh- ' [00:20:35] Matthew: Cause, you know when- ... the [00:20:35] Ian: sound designers are doing [00:20:36] Matthew: so much work ... the, the spray painted foam core comes down, and you get this really satisfying iron-on-iron kind of clang. [00:20:44] Ian: And there's also something there where it's like early on there's this obvious- loving lack of polish at certain points. [00:20:53] Matthew: Yeah. [00:20:54] Ian: But it makes it very much like you can see through for a moment to the fact that these actors are enjoying being here. [00:21:02] Matthew: Right. [00:21:02] Ian: This is a fun set to be on. [00:21:06] Matthew: I get that impression. I, I don't know how accurate that is. I'm not gonna go into details, but just based on some of what I've heard about s- how some of these people were to work with, especially Sellers. But- Yeah, okay ... but it comes across as if they're enjoying this movie at very least. Mm-hmm. And that there is- Or, yeah ... that community theater aspect. But a part of that is, uh, people are here because they wanna be. [00:21:26] Ian: Exactly. It, yeah. Maybe it's wasn't a perfect, uh, setup, but there's that community element, and that is powerful. [00:21:34] Matthew: Yeah. [00:21:34] Ian: Community comes through, and that's, that's a n- that's a nice piece. But I wanna, I wanna have that clear because not everything of this film is great. And I will admit- No ... a lot more of The Return of the Pink Panther ages worse than the original Pink Panther. [00:21:54] Matthew: Yeah? [00:21:55] Ian: I think so. [00:21:56] Matthew: Because they go to the broader comedy or for other reasons? [00:22:00] Ian: Partially the broader comedy, partially just the, the characterization of some people. [00:22:05] Matthew: Yeah. I mean, we have to acknowledge, there is a lot of racism in these movies. [00:22:09] Ian: Yeah. [00:22:10] Matthew: A lot of really profound racism. In, in- Yeah ... and also sexism and the, and the like. But yet- Mm-hmm ... and yet we also see some very smart, uh, characters of various, uh, uh, sexes and genders and persuasions across these movies. [00:22:25] Ian: Yeah. [00:22:26] Matthew: Um, but, but yeah. So much racism. So much racism. Oh, [00:22:32] Ian: goodness. And that turns it into a very different thing. But the fact that everyone's enjoying it, they're like, eh. It, that coming through changes how those moments feel at times in a weird way. Like, that community theater aspect- Yeah ... it's like the comedy and the energy is constant, so I don't wanna be able to pra- I don't wanna praise a scene for being funny. [00:22:56] Matthew: Right. [00:22:56] Ian: Even if it has something- Yeah ... problematic in it without acknowledging why it's funny. It's partially the people putting the effort and the energy in. [00:23:03] Matthew: And there are two kinds of, of comedy we get with regard to Clouseau. One of them is just him bumbling through a scene of physical comedy. [00:23:14] Ian: Mm-hmm. [00:23:14] Matthew: Which can be fun, and sometimes Sellers really nails that. Sometimes these scenes go on longer than they really need to. Okay, we, we understand the, the jokes with the vacuum cleaner and all that. And yet, or at other times, um, it really, it's, it's tight and it's well done. And then there are the scenes with him interacting with the rest of the world, and it's not always Clouseau being funny. Sometimes he is just there. Like, the search for the Phantom leads him to this hotel in the Alps, and as he's entering, some young man in a, a, a suit comes up and says, "Can I take your coat? Can I take your hat?" Yeah. "Your gloves?" And then the guy leaves, gets into a car that's full of coats and hats, and drives away. Clouseau- Exactly ... wondering what just happened. It wasn't that, Clouseau didn't do anything funny in that scene, but he was the perfect foil for this weird bit of absurdity. [00:24:14] Ian: And in an interesting way, Clouseau is a walking field of this kind of weirdness. He doesn't have to do it, but him being there causes it. Oh, I like that. And I know that because other characters kind of comment on that. There is a very, very distinct thing of the fact that his, that Chief Inspector Dreyfus- is furious at Clouseau because just being around him, Clouseau instigates chaos. Things are going smooth until Clouseau shows up. Even if Clouseau's not doing anything, this presence of Clouseau- is a haunting force to him. And- [00:24:58] Matthew: And [00:24:58] Ian: s- some of our earliest moments is the comedy of, you know, just trying to have a basic office meeting with Clouseau. And it winds up with people getting shot by accident