HE LAUGHED LAST

Frankie Laine and Lucy Marlow

HE LAUGHED LAST (1956). Director: Blake Edwards. 

When prohibition mobster Big Dan Hennessy (Alan Reed of I, the Jury) is wiped out by an ambitious underling, Max (Jesse White), the latter discovers that the dead man has left everything to an employee, singer-dancer Rosie (Lucy Marlow), including his stake in all of his rackets. This causes problems for Rosie because she is engaged to a cop, Jimmy Murphy (Richard Long). Surveying all this while having little impact on events is the late Dan's benign henchman, Gino Lupo (Frankie Laine), who also sings now and then. Max cooks up the idea of having handsome dancer Dominic Rodriguez (Anthony Dexter of Fire Maidens of Outer Space) become Rosie's partner and romance her, hoping to win her heart and hand and control of the rackets for Max. But Rosie may have other plans. 

Dick Long with Marlow

After the success of the film version of Guys and Dolls the previous year, there were all sorts of Damon Runyonesque-type stories featuring comical gangsters, of which He Laughed Last is one of the worst. Despite the title, the movie has virtually no laughs, and no one in the cast is remotely amusing. Frankie Laine, whose character doesn't really have much to do in the story, has no great comic skill, Jesse White is as annoying and unfunny as ever, Richard Long is certainly no comedian, and although Lucy Marlow plays it cute she's not a barrel of laughs, either. Blake Edwards script is, in a word, a stinker, an idea that should never have seen the light of day. 

Marlow with Anthony Dexter

He Laughed Last is not an actual musical, although Marlow is given two numbers and Laine sings a couple of times as well. The one and only highlight of the picture is when Rosie and that Latin Lover Boy Dominic dance a sexy tango together and the movie is (very) temporarily scintillating. Dexter had played Valentino five years earlier and uses the smooth assurance he displayed in that film to good affect in this, but he doesn't have enough screen time. Blake Edwards also directed Bring Your Smile Along, his first film, which also featured Marlow and Laine. It's a question why Laine even chose to appear in this picture. This might be the only time Richard Long was billed as "Dick Long."

Verdict: One tango does not a worthwhile movie make. *1/2. 

THE PERFECT FURLOUGH

Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis

THE PERFECT FURLOUGH (1958). Director: Blake Edwards.

104 lonely men are stationed at an Arctic outpost and a notion is advanced to raise morale. One man will be chosen to go on a "perfect furlough," which is decided will be three weeks in Paris with the sexy movie queen Sandra Roca (Linda Cristal). Manipulating everyone behind the scenes, Corporal Paul Hodges (Tony Curtis) manages to become the winner. But when Colonel Leland (Les Tremayne) discovers that Hodges is an incurable skirt-chaser, he insists that his aide Major Collins (King Donovan) and Army psychologist Lt. Vicki Loren (Janet Leigh), who came up with the idea of the furlough, go along to keep Hodges out of trouble. But when Hodges gets a load of Sandra, this assignment may be more difficult than anyone imagines.

Elaine Stritch with Leigh

The Perfect Furlough could have been a smirking dirty joke but it's generally tasteful and consistently amusing. There are a lot of laughs in watching Hodges' efforts to escape from the MPs so he can hook up with Sandra -- who has a few surprises of her own -- as well as in the interplay between Hodges and a disapproving, yet attracted, Vicki. This is the perfect material for Curtis, who understandably has great chemistry with Leigh as the two were married at the time (1951 - 1962). While no comedian, Leigh is fine in the role, and there are excellent supporting performances from Elaine Stritch as Sandra's keeper; Tremayne and Donovan; Keenan Wynn as Sandra's manager; Alvy Moore as Private Brewer, who almost gets to go to Paris; and Gordon Jones as an MP. 

