TrailOfThePinkPanther

Trail Of The Pink Panther

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The release date of Trail of the Pink Panther should be a tip-off that something's fishy here: 1982, two years after Peter Sellers' death. One might hope that this was a final film with Sellers that sat on a studio shelf for two years, or that it was a work-in-progress that was finished posthumously. Unfortunately, neither of those hopeful hypotheses is true. Trail of the Pink Panther is nothing more than an attempt to squeeze a little more life out of the old Panther franchise, with outtakes and deleted scenes from earlier Pink Panther movies cobbled together with new footage from the secondary actors to make what's supposed to be a complete story.
The story, such as it is, involves the theft of the Pink Panther diamond once again, and Inspector Clouseau gets onto the case... but disappears (how convenient), leaving others to try to track him down and solve the mystery. The film is decidedly unsuccessful, with a clumsy and pointless plot and very little humor. The "new" scenes with Sellers are easily recognizable as being either deleted scenes or alternate takes from earlier films. For instance, a scene in which he orders a hunchback disguise from the costume shop, and then walks home with the package and his groceries, is quite clearly a deleted scene from The Pink Panther Strikes Again. Some parts of this scene, in particular when he's struggling with the elevator, will prompt a few smiles at least, but it's not a good sign for the film when that's about as funny as it gets. Clouseau's slow-motion fight with Cato, from the same film, is also repeated here: it's a good scene, but hard to stomach knowing that it's simply recycled material.
At one hour and 37 minutes, Trail of the Pink Panther is the shortest of the films in this set, but even so it required some additional puffing. Midway through the film, the character of the investigative reporter interviews the characters of Sir Charles Lytton and Madame Clouseau (here re-characterized as Lady Lytton) prompting them to reminisce about Clouseau... at which point we get clips from The Pink Panther spliced in.

The only reason to watch Trail of the Pink Panther is if you're interested in seeing some deleted scenes and alternate takes from earlier films; approached that way, and not as an actual film, Trail may have some merit for die-hard fans. But as a movie on its own merits, it's a flop.