and needing hospitalization. [00:25:14] Matthew: And Herbert Lom as, uh, In- Inspector Dreyfus is, he is such an anchor to this whole series because he plays inspector Dreyfus straight when necessary, but he's also able to go off the rails. And it's the changes in Dreyfus that carry with them the changes in the movies from one to another. Because whereas the original, The Pink Panther and then, uh, The Return of the Pink Panther were kinda straightforward heist and investigation movies. [00:25:47] Ian: Mm-hmm. [00:25:48] Matthew: Throughout these, Dreyfus is getting literally driven crazy by Clouseau. Such that at the end of Return of the Pink Panther, Dreyfuss is in a, a, a mental institution wrapped up in a, in a straitjacket writing on the wall with his toes, "Kill [00:26:12] Ian: Clouseau." Yeah. A- and it says something as well, the fact that Dreyfuss wasn't in the original Pink Panther. [00:26:17] Matthew: No, he wasn't, was he? [00:26:19] Ian: He was added in A Shot in the Dark. The adaptation. [00:26:24] Matthew: Ah. [00:26:24] Ian: So there are bits of those two before the vague reboot we're describing that still slip in. There's continuity across it all, no matter what, but it's selective continuity. [00:26:38] Matthew: And it's The changes in Dreyfus that lead to what we get in The Pink Panther Strikes Again, which is a James Bond movie. [00:26:49] Ian: Yes. It is absolutely straight up, uh... Oh, like the original Pink Panther came out, uh, one year after Dr. No. There wasn't a lot of f- a lot to have formed by then. But by the time, by the, by the time Strikes Again is coming out, they've got all the way through The Man with the Golden Gun out of 007. They're, they've got so much to work with. But Clouseau has become a Bond parody in a, i- in a way that most, that things do. [00:27:26] Matthew: And it's not quite as much a change in Inspector Clouseau- Mm-hmm ... as it is the scope and the style of what he's up against. Because Dreyfus, uh, escapes from the mental institution, having been driven crazy several other times after seeming to come back, uh, thanks to visits from, uh, Clouseau. And he mounts this worldwide super villain campaign to kill Clouseau, in that he abducts a, a high-energy physicist who has a disintegration ray plan that he, uh, that Dreyfus forces him to build for him, and then threatens the world with the destruction, all these landmarks, starting with the UN building, if they don't kill Clouseau for him. And he's got this castle in Germany where he's guiding all of these plans and where he has a secret laboratory and his giant pipe organ. Yes. Absolute super villain, James Bond villain, uh, trope down- Yeah ... down to every detail [00:28:31] Ian: They could have added an entire scene of Dreyfus going to a local pet store to pick out what cat to be sitting there and petting. Yes. And it would've fit the style here. And it also says something that Clouseau has evolved as a character since then. In the original, he's this weird... In the original Pink Panther, he's this weird inspector that plays a violin, which is almost an attempt at making him a Sherlock Holmes parody because he's bad at violin, but he's this violin-playing detective. [00:29:04] Matthew: That's a good point. He is more of a, of a Sherlock Holmes pastiche in the original, or sees himself as the heir to Sherlock Holmes. [00:29:15] Ian: Exactly. Return of the Pink Panther, suddenly he has got this, he... I mean, now he's a single man 'cause he lost his wife- Yes ... in the original, so that's also weird. But he's this, got this very fancily decorated, Asian-inspired apartment, and is training martial arts against his assistant, Kato. So suddenly he's become a version of the Green Hornet? [00:29:44] Matthew: Yes. Very much. He's got his Asian house boy, which is another trope that goes back into stories and movies. Yeah. And the way that Clouseau keeps referring to him and, and, uh, uh, some of the, the ways that he describes Kato to others are, is appalling. And yet- Yes ... he's given Kato instructions to attack him without warning in order to help him hone his reflexes. And that essentially means that whenever Clouseau comes home, the whole place is destroyed because Kato attacks him, and there's this giant fight scene. [00:30:19] Ian: Exactly. And, and all of this impressive decor is, in fact- Yeah a pile of breakaway pots for them to be thrown into- Right ... constantly. And then we get to the next film, just the next film in the sequence, and there's hidden weapons hidden throughout the house. And he's testing out advanced spy kit disguises as a James Bond parody. So Clouseau is