The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)

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. Peter Sellers incredible comedic talent makes The Pink Panther Strikes Again a true diamond that has some of the craziest and funniest goofs that people had the pleasure to see back then and believe me viewers and fans of the Franchise won't be disappointed. (10/10)

One of the funniest films in the "Pink Panther" series: the best parts (the Poirot-style interrogation, Clouseau's attempts to enter the castle, the laughing gas, "does your dog bite?", "it was hard in the Resistance but not as hard as it is now", etc.) are hilarious, there is considerable cleverness in many of the elaborately staged gags, and although there are dry stretches, they are fewer than in the other series entries. Peter Sellers is in good form, and Herbert Lom is every bit his equal in laugh-getting. The cinephilic animated credits sequence is wonderful. *** out of 4.

The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976): Dir: Blake Edwards / Cast: Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Lesley-Anne Dawn, Burt Kwouk, Omar Sharif: Here is arguably the best of the Pink Panther comedies and it certainly lives up to the reputation by providing among the best slapstick has to offer. Inspector Clouseau fumbles through another case where the solution depends on his ignorance to logic. When his former boss breaks out of prison, he commandeers a ray gun and set to use it to destroy major cities. Sight jokes are exquisite thanks to director Blake Edwards, the mastermind behind the hilarity of these films. He also made another hilarious send off to slapstick with The Great Race. Peter Sellers is fantastic as Clouseau whose quest depends on pure luck of his solutions, and he has a knack for disguises particularly when his enemy suffers a tooth ache. Herbert Lom is priceless as the villain whose sanity is tested within every stroke of bad luck. Lesley-Anne Dawn plays a diva whose seduction is foreign to Clouseau. Her initial scheme backfires but through a change of heart she will encounter a sight joke involving a bed that must be seen to be believed. Omar Sharif makes a cameo as an Egyptian assassin who makes a blunder when taking aim at Clouseau. Finally, Burt Kwouk plays Clouseau's Japanese fight companion who gets laid up but not down and out in this hilarious caper comedy. Score: 9 / 10

Radically different from the previous three 'Pink Panther' movies, this popular fourth entry takes the story to absurdist extremes with a now completely mad Chief Inspector Dreyfus escaping from an insane asylum and holding the whole world hostage with a doomsday device, demanding Clouseau's life. The extra screen time that Herbert Lom gets as a result of this plot deflection is welcome given that he was one of the main highlights of the previous two 'Pink Panther' films. The multiple failed attempts by international assassins to be the successful one to kill Clouseau also leads to several funny sequences, the best of which involves some madness in the restrooms at Oktoberfest, which of course Clouseau is completely oblivious to. While his parodying of a megalomaniacal Bond villain is spot-on, something is definitely lost though by having Lom insane from the get-go as there is no delicious gradual descent into madness as in the two earlier films. The film also unsteadily walks a tightrope between absurdist lunacy and simple inane silliness and a number of gags backfire as a result of the filmmakers pushing things too far (the climax in particular is very over-the- top). And yet, for all its detriments, 'Strikes Again' is a hard film not to warm to since the filmmakers show such obvious passion for doing something different with series and as Lom proves himself to be worthy of every extra percentage of screen time that he is given. It is probably a film that is worth giving a spin even if one disliked the first three films -- that's how different it is.