The Pink Panther
1963 · 115 min
Directed by Blake Edwards. Written by Blake Edwards, Maurice Richlin. Starring David Niven, Peter Sellers, Claudia Cardinale, Capucine.
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 the Tyrolean Alps, 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...
Critics 89% · audiences 78% · streaming on Prime Video, Hoopla, YouTube (free) · $11 million in the US and Canada on its first run · about 11 million tickets sold, 6.0% of the country · 1 Oscar nomination
What they said about The Pink Panther
- 1963
Seldom has any comedian seemed to work so persistently and hard at trying to be violently funny with weak material
— Bosley Crowther, The New York Times - 1963
basically unoriginal and largely witless piece of farce carpentry that has to be pushed and heaved at stoutly in order to keep on the move.
— Bosley Crowther, The New York Times
How it got made
The film was conceived as "a sophisticated comedy about a charming, urbane jewel thief, Sir Charles Lytton". Peter Ustinov was originally cast as Clouseau, with Ava Gardner as his wife. Janet Leigh turned down the lead female role, as it meant being away from the United States for too long. Audrey Hepburn, Nancy Kwan, and Cyd Charisse were considered to play as Princess Dala before Claudia Cardinale was hired in the role.
Production was originally scheduled to begin at Cinecittà Studios in Rome on November 5, 1962. After Gardner backed out in October 1962 because The Mirisch Company would not meet her demands for a personal staff, Ustinov also left the project, delaying the project for several weeks. Blake Edwards cast Sellers to replace Ustinov after meeting him while he was on a weekend vacation in Rome. He also hired Capucine to replace Gardner. The entire cast with the exception of Niven, Wagner, and Cardinale were subsequent recast as well to better fit Sellers and Capucine's new portrayals of their characters. The Mirisch Company subsequently sued Ustinov for $175,000 in damages for breach of contract.
Production finally began at Cinecittà several days after Sellers was cast on November 19, 1962. Filming also took place at the Italian Alpine resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo in January 1963. Principal photography concluded in March 1963 with several days of location shooting in Paris and Los Angeles. According to the DVD commentary by Blake Edwards, the chase scene at the piazza (filmed at Piazza della Repubblica in Rocca di Papa) was an homage to a similar sequence 26 minutes into Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940).