becoming this amalgamation of every, action detective trope you can imagine over time. He is, he is a gravitational force pulling in parody. [00:30:55] Matthew: One of the comparisons it's easy to make would be to Hercule Poirot. And in one movie when he's visiting a, a mental institution, he is confronted by a patient at the institution who believes himself to be- I'm Hercule Poirot and you, Clouseau, you are not the greatest detective. I, Poirot, am the greatest detective. [00:31:19] Ian: Which, which has the funniness, the fact that he's always had- Yes ... this impossible French accent and he's aggressively making sure he's known as being French while Poirot's a Belgian man frustrated that people think he's French. Which is another parody line [00:31:35] Matthew: We have to talk about this accent a little bit. [00:31:38] Ian: Yes. Oh, goodness. [00:31:40] Matthew: Because throughout the movie, it's taking, most of it is taking place in France or other French-speaking places, or most of m- or much of it is. And I mean, he's talking to his own chief inspector, Dreyfus, in Paris. They're both French. We hear it as English in the movie. Of course, that's a movie trope, but clearly they must be speaking French. Dreyfus is, in the movie, speaking perfectly intelligible English. Clouseau is speaking this bizarre French accent. So what is he s- how is he speaking such that his French sounds to another French person like this barely comprehensible accent? [00:32:21] Ian: I, I have a horrible personal theory here. [00:32:26] Matthew: Yeah. [00:32:28] Ian: Which is that Clouseau is just like Peter Sellers, actually English. And he's desperately attempting to put on a French accent to be accepted because he got a job in France as an officer. [00:32:43] Matthew: So when he speaks French to his French superiors, it sounds like an Englishman trying to sound French, even when he's speaking French. [00:32:52] Ian: Exactly. [00:32:55] Matthew: Why does that make as much sense as it does? 'Cause it really does make sense. [00:32:59] Ian: It really does. Oh, and I think both the English and the French would find that funny. If we have any international listeners- ... please let us know if what I said is comedy. but yeah, it's like, no matter what they're speaking, which is implied to be French most of the time, people can't understand him. And there's a constant running joke of him saying something with an accent so thick that it sounds like a different word. [00:33:29] Matthew: Right. He'll, he'll refer to, upholding the law and it'll come out as lieu. And they'll ask, "Lieu? What does, what does that w- you said lieu." "Yes, I know." [00:33:39] Ian: Yes. Like, "I would like a room." [00:33:42] Matthew: Yeah. And this is while they're all speaking French. [00:33:45] Ian: Exactly. but , by the time of The Pink Panther Strikes Again, yeah, we've got full-on super weapons, and also the diamond isn't there [00:33:55] Matthew: No, no reference to the diamond. Like you say, they have completely Thin Manned this. Such [00:34:01] Ian: that- I, I half expected the superweapon to be like using the Pink Panther diamond as a focusing or something- ... just to keep it in the... They don't bother with that. [00:34:10] Matthew: No, they don't bother And so you get the impression that somehow, sort of almost, the Pink Panther refers to Clouseau, and yet the Pink Panther refers to a movie that features Clouseau. And there is the character of the Pink Panther also. Yes. Because these are older movies, all the credits are up front at the beginning of the movie, and they have these long animated title sequences featuring Clouseau versus a literal pink panther, who went on to have his own cartoon show. [00:34:40] Ian: Well, but not Clouseau. They have the Inspector. The little animated guy is not Clouseau. That is known as the Inspector. Oh, okay. And I did research on this. [00:34:52] Matthew: Interesting. [00:34:53] Ian: Because in order to keep things separate, the Pink Panther animated character and the little large-nosed, extremely short, but same outfit designed Inspector character that hunts him down in the animated sequences is considered a different character for, like, brand reasons. [00:35:12] Matthew: Interesting. [00:35:14] Ian: Which became important because the... In another tangent, the animated character went off and got his own animated series and side projects. [00:35:24] Matthew: Yes. [00:35:25] Ian: And my generation might know the animated character better for selling home insulation than they might, than they would from being a part of a previous movie franchise. [00:35:37] Matthew: That's right. He became, the spokes cartoon for Corning Pink Fiberglass or something. [00:35:41] Ian: Yeah. And I also know the Inspector himself got his own spinoff animated series. [00:35:48] Matthew: Oh, yeah? [00:35:49] Ian: Yeah. There was a, uh, 34-episode theatrical cartoon short series of the Inspector battling a rogues' gallery as its own thing. So it's like everyone else is getting tangents and spinoffs. [00:36:08] Matthew: There's also the very, very cool music by Henry Mancini, the Pink Panther . Yes. That's something that goes through, most of the movies. Not all of them. [00:36:17] Ian: That theme is iconic. [00:36:19] Matthew: Yeah. But as, Mancini is so good at that kind of thing. From this and Peter Gunn and so many- Mm-hmm just a few bars and he can make a, an iconic character theme [00:36:29] Ian: But a lot of this, as you notice, we're, we're bouncing around, we're talking concepts because trying to follow one of these movies as a plot line in a podcast is ridiculous. They are just sequences of chaos. You will go from weird, weird jokes about trying to speak stuff to a skit about a, uh, an industrial vacuum cleaner going wrong. You will have, cutaway moments of Clouseau attempting to cross the moat of a castle, and it's just multiple attempts. It's segmented in a very distinct way across all of these films. Each of them is very scene to scene oriented [00:37:18] Matthew: And the third movie in my Pink Panther trilogy, , the, , Revenge of the Pink Panther. That was another genre parody, but whereas the previous one was kind of a James Bond movie, the next one was very much a, literally French Connection sort of crime story about mobsters and drug running [00:37:41] Ian: Oh. [00:37:42] Matthew: there's the, the high-powered businessman who's really the conduit for moving heroin through France. And he is being challenged by other crime figures, so he needs to prove his power, and he's gonna do that by assassinating the most famous lawman in the world, and that is Inspect- ch- uh, now Chief Inspector Jacques clouseau. [00:38:08] Ian: W- wait a minute, so, so it's Pink Panther does City Heat? [00:38:12] Matthew: Sort of. [00:38:14] Ian: Okay. [00:38:14] Matthew: And we get, again, various, uh, racist and stereotypical disguises for, Clouseau as he pretends to be a Chinese person as they're moving into Hong Kong, and he's- Oh, goodness wearing this giant, ridiculous suit as he's pretending to, to be an Ameri- Italian-American mobster. The storyline is this straightforward drug ring investigation. But mostly it's more and more than the previous ones. It is just a bare framework on which to hang ridiculous scenes where we're seeing the latest attack by Cato and the latest bizarre costume- that, Clouseau is, is wearing. Or the latest ridiculous assassination attempt on Clouseau. [00:38:58] Ian: Oh, goodness. Yeah. Because that's the thing, like Clouseau is building himself a... As the Strikes Again entire plot revolves around people attempting to kill Clouseau in ridiculous ways, Clouseau does kind of gather a, you're either on Clouseau's side or you're wanting- to kill Clouseau's side. And that is- [00:39:18] Matthew: Yes ... [00:39:19] Ian: that is more of a linear path from, from being fed up with him eventually. But yeah, revenge is, seems like it's not another reset, but it seems like a... They- they've, they were able to solidify themselves with Return and Strikes Again, and they're able to continue that pace now. [00:39:42] Matthew: Yeah, and- [00:39:42] Ian: Into Revenge ... [00:39:44] Matthew: and whilst there's a lot, there's a lot of repetition in terms of style, they were able to avoid some of that by focusing on different genres to parody each time. [00:39:52] Ian: Mm-hmm. [00:39:54] Matthew: there is so much more we could say about these, but I think we might be coming towards our final questions. Partly because we, there's so much we can say about what those final questions lead to. [00:40:05] Ian: Absolutely. That leads to so much. So... [00:40:08] Matthew: so stay tuned, listeners, to hear those final questions and what we think about this and what we recommend. But in the meantime, if you are enjoying the Intermillennium Media Project, please go to immproject.com where you will find all kinds of fun stuff. If you want more of the IMMP, you'll find all of our back episodes. It's more than 200 now, including bonuses, though we're not quite up to our 200th, main episode. And also on immproject.com, you will find a link to our Patreon where you can support the podcast and get even more with bonus audio content. And if you join us at the Movie Club level, you'll get a mysterious