Argentinian actress Linda Cristal is cute, curvaceous and charming as Sandra, but she had her biggest success on television, starring in The High Chaparrral for several seasons. Troy Donahue [A Summer Place], playing a sergeant who accompanies Donovan and Leigh, is in the background in several scenes but has no dialogue. Another cast member who should be mentioned is the wonderful Jay Novello [The Mad Magician], who plays a French winemaker and lives with his father (Marcel Dalio), who hopes he'll get married. Lilyan Chauvin [Lost, Lonely and Vicious] shows up very briefly as a nurse. 

Verdict: Well-acted and funny fifties service comedy. ***. 

DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (1962)

Bottoms Up! Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick

DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (1962). Director: Blake Edwards.

"The world looks so dirty to me when I'm not drinking." -- Kirsten.

Joe Clay (Jack Lemmon) is a public relations man who likes his liquor. When he first meets Kirsten (Lee Remick), the two don't exactly hit it off, but a persistent Joe finally gets a date with her. Although Kirsten doesn't drink, or even particularly like the taste of alcohol, Joe importunes her to try a Brandy Alexander, and she discovers she likes getting tight. When the two get married and have a daughter, both discover that alcohol is playing too large a role in their lives, only Kirsten won't admit she has a problem.

Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick

Days of Wine and Roses is based on a classic and excellent television play that was presented on Playhouse 90 in 1958. J. P. Miller wrote the script for both the show and the movie, although some questionable elements were added.to "open up" the story (one imagines director Blake Edwards also had a hand in that). The casting of Jack Lemmon [How to Murder Your Wife], who was mostly known as a comedian at the time, apparently necessitated sequences fabricated to let the audience slowly get into the eventually sombre mood by turning the first third of the film into a comedy as Lemmon pursues a disinterested Remick [Anatomy of a Murder]. The movie nearly sinks with an utterly ridiculous sequence in which Joe tries to get rid of the cockroaches in Kirsten's apartment, and her neighbors inexplicably complain about it.

Jack Lemmon and Charles Bickford 

The film eventually settles down into the main story, detailing how Joe loses his job due to his drinking, his recognition that both he and his wife are bonafide alcoholics, their moving in with her father, Ellis (Charles Bickford reprising his role from the TV version), who owns a nursery that Joe nearly destroys during a binge. (In both the TV and theatrical version we're not shown Ellis' reaction when he discovers what his son-in-law has done, which might have made for one intensely dramatic sequence.)

Lee Remick

Days of Wine and Roses is a good picture that is bolstered by fine performances from Lemmon (helping to establish him as a dramatic player as well as a comic one), Remick (possibly her best performance), and Bickford. Jack Klugman [12 Angry Men] is much less impressive as a representative of AA who tries to help Joe. The TV version is generally superior to the movie. In the original teleplay Joe is not responsible for Kirsten starting drinking, which he is in the film, and in the movie he never seems to feel any guilt about it. In the film Lemmon almost immediately takes a drink when Remick, in her lonely motel room, begs him to join her, whereas Cliff Robertson sits contemplating the bottle for awhile before he gives in. All in all, the teleplay is better if for no other reason than that it doesn't waste time with the sitcom-like stuff that the movie does. Both versions sort of gloss over the financial angles of the characters' situation, and other things are a bit prettified as well.

Verdict: Worthwhile picture, although not as good as the original. ***. 

EXPERIMENT IN TERROR

Ross Martin

EXPERIMENT IN TERROR (1962). Produced and directed by Blake Edwards.

Kelly Sherwood (Lee Remick) is a bank teller who lives with her teenage sister, Toby (Stefanie Powers of Die, Die, My Darling). One night a stranger named Red Lynch (Ross Martin) sneaks up behind her in her garage and tells her she has to steal $100,000 from her bank or there will be dire consequences for her and her sister. Kelly manages to contact the FBI, and Agent Ripley (Glenn Ford) is assigned to the case, trying both to find and identify Lynch and to protect Kelly and her sister from harm. Eventually it is decided to let Kelly go along with the plot in an effort to trap Lynch, with the climax occurring in a crowded stadium. Experiment in Terror begins well and has a couple of decent sequences, but Blake Edwards is no suspense specialist, and the film becomes meandering, uninvolving, and rather dull. Remick gives a controlled and competent performance but doesn't offer one iota more for her portrayal; Powers is much better as her sister. Ford plays the "G-Man" with a quiet authority that never quite makes him seem like the best man for the job. Anita Loo and Patricia Huston have flavorful supporting roles as two women who were also in Lynch's life, to the former's advantage and the latter's regret. Ross Martin gives the most notable performance as the criminal "mastermind" who seems to have some sympathy for the little son of a woman he knows and whose hospital bills he is paying, but his character is not very well developed; three years later he gained TV fame on The Wild, Wild West and he was also outstanding in the classic TZ episode Death Ship. Henry Mancini's score is at times quite effective, and Philip Lathrop's cinematography of San Francisco and environs is also good.

Verdict: Paging Alfred Hitchcock. **. 

THE PARTY

Sellers distracts audience from Longet's singing

THE PARTY (1968). Director: Blake Edwards.

"That was a short career, wasn't it?"

Hrundi V.Bakshi (Peter Sellers) is a transplanted-to-Hollywood Indian actor who completely messes up a film produced by Fred Clutterbuck (J. Edward McKinley), with the result that Clutterbuck wants the hapless thespian blacklisted. However, instead of being put on a blacklist, Bakshi winds up on the guest list to the Clutterbuck's latest A list party. While it's not quite true that Bakshi "destroys" the party -- he has help from a drunk waiter (Steve Franken), a group of teens who are friends of the Clutterbuck daughter, and a baby elephant -- Baksi does do his share of damage. The Party doesn't have nearly enough laugh-out-loud moments, but there's something amiable and pleasant about the picture, much like the lead character, well-played by Sellers, himself. Sellers' leading lady is Claudine Longet, who is also ... pleasant ... but the film's lowlight is her "singing" a song in her usual whispery non-musical style, pronouncing "dream" as "dWeam" and so on -- she's just awful, the Florence Foster Jenkins of pop. Once married to Andy Williams, who somehow managed to get her a singing career, Longet is most famous for shooting her lover, a ski champion!  Besides Franken, who is quite amusing as the half-shot waiter, there are notable turns from  Gavin MacLeod as a horny director, Fay McKenzie as Clutterbuck's wife, and Denny Miller as a handsome actor who gets a kick out of Bakshi's adoration. Carol Wayne is a party guest but has little to do.

Verdict: Basically a Blake Edwards home movie but not without its charms. ***.

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S

Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (1961). Director: Blake Edwards.

Paul Varjak (George Peppard) is an author being kept by the married Mrs. Fallenson (Patricia Neal). Paul meets his slightly kooky neighbor, Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn), who has no desire to talk about her past. Holly makes her living accepting gifts from men. Will these two hustlers triumph over their demons and find true love? Breakfast at Tiffany's is the kind of utterly artificial movie that only Hollywood could churn out, not dealing with reality on any particular level. Part of the problem, of course, is that the film is a complete bowdlerization of Truman Capote's novella, on which this was very loosely based. (In turn, Holly was inspired by Christopher Isherwood's Sally Bowles). Hollywood needed to "straighten" out the Paul character so a romance between the two main characters was fabricated. Hepburn's performance is more than adequate for this, but Holly never seems like a real person. Often through the movie Hepburn is self-consciously "cute" and seems over-rehearsed without a moment of spontaneity. Peppard [The Carpetbaggers] does the best he can with his own underwritten and dishonest role. Patricia Neal [Diplomatic Courier] adds a degree of class in the thankless role of the "cougar" (as we would say today) with a hankering for Paul. To say she is one-dimensional is a major understatement. Mickey Rooney is surprisingly good in his way as Holly's excitable upstairs neighbor, but others have also noted that he is an hysterical Japanese caricature. The movie does have some nice moments, such as an excellent scene between Holly and her ex-husband, Doc (Buddy Ebsen, who would star in The Beverly Hillbillies one year later), when they say farewell at a bus station. And cat fanciers will go "ahh" over the shot of Holly's poor cat sadly looking after her after she (temporarily) sets her free. Mercer and Mancini's "Moon River" is possibly the best thing about the movie.

Verdict: Bohemians strictly from Hollywood. **1/2.

BRING YOUR SMILE ALONG

William Leslie and Constance Towers

BRING YOUR SMILE ALONG (1955). Director: Blake Edwards.

School teacher Nancy Willows (Constance Towers) leaves her job to go to New York and find work as a lyricist. Before you can say "are you kidding me?" Nancy just happens to discover that a composer named Marty (Keefe Brasselle) lives across the hall with his roommate, Jerry (Frankie Laine), an aspiring singer. Before long Nancy and Marty are writing successful tunes while Nancy worries about her fiance, David (William Leslie) back home and her developing feelings for Marty. Meanwhile Jerry becomes a big singing star. Bring Your Smile Along was a vehicle for Frankie Laine, who was very popular at the time. Aside from appearances in TV episodes, and one other movie besides this one, Laine generally played himself in pictures. He has a nice voice (despite occasionally irritating vocal tics), an appealing presence, and is not a bad actor for this kind of stuff; he makes a much better impression in this than he did playing himself in the earlier Sunny Side of the Street. Towers was introduced in this picture (this was also the first film for director Blake Edwards, who would make one more film with Laine) and is as lovely and adept as ever. Considering her fine singing voice -- she appeared on Broadway with Yul Brynner in a revival of The King and I -- you would think "Nancy" would have pursued a singing career instead of work as a lyricist. Brasselle and Leslie [Andy Hardy Comes Home], as the two men in her life, are both good, and both Lucy Marlow and Bobby Clark make an impression as, respectively, the secretary Marge, who falls for Laine, and the cute little neighborhood kid, Waldo. Some memorable songs include the title tune, "If Spring Never Comes," and "Mamma Mia." Towers remains married to John Gavin of Psycho fame.

Verdict: Strangely appealing if minor musical. **1/2.

GUNN

GUNN (1967). Director: Blake Edwards. Screenplay by Edwards and William Peter Blatty.

"My theory is that the human race is just a temporary experiment on the earth, and the experiment is failing" -- Lt. Jacoby

The TV series Peter Gunn had been off the air for seven years -- it ran three seasons from 1958 - 1960 -- when this big-screen adaptation played in theaters. Craig Stevens [Where the Sidewalk Ends] was forty-nine when he reprised the character in spite of the fact that private eyes in the movies were quickly being replaced by super-spies like James Bond. [The poster art for the movie tried to make it seem like an 007-type adventure, which it isn't.] The supporting players on the TV show were replaced in the movie, with Laura Devon filling in for Lola Albright as singer/sometime girlfriend, Edie; Ed Asner substituting for Herschel Bernardi as Lt. Jacoby; and -- of all people -- Wagnerian opera diva Helen Traubel taking over from Hope Emerson and Minerva Urekal as Mother, who owns the nightclub where Edie sings and Peter kibitzes. Gunn, despite being in color with slightly more elaborate production values, plays like an extra-long episode of the series. When a mobster named Scarlatti is murdered, the chief suspect is another criminal character named Fusco (Albert Paulsen). A shady lady named Daisy Jane (Marion Marshall) hires Peter to prove that Fusco was the killer. Along the way there are a couple more dead bodies for Gunn to trip over. To make the whole thing more contemporary, Mother's nightspot is turned into a rock club (after it is, once again, blown up, as it was at least once in the series), and one of the characters turns out to be a transvestite/transsexual a la Mickey Spillane [see the Mike Hammer novel, Vengeance is Mine.] There are a couple of twists and a fairly vicious final fight scene. Stevens plays Gunn in the same [one] note as before, and the other actors are fine, with Jean Carson making an impression as a flippant waitress in a diner.

