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Rating: One evening I wanted to have fun but didn't feel like leaving the house. So I spent some time rummaging through my dear, old VHS tapes. And guess what I came across first... "The Pink Panther Strikes Again." It had been a long time since I last watched it, but I still remembered the convulsions caused by laughter that plagued me throughout the viewing. And I remembered well, because even after watching it again, I risked a sudden heart attack several times.
Proof of the exceptional comedy of the Edwards-Sellers duo had already been demonstrated in "The Party," but this time they truly cross every boundary. I want to emphasize that this film belongs to the cultured-comic genre, so forget any hint of vulgarity and/or obscenity like that of Boldi/De Sica (also because it was another time, 1976). Through his naive and reckless personality, Inspector Clouseau knocks out every enemy or adversary without even realizing it. The plot, despite common stereotypes linked to the comedy genre, is very rich and revolves entirely around the incompetent inspector's spontaneous ability to cause chaos. Dreyfus, the former chief inspector of the Paris Police, has been locked up in a mental asylum because he is obsessed with the idea of killing Clouseau (who has now taken his place), who has driven him crazy. The day of his release approaches, and unfortunately, the cursed inspector visits him, triggering (again) a murderous outburst. Determined to end Clouseau once and for all, Dreyfus escapes from the asylum and tries to blow up his enemy's house, but due to a farcical and totally improbable mishap, he fails. But he doesn't give up and begins to build a personal mafia to destroy Clouseau. Thanks to the help of a monstrous machine that can make anything disappear, Dreyfus will blackmail the secret services of the entire world to ensure that Clouseau is eliminated from the face of the earth. As per the script, Clouseau foils Dreyfus's criminal plans (which leads to Dreyfus's demise) before England is wiped out. This is all seasoned with great ideas, a Sellers in great shape, and brilliant sequences of disarming comedy.
Among the best: the fake fight between Clouseau and Cato, the butler (a parody of Jackie Chan); the multiple killings among spies at Oktoberfest (with incorporated political satire); the final scene between Dreyfus and Clouseau disguised as a dentist with Nitrous Oxide (also seen in "Lethal Weapon 4"). Besides this, there are the typical phrases of the inspector distorted in French ("I would like a stonza") and a very subtle irony ("What kind of bomb was it?", "An explosive kind"). There's nothing more to say; this is not a film of poetics and images, this is a film of phrases and movements, almost entirely centered on the actors, almost a gigantic cabaret, drawing greater strength from physical comedy (a factor that united Edwards and Sellers at 100%, always on the rest quite in contrast) rather than verbal comedy (like Totò). My advice, however, is before watching this film, to watch "The Party." If you can withstand that, then it's likely you'll do the same with this one here. The Pink Panther?!? I've been wondering for years what it has to do with this film, considering that for the rest it's a big pink-colored diamond (never mentioned here).
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