DVD in the mail, periodically. And also, of course, that is where you can contact us. We would love to hear from you on our Discord, by email, uh, on, uh, Blue Sky or Mastodon. You'll find all of that information on our contact page at immproject.com. And that's also where you'll find our store if you like, coffee mugs and T-shirts and notebooks and other fun things, not only with the podcast logo, but also with, jokes about various things we have talked about, from Space 1999 to The Prisoner to the holiday classic Die Hard. [00:41:19] Ian: Yeah. So- Which I'm surprised wasn't parodied by The Pink Panther. [00:41:25] Matthew: I'm sure they'd have gotten to it at some point. [00:41:27] Ian: They would have. Yeah. [00:41:28] Matthew: So we would love to hear from you, so we hope you'll, uh, you'll go and check things out at immproject.com. And Ian, where can people find you? [00:41:36] Ian: I can be found most places as ItemCrafting, be that ItemCraftingLive on Twitch or ItemCrafting on BlueSky. I stream most every Thursday, and I'd love to see you there. I make, props, play games, and have a good time. [00:41:50] Matthew: I love the way you're converting things you find in the games into props you can hang on your wall or show us on the table. Like, what... [00:41:56] Ian: Oh, yeah. It's, it's a fun thing, and you gotta imagine, you know, these characters are carrying all that stuff around. I wanna be able to hold that, too. [00:42:04] Matthew: The one you're working on now, is that from, uh, which g- was that the horticulture game or the antiquities game? [00:42:11] Ian: Uh, I am, I'm currently building a couple of the props from Strange Antiquities- [00:42:15] Matthew: Very cool. Fun [00:42:16] Ian: game ... to commemorate us finishing that. That's an excellent game, and, building those props and these strange artifacts is a fun item, is a fun thing to do. And Dad, where can they find you? [00:42:27] Matthew: Well, you can find me, best thing to do is to go to bymatthewporter.com. That's where you'll find links to anything else I'm doing. I'm also ByMatthewPorter on BlueSky and on Mastodon and on YouTube. On YouTube you'll find, the Drafthouse Diary, which is reviews of movies and of Alamo Drafthouse theater experiences, along with other things I do on YouTube, like travel destinations and the like. And at, bymatthewporter.com, you'll also find information about my book, Questions for the Dead, which is out now. You can- Yeah ... you can buy that at your favorite online retailer or go to your local bookstore and ask them to order a copy of it for you. Available in e-book and in paperback. And, speaking of detectives, it involves a private investigator in Denver who has a collection of associates and colleagues with peculiar talents. [00:43:20] Ian: Mm-hmm. it's a fun story and it's an interesting, it's an interesting, uh, take on mystery stories with also a lot of fun personality of Colorado and its environment. You really make the city a character in it. [00:43:34] Matthew: That was one of the most fun parts, pulling in all these places in, uh, in addition to people. [00:43:39] Ian: Oh, yeah. [00:43:43] Matthew: Well, I think it's now time for our final questions [00:43:47] Ian: I think so. So- [00:43:48] Matthew: And these are movies [00:43:51] Ian: Yeah [00:43:52] Matthew: And that, that leads us to the question of screen or no screen [00:44:01] Ian: I think as long as you're aware of the fact that these are older movies, they've got some of the problems we've mentioned, these are good screen. I've enjoyed the idea of, like, a long day at work and being able to just, you know, make, make a dinner and watch a, a ridiculous comedy like this. And, uh, uh, I'm a person who cringes at some, uh, you know, awkward comedy, but e- I was also laughing plenty. And I f- I almost fell out of my chair at some of these moments. The comedy holds up because there's a passion to the whole thing, because there is a, a love of setting up this ridiculousness from these creators, and that comes through in the s- on the screen. I think it's a fun thing to screen. I don't know if it's a binge the whole series in a big, big long string, but knowing that these are available... And they're available, since they're older films, actually a lot of places. You can watch these, like, I think on Tubi for free. , These are easily accessible movies, I'd say. [00:45:08] Matthew: Yeah. They're also available on library streaming sites, uh, so, uh- Yeah ... check that out if you have, uh, things like Kanopy. Mm-hmm. So there's a lot of opportunities to see these movies. [00:45:18] Ian: Exactly. [00:45:18] Matthew: And