Verdict: Perhaps this "gunn" was fired once too often. **.

THE GREAT RACE

Blink and you'll miss her: Vivian Vance

THE GREAT RACE (1965). Director: Blake Edwards.

Near the turn of the century, rival daredevils Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon) and the Great Leslie (Tony Curtis), among others, embark on a race from New York to Paris (they go way up north and head for Siberia to make their way into Europe). They are joined by Maggie Dubois (Natalie Wood), a suffragette and wannabee reporter. Along the way -- the very longgg way -- they have assorted misadventures ... Frankly, I only put on The Great Race because I heard Vivian Vance [The Blue Veil] was in it. Unfortunately, "Ethel" -- now playing the wife of newspaper editor Arthur O'Connell -- is a mere "guest star" and is on screen for at best a minute and a half. Boo hiss! Worse, the movie is nearly three hours long. No, it's not awful and there are enough entertaining moments and good acting to keep you watching, but there's no need for this picture to be so long. (The movie is, rather presumptuously, dedicated to Laurel and Hardy, who certainly never needed three hours to make a funny movie!) Probably inspired by the success of such mammoth productions as Around the World in 80 Days and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Great Race is bloated and episodic, with way too many digressions. There is a long and unnecessary detour involving a foppish (or stereotypically gay?) prince who happens to be a lookalike of Fate's, a sequence which could and should have been excised from the final cut, despite some good performances from Lemmon as the prince and George Macready as a conniving member of his court. A sequence for some reason situated in the old west has Dorothy Provine [Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die] -- looking sort of like a monkey with a bouffant hairpiece that threatens to topple off of her head any minute -- belting out a terrible number, but at least it leads into a fairly rousing bar fight. On the other hand, a pie fight that caps the prince sequence goes on too long (keeping in with the "theme" of the movie) and hasn't a single laugh. Oddly, the best scene in the movie is a well-cut and choreographed sword and saber fight between Curtis and Ross Martin that isn't played for laughs but plays. Jack Lemmon is in manic mode (as he was in Luv) throughout the movie but is effective on that sometimes irritating level. Curtis and Wood are Curtis and Wood, although they are well-coached in their line readings. Keenan Wynn, Larry Storch, Macready and Martin make a better impression.

Verdict: Not quite "Blake's Folly" -- but not for lack of trying. **1/2.

MR. LUCKY (TV SERIES)

Ross Martin, Betty Garde, and John Vivyan

 MR. LUCKY television series.1959. Created by  Blake Edwards.

In this series, one of several created by Blake Edwards, Mr. Lucky (John Vivyan) -- with no first name -- operates a legal gambling ship outside the limit with his friend, associate and fellow adventurer Andamo (Ross Martin) -- which could be the fellow's first name or last. The boat is named the Fortuna, which means luck. Halfway through the first and only season of the show, Lucky decides to give up gambling and turn the Fortuna into an exclusive and very expensive private restaurant and night spot; oddly the scripts seemed somewhat better afterward and there was even more action. Pippa Scott was a semi-regular who played Lucky's girlfriend while Andamo played the field. Another character who appeared frequently was Lt. Rovaks, (Tim Brown), whose voice was so squeaky that he sounded like a cartoon character [maybe "Lucky Duck."] Mr. Lucky, frankly, was not one of the classic shows of television, nor was it one of Edwards' better or more successful series, but some of the generally mediocre episodes were somewhat more memorable than usual, with the best single episode being one wherein Lucky gets targeted by a hit woman played by Mari Blanchard. Another memorable episode has Jack Nicholson and Richard Chamberlain robbing the Fortuna and its customers at gunpoint. There were plenty of desperate, kooky or sinister females, as well as gangsters [one of whom is played by Lou Krugman, from the "Lucy Gets in Pictures" episode of I Love Lucy] and other reprobates. Despite the competent and often charming performances of the two leads -- although Vivyan was a borderline stiff -- the characters were shadowy and never quite came alive. Other guest-stars on the show included Betty Garde [that tough maid in a classic Honeymooners episode]; Grant Williams, Barbara Bain, Cyril Delevanti, Eleanor Audley, Lee Van Cleef, Nita Talbot, and Doris Singleton [Carolyn/Lillian Appleby on I Love Lucy] who's striking as an especially ruthless female with murder on her mind. Henry Mancini's music is nothing special. Ross Martin ["Death Ship" on The Twilight Zone] would have much more success with The Wild, Wild West a few years later.

