Mustache Marathon Movie 7: The Pink Panther (1963)

Up to this point, the Mustache Movie Marathon has been an interesting adventure.  I’ve gone through movies such as Super Troopers, and Three Men and a Baby.  I’ve also seen Smokey and the Bandit, and The Adventures of Robin Hood.  Those are only four of the movies.  For my seventh (yes, I didn’t list two of them), I watched The Pink Panther (1963).  And I can already see that this is going to be an odd write up because of all of the brackets.

The Pink Panther stars Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau, David Niven as a guy named Sir Charles, and Robert Wagner as Charles’s nephew.  The basic premise is that a diamond called The Pink Panther is going to be stolen from a princess or something.  Inspector Clouseau goes to a ski lodge to try and find out who could possibly be trying to steal the precious stone.  His wife, the princess, Sir Charles, Robert Wagner, and Clouseau are all interwoven in this heist plot filled with great comedic moments.

My favourite part of The Pink Panther is how the women had some actual character traits.  Although almost everything that the women did was due to the men and their relationships with the men, they had more character than most films would give to characters in this position.  I was glad to see this in a movie.

Having seen the remake prior to the original, I’m confused about some of the things they did in the remake.  Clouseau isn’t a bumbling idiot in the original.  Some idiotic things happen involving him but the situations surrounding what he does makes it believable.  In the remake, from what I remember of it, Steve Martin played Clouseau a complete idiot who spent half the movie trying to say hamburger.  I prefer the smart Clouseau that ends up in not so smart situations because of the surrounding circumstances.

There are two great scenes that I want to point out.  I’m going to try not to spoil too much with what I say about them.  The first is a scene in Clouseau and his wife’s lodge room.  Clouseau left the room, and while he was gone both Sir Charles and his nephew, not knowing each other was going to be there, went into the room with Clouseau’s wife.  Then Clouseau came back and it was about five minutes of Clouseau’s wife trying to help the two men get out of the room without Clouseau catching them.  The entire scene was set up very professionally and the sequence of events made for a suspenseful, yet comedic thing to watch.

The second scene was a chase scene.  Everyone was chasing everyone, really.  It was in cars.  What’s so special?  Most of the chase scene was like one of those hallway scenes from Scooby Doo.  The cars would go down one street, come out another to go down a street and come out another street.  It had me laughing audibly, quite loudly.

This movie may have caused Peter Sellers to become one of my favourite comedic actors.  The Pink Panther showed how he can make an accent sound humorous without having it sound insulting, and it truly showed his physical comedy.  I’ve never seen an actor look so comfortable at being so uncomfortable.  It was a refreshing style of comedy for me.  This and Dr. Strangelove have truly shown me why Peter Sellers is one of the greats.

I can’t believe that I haven’t yet mentioned the facial hair.  David Niven as Sir Charles sports a pencil mustache like mustache.  Peter Sellers sported a full upper lip of facial hair.  It wasn’t Tom Selleck bushy, but it was full.  The entire movie was really a battle of these two mustaches.  The two men were forces that weren’t to be messed with in terms of comedic acting.  And they were the two main mustache bearers of the film.  Great character design.

I could go on and on about this movie for a long, long time but I don’t want it to become anymore of a “you know what’s awesome? This” than it already is.  If you haven’t seen it, you should check it out.  If you’re into comedy.  This really is a must see.

Next up in the Mustache Movie Marathon is Mr. Nanny.  I am not looking forward to this one so much anymore.  Although Hulk Hogan rocks a mean handlebar mustache, I think it’s going to be a pile of garbage.  Should make for a fun write-up of me ranting about disliking it.  Then I finish it off with a movie I really like, There Will Be Blood.  Yes, finishing the marathon off with some DDL.  Woohoo!

Feel free to comment about how bad my write-ups are.  I would like to try and improve a little bit.  It’ll make me feel less like I’m undeserving of readers.  Alright, until next time...reach for the sky.