how I feel about that question, wh- it's funny, while I was watching some of these movies, there were specific scenes that were making me think, "Oh, this is a no screen. This is just painful to watch. I'm not enjoying this." And yet, with a little bit of distance, even the distance of a day or two, what I'm remembering are some of the really funny scenes. The whole sequence that you mentioned about trying to get across the moat into the castle where Dreyfuss is doing his super villain things. That i- it goes on for a long time, but it never stops being funny because it keeps coming up with new ways for him to fail to get across this moat. [00:45:58] Ian: Exactly. [00:46:00] Matthew: And, and some of the comedy with Lom as Dreyfuss is really funny, and, and consistently so. So I'm gonna say screen in the sense of give it a try. You'll know very soon whether this is your kind of thing, whether the problems that it has, uh, d- that ha- come to the surface coming to it decades later, whether those problems are too much and, and they ruin the enjoyment, or if some of this comedy is enough that you really are going to, to be able to appreciate it. You'll know that soon, so give it a try is what I'd say. Screen it at least, tentatively. [00:46:45] Ian: Yeah. [00:46:46] Matthew: Our next question is a strange one for this because we always ask revive, reboot, or rest in peace. Do we want more of these in the continuity? Do we want a brand new reimagining of it, or do we wanna leave it alone? [00:46:59] Ian: And that's where you wind up with oddities because of what happened to the Pink Panther franchise. [00:47:05] Matthew: Yes. [00:47:06] Ian: So Revenge of the Pink Panther still was starring Peter Sellers. [00:47:12] Matthew: Yes. [00:47:12] Ian: But Peter Sellers died in 1980 [00:47:15] Matthew: Yes [00:47:17] Ian: Right after Revenge came out And that means that Trail of the Pink Panther, the next film, still stars Peter Sellers because they used older footage. [00:47:28] Matthew: Yeah. [00:47:29] Ian: It's a lot of flashbacks, it's cutaways, it's, removed scenes from the other films recontextualized and stitched together to create a story about trying to find Clouseau after an investigation goes wrong, and ends with a, "We don't know where Clouseau is. He might be dead, he might be alive," question mark [00:47:53] Matthew: The one thing Hollywood was not able to do is the rest in peace option. [00:47:58] Ian: Yeah. [00:47:59] Matthew: They just couldn't stop. So we get this weird zombie movie, and it was one of two movies like that that were made. [00:48:05] Ian: Yeah, they did Trail of the Pink Panther, and then they did Curse of the Pink Panther, which is doing that again starring another person on the hunt for trying to find Clouseau. [00:48:17] Matthew: Yes. [00:48:17] Ian: And then they did Son of the Pink Panther trying to get someone else to play Clouseau's unknown son. [00:48:25] Matthew: Yes, they had Roberto Benigni- [00:48:28] Ian: Yeah ... [00:48:28] Matthew: playing, the son of Clouseau [00:48:31] Ian: And so The Pink Panther just kind of petered out without Peter Sellers. [00:48:38] Matthew: Yes. [00:48:39] Ian: And they tried to keep it going, but they couldn't get it to reignite. The same way A Shot in the Dark and Inspector Clouseau as movies didn't launch the franchise until they did Return. The, the engine puttered to a halt in a weird way And then they rebooted it in 2006. [00:49:00] Matthew: And the titles certainly make clear the absolute Thin Man-ization of this in that the- Yeah ... it's the Looking for Clouseau is now The Trail of the Pink Panther, and the Roberto Benigni movie is The Son of the Pink Panther. [00:49:13] Ian: I half expected to look at the list and see like, The Phantom Panther. Attack of the Panther. The Panther Awakens. The Last Panther. Rise of the Pink Panther. Come on. [00:49:25] Matthew: Yep. [00:49:26] Ian: We could do the whole thing. Uh... [00:49:29] Matthew: And, and not content with letting this play out as they attempted these revivals, these continuing sequels- Mm-hmm ... without Peter Sellers, we then get a reboot [00:49:42] Ian: starring Steve Martin. [00:49:43] Matthew: Yes. [00:49:44] Ian: One that apparently did decent [00:49:46] Matthew: And I have not seen any of those Steve Martin Pink Panther movies. But I've heard from, people whose taste I usually, agree with say that they enjoyed them and that they- Yeah ... play better now than the original Peter Sellers movies do. [00:50:07] Ian: Which is fascinating. [00:50:07] Matthew: So I might give those a try at some point just out of curiosity. I'm not expecting very much, but