Verdict: Stick with Mike Hammer with Darren McGavin.**

RICHARD DIAMOND, PRIVATE DETECTIVE Season 1

Janssen as the urbane Richard Diamond

RICHARD DIAMOND, PRIVATE DETECTIVE Season 1. 1957.

In this popular series which lasted four seasons, David Janssen plays a New York City private detective, a former cop, who's a lot more polished and urbane [if somewhat less interesting]  than Mike Hammer. While one can't imagine Hammer fitting in at a society party, that's not the case with Diamond. The first season only had twelve episodes, but they were interesting enough to make the public want more. The best of these episodes were "The Peter Rocco Case" [with Charles Bronson], in which a woman wants Diamond to find her son, an escaped convict who is gunning for Diamond; and "The Venus of Park Avenue," in which a young woman claims that a valuable ancient statue is actually of more recent vintage. The first had very good twists, and the second was very suspenseful. Most of the other episodes, while not as good, were at least a "B' in quality. Regis Toomey plays a police detective in most of the episodes. Diamond was created by Blake Edwards. The theme music is notable, especially the music that plays over the closing credits. Janssen's rather large ears are sometimes a distraction, but he's good in the role.

Verdict: This has possibilities. **1/2.

DARLING LILI [DIRECTOR'S CUT]

Hudson and Andrews

DARLING LILI (1970). Director: Blake Edwards.

NOTE: This review is of the shortened, more "serious" director's cut put together by Edwards twenty years or so after the film's original release. The DVD also contains nearly an hour of the missing footage.

Lili Smith (Julie Andrews) is a beloved music hall singer who visits injured allied troops during WW1, but she's also a German agent who passes along information that she gets from high-ranking officers. Her latest conquest is Major William Larabee (Rock Hudson), who is up to his neck in something called Operation Crepe Suzette. When Lili, who is falling for the major, discovers that there's a sexy French singer named "Crepe Suzette" (Gloria Paul), she assumes that she is the "operation" and decides to get revenge. Once you accept that Darling Lili is another one of those movies that operates in its own dimension -- there is little sense of time and place, location, or even that there's much of a war on -- and that it is not to be taken seriously, it's decidedly enjoyable on its own terms. Andrews is hardly the best choice for a Mata Hari-type, but she gives a good performance, as does the supporting cast. Hudson is okay, but although he's supposed to be Andrews' co-star, in this version of the film he hasn't much to do. Gloria Paul nearly steals the movie in her turn as Suzette, who has a memorably erotic dance number. The completely unrealistic ending has Hudson and soldiers seemingly ignoring the fact that Lili's spying might have cost the lives of hundreds of their comrades.  Of course, the casting of "Von Trapp" Andrews [combined with the light tone of the film] makes some of her other reprehensible actions -- such as framing an innocent woman out of jealousy  -- more "palatable." "Whistling in the Dark" is a nice number, well-warbled by Andrews.

Verdict: This should have been much darker, but provides modest entertainment as it is. ***.

DANTE

Alan Mowbray and  Howard Duff

DANTE (1960). Created by Blake Edwards.

"You might even find that honesty's fun!"

