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"The Pink Panther" (1964) blu ray is identical to the earlier anamorphically enhanced
standard DVD released by MGM which was the successor owner of all UA
titles when that studio went bust following the "Heavan's Gate" debacle in 1980.
The exception is the greater pixel count so the image is sharper but the color is
the same. The superimpositions are a bit grainier since digital exagerates the problems
of the duplicating stock back then but the remaining fades and dissolves are
the same generation as the rest of the film because the 35mm Technirama negative
was A & B rolled for printing. It's most noticeable during the animated credits which
are not up the quality of the rest of the movie. In addition, the greater detail of the
blu ray format shows up smudges and dust on the cells. That aside, most of the picture
looks spectacular in high definition. This is one of the movies that made Technicolor
"Glorious" along with the director's "The Great Race". Since a huge negative was
used exposing an 8 sprocket horizontal image in 35mm with a 25 % anamorphic
squeeze, the standard scope reduction prints were very fine grain and colorful.
This is the best looking of the series and it's clear they had a larger budget than
the subsequent features which were all printed at De Luxe. The locations are
very plush as are the Cinecitta sets. Henry Mancini's music is catchy and his
colaboration with the director was one of the great teams in cinema.
As for the movie itself, it's the first 'official' Pink Panther movie...sort of...and by
accident. The original concept was to make a comedy variation of Hitchcock's
"To Catch a Thief" with David Niven playing the same type of role as Cary Grant.
Niven is fine of course. Very charming and debonair as always. Peter Sellers had
the secondary role of the detective tracking him down known as "Inspector Cleauseau".
But as the shooting developed, Seller kept expanding the role and improvising and he
ended up stealing the movie away from Niven to such a degree that when the real
plot keeps resurfacing in every other scene, it comes off as a distraction. Seller's
slapstick routines are hysterical and Blake Edwards does funny variations of the Marx
Brothers bedroom hopping as well as having a lot of the humor appear off screen.
The scenes with Niven attempting to seduce Claudia Cardinale seem to go on forever
and the pay off is weak. Robert Wagner is amiable but his character seems
irrelevant to the story and he could easily been cut out.
So as I watched this film for the first time in a while and compared it to the rest
of the series, I found it entertaining but uneven. The best Cleauseau movie was
actually the second, "A Shot in the Dark", which set up the other re-occuring characters
that would be regulars from then on. It was also an 'accidental' Pink Panther movie in
that Sellers had contracted to make the picture as a standard mystery but hated
the script. He called up Edwards and asked him to direct it and he agreed providing he
could adapt it into another spoof starring the bumbling detective and the rest is history.
If you've seen the later Cleauseau comedies you will miss Herbert Lom as Seller's
frustrated boss who is not in this film, nor is Kato, his karate sparring partner.
The film was reportedly shown in 70mm when it was first relesed in 1964 as well as in
35mm mono Technicolor. If this is accurate, it doesn't sound as if they used the six
track stereo 70mm mix for this 5.1 version. The sound field is very limited although the
bouncy music is helped by the two front channel separation. It sounds as if they mixed
it from the surviving elements from scratch. 70mm mixes were very directional and
lively in the sixties. UA was unusual in that they rarely released films in 35mm stereo
although they did produce some 70mm movies.
Blake Edwards commentary is the same as the standard definition version and is rather
melancholy. The director obviously misses his friends who did not die peacefully. Capucine commited suicide at 59, Niven of Lou Gehrig's disease, Sellers of a heart attack at age 55 and Mancini of cancer at age 70.
He does give a bit of interesting trivia here and there like crew members who did
cameos but his battles with Sellers is barely referenced. The two of them fought
like crazy during the productions but the end results were so good and profitable,
it became their volatile working relationship. He also assumes the viewer is familiar
with Hollywood history so when he refers to "Julie", his wife, you'll know he means Julie Andrews. I'm not sure that is the case.