when he's good, Steve Martin can be amazing, and I could see him doing something good and not just trying to copy Peter Sellers. [00:50:24] Ian: Yeah. [00:50:25] Matthew: And they made two of those in tw- uh, The Pink Panther in 2006 and The Pink Panther 2 in 2009 [00:50:31] Ian: So they were able to do that, but it didn't go beyond that. [00:50:36] Matthew: No. [00:50:36] Ian: The last Pink Panther film was in 2009. But there's been talks constantly about it Talks in just 2023 about another revival So apparently the franchise is still in the minds of executives and they're attempting stuff. [00:50:53] Matthew: There's been talk of a new Pink Panther movie starring Eddie Murphy. [00:50:58] Ian: Yeah. [00:50:59] Matthew: Interesting take. I see that working. I could see that being interesting. [00:51:03] Ian: Yeah. I absolutely can. And that's not even to get into the fact that we've got the, the animated character- [00:51:11] Matthew: Yeah ... [00:51:12] Ian: spinning off and doing his own things, uh, showing up as just an iconic image and design, almost disconnected from the franchise. [00:51:24] Matthew: So what is your preference? What would you vote for in terms of revive, reboot, or rest in peace at this point, given the fact that it had- this weird history after Peter Sellers? [00:51:34] Ian: If you'd asked me when we started this podcast, if we did this as an earlier episode, I would've said that this might be a rest in peace franchise. But I'm looking at the fact that we just recently did things like Police Squad. [00:51:49] Matthew: Hmm. [00:51:50] Ian: And they just did a new Naked Gun movie recently when we were recording this. And I'm looking at this and saying, "There is still a place for this kind of comedy." And I also look at, like, streaming sites and things, and I'm looking at online creators and some of the humor that's coming out of there, and I'm like, "Yeah, I could see this still working." So I think this is a reboot. I think this has a reboot potential. [00:52:22] Matthew: I, weirdly, I think I agree. I would say reboot. Wait till things are right. Wait till you've got the right combination of writer and director and star. Try to bring that together. But, uh, but yeah, it'd be interesting to eventually see that all come together in a, a new 21st century reboot. And your mention- Yeah of Police Squad is absolutely on point. Those are, are pretty close on a, a, a family tree, those two franchises. Mm-hmm. [00:52:49] Ian: Here's gonna be a weird one, 'cause I'm gonna do something I don't always do. I'm gonna even call out a specific actor. [00:52:55] Matthew: Yeah? [00:52:56] Ian: I'm here thinking, you tell me that they're going to do a, a Pink Panther reboot with, like, Zac Oyama- if you, as, as the- Yeah ... as the new Inspector Clouseau. If you've ever seen him do stuff for Dropout. Yeah. Like, you get the right modern comedic actor, and he could do amazing stuff. [00:53:16] Matthew: Interesting. [00:53:17] Ian: I, I can see some of the people in, in that kind of online comedy space- [00:53:22] Matthew: Yeah ... [00:53:22] Ian: taking this and being able to make a good new version. [00:53:29] Matthew: Yeah. [00:53:30] Ian: Yeah. [00:53:30] Matthew: And that would bring in some of the newer comedy sensibilities that would, would make it continue to work. [00:53:35] Ian: Exactly. Because as they were able to show, it works even if h- no matter what parody he's doing, Inspector Clouseau is a type of comedy that h- uh, has legs, and there's flexibility in it. Yeah. They're able to do everything from Poirot and Sherlock Holmes all the way up to the James Bond, and it still feels like part of the same franchise. I think they've got opportunities. [00:54:05] Matthew: Well, this was fun, it was interesting to revisit these movies. , It was nice to get your take on them. [00:54:11] Ian: Well, thank you. Yeah. I, I'm still amused that we watched different sets. [00:54:15] Matthew: Yes. We watched four movies in our versions of the Pink Panther trilogy [00:54:20] Ian: Which is very Clouseau of us in that sense. [00:54:24] Matthew: And it's kind of a nice way to, to start off the, the summer as summer approaches. [00:54:28] Ian: Oh, absolutely. [00:54:29] Matthew: And we've got some other things in store as we get into the height of the summer. [00:54:34] Ian: Summary seasons. Oh, yeah. [00:54:36] Matthew: And with that, I can say that we will be back in a couple of weeks with more tales of media from the 20th century. [00:54:45] Ian: In the meantime, go find something new to watch [00:54:51] Clip: I would, of course, tell you more, but it would be safer for you if I did not