This TV show with an interesting premise lasted just one season. Willie Dante (Howard Duff) is a gambler who has spent some time in jail. He is now determined to go straight, and with two former confederates, Stewart (Alan Mowbray) and Biff (Tom D'Andrea), goes into the nightclub business, opening a place called Dante's Inferno. Of course many customers and cops think Dante is up to his old tricks and wonder where he's hiding the roulette wheel. People from his past -- old cronies, old crooks and old girlfriends -- keep popping up at Dante's, and he's usually suspected of being involved in whatever crime -- be it jewel robbery, blackmail or murder -- that has embroiled the people who come to him for help. [Dante is a little reminiscent of another show entitled Mr. Lucky, which debuted the year before.] While the show was well-acted and had some interesting stories, it never quite takes off, and that's probably due to star Duff. Duff is actually quite good as Willie Dante, suitably gruff and tough as the man probably would be, but even when he's romancing the ladies Duff lacks charm and that all-important likability, which might have kept more people tuning in each week. [I mean, I've never heard anyone say they were a Howard Duff fan or "loved" Howard Duff.] Mowbray and D'Andrea are fine as, respectively, the maitre'd and bartender, as is Bert Frees as Sgt. Rickard.

Among the better episodes: "One for the Birds" involving blackmail is an excellent and suspenseful story; "Dial D for Dante" has the restaurateur with a $50,000 price on his head; everyone thinks Dante knows the location of some stolen loot in "Dante Rides Again" (with a sterling guest-starring performance from Nita Talbot); Charles MacGraw is excellent as a cop who thinks Dante is responsible for his brother's death in "Hunter with a Badge;" someone else goes gunning for Dante in "Friendly Assassin;" and in "The Sesame Key" the cops think a series of cat burglaries are somehow tied to Dante's Inferno. This episode guest-stars both Joan Marshall (AKA Jean Arless of Homicidal fame) and Nora Hayden of The Angry Red Planet; both are quite good. Other notable guest-stars include Allison Hayes, Carol Ohmart, Mary Jane Croft, Patricia Medina, William Hudson, Andrea King, Ed Platt, Ruta Lee, Dick Foran, and an especially good Marion Ross. Most of the teleplays were written or co-written by Harold Jack Bloom.  

Verdict: An entertaining show that just misses being special. **1/2.

REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER

REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER (1978). Director: Blake Edwards.

The fifth movie in which Peter Sellers plays Inspector Clouseau begins with a snappy new version of the classic Pink Panther theme. A crime boss named Douvier (Robert Webber) decides to prove that he still has cojones by ordering a hit on Clouseau and killing the "great" arch enemy of villains. The plot seems to succeed -- one of the film's highlights is a sane, reinstated Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) giving the eulogy! -- but Clouseau has merely gone undercover. His manservant Cato (Burt Kwouk) has opened a "Chinese nookie factory" in Clouseau's apartment, presided over by Madame Wong. Sellers and Lom are as wonderful and funny as ever, and Dyan Cannon makes the most of her part as Douvier's rejected lover. The trouble with this installment is that it eventually becomes very frenetic but not that funny.

Verdict: Not up to the rest of the series but not without its moments. **1/2.

THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN

Herbert Lom and Peter Sellers

THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN (1976). Director: Blake Edwards.

Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), driven mad by the incompetency of Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers), is about to be released as sane from an institution where he has resided for months when who should come calling but his nemesis, leading to a hilarious encounter on the grounds of the nuthouse. And this is just the prologue. In one of the wildest and funniest "Pink Panther" movies the now totally deranged Dreyfus attempts to wipe out the entire world with a device from his secret headquarters and only Inspector Clouseau can stop him. Lord save us all! There's an amusing scene in a gay bar [naturally Clouseau hasn't a clue], and a "dental" sequence with Lom and Sellers -- both are in top form in this -- that is one of the funniest things in the picture. Michael Robbins is memorable as the butler/drag queen Jarvis, and Omar Sharif has a cameo as an Egyptian assassin. Lesley-Anne Down is the spy, Olga, and Dudley Sutton of The Leather Boys is McClaren. Lom and Sellers make an absolutely splendid comic "team."

Verdict: A very funny movie. ***1/2.