In summary for the blu ray version: Picture: A-, Sound B, color and cinematography A +,
performances A, screenplay B
standard DVD released by MGM which was the successor owner of all UA
titles when that studio went bust following the "Heavan's Gate" debacle in 1980.
The exception is the greater pixel count so the image is sharper but the color is
the same. The superimpositions are a bit grainier since digital exagerates the problems
of the duplicating stock back then but the remaining fades and dissolves are
the same generation as the rest of the film because the 35mm Technirama negative
was A & B rolled for printing. It's most noticeable during the animated credits which
are not up the quality of the rest of the movie. In addition, the greater detail of the
blu ray format shows up smudges and dust on the cells. That aside, most of the picture
looks spectacular in high definition. This is one of the movies that made Technicolor
"Glorious" along with the director's "The Great Race". Since a huge negative was
used exposing an 8 sprocket horizontal image in 35mm with a 25 % anamorphic
squeeze, the standard scope reduction prints were very fine grain and colorful.
This is the best looking of the series and it's clear they had a larger budget than
the subsequent features which were all printed at De Luxe. The locations are
very plush as are the Cinecitta sets. Henry Mancini's music is catchy and his
colaboration with the director was one of the great teams in cinema.
As for the movie itself, it's the first 'official' Pink Panther movie...sort of...and by
accident. The original concept was to make a comedy variation of Hitchcock's
"To Catch a Thief" with David Niven playing the same type of role as Cary Grant.
Niven is fine of course. Very charming and debonair as always. Peter Sellers had
the secondary role of the detective tracking him down known as "Inspector Cleauseau".
But as the shooting developed, Seller kept expanding the role and improvising and he
ended up stealing the movie away from Niven to such a degree that when the real
plot keeps resurfacing in every other scene, it comes off as a distraction. Seller's
slapstick routines are hysterical and Blake Edwards does funny variations of the Marx
Brothers bedroom hopping as well as having a lot of the humor appear off screen.
The scenes with Niven attempting to seduce Claudia Cardinale seem to go on forever
and the pay off is weak. Robert Wagner is amiable but his character seems
irrelevant to the story and he could easily been cut out.
So as I watched this film for the first time in a while and compared it to the rest
of the series, I found it entertaining but uneven. The best Cleauseau movie was
actually the second, "A Shot in the Dark", which set up the other re-occuring characters
that would be regulars from then on. It was also an 'accidental' Pink Panther movie in
that Sellers had contracted to make the picture as a standard mystery but hated
the script. He called up Edwards and asked him to direct it and he agreed providing he
could adapt it into another spoof starring the bumbling detective and the rest is history.
If you've seen the later Cleauseau comedies you will miss Herbert Lom as Seller's
frustrated boss who is not in this film, nor is Kato, his karate sparring partner.
The film was reportedly shown in 70mm when it was first relesed in 1964 as well as in
35mm mono Technicolor. If this is accurate, it doesn't sound as if they used the six
track stereo 70mm mix for this 5.1 version. The sound field is very limited although the
bouncy music is helped by the two front channel separation. It sounds as if they mixed
it from the surviving elements from scratch. 70mm mixes were very directional and
lively in the sixties. UA was unusual in that they rarely released films in 35mm stereo
although they did produce some 70mm movies.
Blake Edwards commentary is the same as the standard definition version and is rather
melancholy. The director obviously misses his friends who did not die peacefully. Capucine commited suicide at 59, Niven of Lou Gehrig's disease, Sellers of a heart attack at age 55 and Mancini of cancer at age 70.
He does give a bit of interesting trivia here and there like crew members who did
cameos but his battles with Sellers is barely referenced. The two of them fought
like crazy during the productions but the end results were so good and profitable,
it became their volatile working relationship. He also assumes the viewer is familiar
with Hollywood history so when he refers to "Julie", his wife, you'll know he means Julie Andrews. I'm not sure that is the case.
In summary for the blu ray version: Picture: A-, Sound B, color and cinematography A +,
performances A, screenplay B
