The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)
Runtime: 103 minutes
Directed by: Blake Edwards
Starring: Peter Sellers, the usual co-stars in this franchise, people like Lesley-Anne Down who presumably had bigger roles before the film was cut
From: United Artists
I get why some love this installment in the Pink Panther franchise; my opinion differs. Last night I also saw Revenge of the Pink Panther so it’s known by me that Strikes is a bizarre outlier which is in essence ignored in Revenge. The idea I saw elsewhere that this was a Dreyfus fever dream is the fan theory that will be subscribed to. After all, Dreyfus literally escapes from an insane asylum and becomes a Bond supervillain!
There are some solid laughs and pratfalls for sure; the story as a whole, though… “weird” is the one feeling that dominates over everything else. The Dreyfus scheme is rather Rube Goldberg in design when the (original) goal was just to murder Clouseau. There are thinly-veiled spoofs of Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger in the White House. There’s a Tom Jones song at the end which might as well have been from a period 007 picture. There is Lesley-Anne Down… for a few minutes. That just seemed like what should have been a bigger role; when the movie was cut down from at least two hours to 103 minutes, did her screentime diminish because of that?
Regardless, while many rate this highly, personally the movie is just too goofy and like a cartoon for my tastes, even compared to the rest of the franchise. Strikes Again required some special effects—not all of which have aged well. I’m sure Herbert Lom had a grand old time playing such an OOT character; while that did amuse me and I’ve always appreciated the animated opening credits & the score, Strikes Again is one I’d rather see clips of the highlights of on YouTube rather than revisit it in entirely as I would the earlier entries.
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