THE RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER

THE RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER (1975). Director: Blake Edwards.

12 years after making The Pink Panther [and its sequel A Shot in the Dark] Peter Sellers and Blake Edwards revived their careers by re-teaming in another Inspector Clouseau comedy. The Pink Panther diamond has again been stolen, and fingers point at the Phantom (now played by Christopher Plummer), who is married and retired and innocent of the crime. He determines to discover who it is, just as Clouseau (Peter Sellers) is put on the case at the request of the museum from which the gem was lifted. [There's no attempt at continuity with the original films. Clouseau is seen as the man who "solved" the pink panther case, even though he was actually arrested for the crime at the end of The Pink Panther.] Catherine Schell is the Phantom's wife, and Herbert Lom is back as Inspector Dreyfus (his murder spree in A Shot in the Dark being similarly forgotten). Sellers and Lom are wonderful, Schell is competent, and Plummer, running around breaking fingers in a sadistic fashion you can't imagine David Niven [who played the part originally] employing, exhibits all the charm of a rabid skunk. Despite that, the movie is a welcome addition to the Clouseau filmography.

Verdict: Imperfect but very amusing. ***.

THE PINK PANTHER

THE PINK PANTHER (1963). Director: Blake Edwards.

The "Pink Panther" is an enormous diamond with a flaw that resembles the title animal. There is an ongoing legal debate as to whether it belongs to the people or to Princess Dahla (the smoky-voiced Claudia Cardinale). In any case, stealing it is the next project for a master thief known as the Phantom, but -- as we learn really on -- is really the dapper Sir Charles Lytton (David Niven). Bumbling French inspector Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers) is assigned to protecting the jewel, completely unaware that his wife (Capucine) is not only having an affair with Sir Charles but is the Phantom's accomplice! Complicating matters is Sir Charles' American nephew, George (Robert Wagner), who makes a play for Mrs. Clouseau when she accidentally winds up in his bed. Although this film introduced Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau character, it is by no means an "Inspector Clouseau" movie as he's just one of several characters -- one could argue that Niven is the star [although he has equal billing with Sellers] and gets more screen time. There are amusing scenes and good performances in the movie -- Sellers is marvelous -- but for a farce the pace at times is much too leisurely. And on occasion the comedy gets pretty desperate, with not one but two men running around in that tired old standby, a gorilla suit! The film was extremely popular, however, and eventually engendered a great many sequels both with Sellers and without. One of the best was the immediate follow-up, A Shot in the Dark. 

Verdict: Amusingly frenetic at times, but chiefly memorable as introducing Sellers' Clouseau. **1/2.

A SHOT IN THE DARK

Elke Sommer and Peter Sellers go au natural

A SHOT IN THE DARK (1964). Director: Blake Edwards.

"I know I fell off the sofa, madame -- everything I do is carefully planned."

The second "Pink Panther" film with Peter Sellers as the bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau is an amusing trifle that may just tickle your funny bone if you're in the right mood. Clouseau is called in when the chauffeur of Mssr. Ballon (the ever-wry George Sanders) is found dead in the bedroom of the maid, Maria (Elke Sommer). Maria is the chief suspect, but Clouseau -- smitten by her beauty and with no real facts to back him up -- is convinced that she is innocent. Highlights of the film include Clouseau's visit to a nudist colony where he wants to arrest someone for indecent exposure until he realizes where he is; a darkly comic segment wherein several innocent bystanders are wiped out by someone trying to kill Clouseau who has really lousy luck -- and aim; and the climax when clueless Clouseau confronts all the gathered suspects in the drawing room. Sellers is wonderful, matched if not bettered by Herbert Lom's hilarious turn as his apoplectic boss, Charles Dreyfus, who is literally driven mad by Clouseau's ineptitude. Martin Benson of The Cosmic Monsters plays a butler. Probably inspired by Sellers, Sommer [The Money Trap] is better than usual

Verdict: Some very funny stuff here. ***.