Return of the pink panther play script movie#
Indeed, years later, first-billed David Niven, who’d originally hoped the movie would inaugurate a “ Thin Man”-type franchise for him, asked that Henry Mancini’s signature “Pink Panther” theme not be used during his entrance at the Oscars ceremony, with the graceful explanation that it “really wasn’t my film.” The part was inevitably built up over the course of the shoot, and by the end of production, few doubted that this film would make Sellers a star. Working off each other, actor and director were constantly thinking up bits of business, and Sellers was encouraged to improvise. In Sellers, Edwards found the comic collaborator he’d always sought, and all of a sudden, the secondary character of Inspector Jacques Clouseau was stealing every scene he was in. Then along came Peter, a walking storehouse of madness, a ham with an almost surrealist approach to the insanity of things, and we found an immediate affinity.” Their collaboration would last (on-and-off) for another 17 years, until the actor’s premature death from heart failure. The director had felt an immediate connection with this complex, mercurial performer, and trusted it.Īs he put it: “For years I'd been getting bits of what I wanted into films, as writer or director.but I had never had an area in which to exploit my ideas to the full. The year after the release of “ The Pink Panther,” he’d win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar playing a bumbling thief in Jules Dassin’s “ Topkapi” - which, by coincidence, also involved the theft of a priceless jewel.)Įdwards then took a chance on a British comic named Peter Sellers, who, despite a featured part in Stanley Kubrick’s “ Lolita” (1962), had yet to break through in the States. (Though he may have later regretted passing up the role, it hardly hurt his career. Whatever the reason, he backed out of the project. Whether this move prompted Ustinov to withdraw is not known for certain. Talented and beautiful though she was, Capucine was not a star. In a bind, Edwards cast French actress Capucine in the role. Then Janet decided against it since she'd just re-married and didn’t want to leave her new husband. However, Ava made too many demands and wanted too much money. To play the inspector’s unfaithful wife, Edwards wanted either Ava Gardner or Janet Leigh. He’d followed this up with such high-profile pictures as “ The Sundowners” (1960) and “ Billy Budd” (1962). Ustinov was an established name, having broken out in Stanley Kubrick’s “ Spartacus” three years earlier.
Return of the pink panther play script series#
(A few years later, this coolest of cats would win his own animated series on Saturday morning TV!)Īs to the role of the bumbling French inspector investigating the theft, Edwards had top character actor Peter Ustinov in mind. The actual Pink Panther character only took shape when Edwards decided the film could use an animated opening, and animators David DePatie and Friz Freleng came up with the slim, cheeky panther on two legs that would swiftly take on a life of its own. Surprisingly often, success in Hollywood is the result of happy, fortuitous accidents.įor example, when writer/director Blake Edwards first came up with the idea for the first “ Pink Panther” outing, he envisioned a spoof of a heist film, with veteran star David Niven playing a suave jewel thief, much like Cary Grant in “ To Catch A Thief.” In the majority of cases where a single film evolves into a highly successful franchise, no one has any clue this might happen at the outset.
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