The Pink Panther Strikes Again 4K 1976 Ultra HD 2160p

Charles Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) escapes from the mental asylum and tries to kill Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers). He doesn't succeed at first, so he takes on another strategy, namely to build a Doomsday machine and demand that someone else kills Jacques Clouseau, or Dreyfus will use the machine to wipe out whole cities and even whole countries. With about twenty-six assassins from all over the globe on his tail, Clouseau decides to find Dreyfus alone and put him back in the mental asylum.

User Review

In 1963, director Blake Edwards, who gained worldwide fame for the romantic comedy Breakfast at Tiffany's, released in 1961 and became a classic of world cinema, confirming the star status of the inimitable Audrey Hepburn, who played the lead role in the film, and comedian Peter Sellers, more or less known for his unexpectedly serious role in Lolita (1962), where he starred alongside Stanley Kubrick himself. The script by Maurice Richlin (adapted by Edwards himself) brought Edwards and Sellers together in one film, telling the story of the hapless, scatterbrained police officer Jacques Clouseau, who sets out to find the stolen Pink Panther diamond, the symbol of the fictional Arab state of Lugash. And, most likely, the elusive master thief Phantom is behind the theft... This is how the story of one of the most famous French police officers began, and his name, as already mentioned, was Jacques Clouseau.

The filming of The Pink Panther was accompanied by constant quarrels between the director and the actor, with Edwards and Sellers even declaring in unison that they were working together for the first and last time. But the following year, they worked together on a sequel called A Shot in the Dark, then interrupted their collaboration on the sensational and highly successful franchise for almost ten years. However, after several missteps by Edwards, in 1975, they filmed The Return of the Pink Panther, and immediately, as if by tradition, the following year they released the next installment of the franchise, already the fourth, which was a huge success. Return of the Pink Panther, and immediately, as if by tradition, released another installment of the franchise the following year, the fourth in the series, which was officially titled The Pink Panther Strikes Again. This time, the ill-fated diamond will not be the film's MacGuffin (I think you should find out for yourselves what that word means), and the Phantom will not appear. Instead, Jacques Clouseau's boss, Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), who was sent to a mental hospital after the events of the previous film, will go completely mad.

Herbert Karel Angelo Kuhaciewicz ze Skluderpachera (that's Herbert Lom's real full name, try saying it), aka Inspector Dreyfus in the film, is struggling to recover psychologically under the constant supervision of the chief physician. It seemed that Dreyfus would soon be released, as he no longer rages when he hears the name Clouseau, and his manic psychosis is subsiding and becoming controllable. However, Dreyfus's misfortune is that Jacques Clouseau, as an exemplary subordinate, has decided to visit his boss. This leads to a series of fatal situations, and Dreyfus becomes obsessed with killing Jacques Clouzot. The hero of Loma escapes from the hospital and becomes the most dangerous criminal, because he has the perfect weapon in his hands and threatens all members of the UN with it until they deal with Clouzot.
Some countries send their best hitmen to eliminate the hapless policeman, but everyone already knows that Clouzo is a tough nut to crack, stupid but tough, and it's not so easy to kill him. The hitmen would be better off shooting themselves, otherwise they'll be awarded the Darwin Award for their deaths.

But despite all the fun of the film, where even the silliest things are treated with originality and seriousness, it's still impossible to keep a multi-part franchise at the top of its game, especially since this is already the fourth installment. Of all the memorable episodes in the film, it is Jacques Clouseau's visit to Richard Dreyfuss's asylum for the violently insane, as well as the stream of absurd situations when Clouseau is tracked down at Oktoberfest by a bunch of mercenaries. By the way, I rubbed my eyes during this scene because I couldn't believe what I was seeing: Deep Roy, who would later be cloned multiple times in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, appeared as an Italian hitman. That's probably all there is to remember about The Pink Panther Strikes Back. Otherwise, it's an easily recognizable film, famous for its world-renowned music by maestro Henry Mancini and the remarkable talent of comedian Peter Sellers. It's all enjoyable, but too familiar. Attentive and experienced viewers will notice the association with Bond in Leslie-Ann Down's appearance as a Russian agent. Incidentally, there is something else, or rather someone else, that connects The Pink Panther with the 007 film series, and that is Burt Kwouk, who plays Jacques Clouseau's sparring partner Kato and has also appeared twice in James Bond films.

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (97.8 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Info Audio

#English: FLAC 2.0
#English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
#English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Commentary by Jason Simos)

Info Subtitles

English SDH, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Cantonese), Arabic, Czech, Danish, German, Greek, Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain), Finnish, French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (European), Slovenian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish.