Pink Pantrher the Pink Panther Strikes Again

"Compared to Clouseau, this doomsday machine is merely a water pistol!"

— Quondam Chief Inspector Dreyfus

The Pinkish Panther Strikes Again (1976) is the 5th motion-picture show in The Pink Panther franchise, once again directed by Blake Edwards and starring Peter Sellers as (now-Chief Inspector) Clouseau.

Iii years after the events of The Return of the Pinkish Panther, ^note though this pic was simply made one year later on Quondam Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) is seemingly cured... but after meeting up with Clouseau just prior to his planned release from the psychiatric hospital, the therapy is undone. Dreyfus escapes and organizes a criminal gang that kidnaps nuclear physicist Hugo Fassbender (Richard Vernon) and his daughter Margo (Briony McRoberts). Forcing the former to build a Disintegrator Ray, Dreyfus threatens to unleash it on the world unless Clouseau is killed, and many countries immediately send assassins afterward Clouseau every bit he sets out to terminate Dreyfus himself.

Followed past Revenge of the Pinkish Panther.

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This picture provides examples of:

• Activation Sequence: A villainous version, with Dreyfus' Disintegrator Ray taking a long fourth dimension to actuate before beingness used in an endeavor to destroy England.
• Thespian Allusion: Dreyfus' organ playing and cape within the picture show is a nod to the fact Herbert Lom had starred in The Phantom of the Opera (1962).
• Adaptational Alternate Ending: The novelization of the motion-picture show (by screenplay co-writer Frank Waldman) features a totally different and relatively bizarre catastrophe where both Dreyfus and Professor Fassbender are disintegrated by the Doomsday Machine. The last affiliate reveals that they accept rematerialized in the distant hereafter in a lonely part of space known every bit the Ultimate Galaxy of the Dimension Quattro (where everything they've disintegrated, including the Un Building and the front half of a dog named Shlep, has concluded up). Facing an eternity together as the sole inhabitants of this empty plane of existence, Dreyfus and Fassbender have become friends.
• An Arm and a Leg: Afterwards being catapulted dorsum into the castle, Clouseau lands on top of the doomsday auto, knocking information technology out of position and zapping Dreyfus' legs. Despite this, Dreyfus is still able to walk ordinarily until the unabridged castle is vaporized. He is too able to play the pipe organ after his arms disappear.
• Blithe Credits Opening: Produced by Richard Williams' Studio. Tin can be seen hither along with the Creative Endmost Credits.
• Armed Legs: I of the killers uses a shoe pocketknife.
• Artifact Title: The Pinkish Panther diamond plays no part in the film's plot.
• Artistic License – Geography: Dreyfus declares he will make the UN building disappear at 3PM Eastern Standard Fourth dimension, which would be 9PM in Germany. However, information technology is broad daylight in both locations.
• Artistic License – Gun Condom:
  • Going by the style that Clouseau accidentally shot a man in the ass by knocking one over and making it go off, Professor Fassbender stores his hunting rifles loaded and unsafed.
  • During the scene at the insane asylum, a human being walks in front of an archery target moments before someone shoots at information technology, with a real arrow. Said target is in the centre of an open up field with no backstop.
• Creative License – Physics: Dreyfus may have reflected the doomsday Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation off of a satellite, ^notation Something which means that at that place's a fabric information technology can't destroy, considering otherwise it would have vaporized the satellite instead of the UN Edifice considering otherwise, the Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation beam fired from Germany would accept to be pointed through the Earth to reach the United Nations Building in New York City. This issue is never explained in the film, but this is a comedy after all. Targeting the Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation on England may be more plausible.
• Badass Boast: Dreyfus says equally much about Clouseau. Although he does not mean it as a compliment at all. To wit, one of Dreyfus' goons points out the obvious: Dreyfus has some of the finest hitmen in Europe in the very room they're continuing, then why not handle it themselves instead of extorting the world's governments to do information technology for them? Dreyfus' answer?

  Dreyfus: Because y'all wouldn't stand up a take chances.

  Goon: (scoffs) Oh, come on.

  Dreyfus: You don't know Clouseau.

  Tournier: He can't exist that skilful.

  Dreyfus: Good? He's not skillful. He's terrible. He's the worst. There is no human like him, anywhere in the world. Compared to Clouseau, this Doomsday Machine is... is just a water pistol!

• Balloonacy: Clouseau is floated out of his apartment window by the inflatable hump in his hunchback costume, thereby causing him to miss the bomb Dreyfus sets off.
• Bank Robbery: Dreyfus breaks a number of criminals out of prison house and has them rob a bank in order to secure the funds he needs for his plot.
• Bathroom Break-Out: Dreyfus orchestrates the escape of a prisoner named Jean Tourier who is beingness transported by railroad train. Tourier goes to the bathroom, so climbs out through the ventilator on to the roof of the train where Dreyfus is waiting for him in a helicopter.
• Big Secret: Fassbender's butler lies about having witnessed the law-breaking due to concern that it will come out that he's a Drag Queen.
• Buccaneer Broadcaster: Dreyfus hijacks the circulate of a football game game to deliver his demand of Clouseau's death, much to the ire of President Gerald Ford due to the hijacking cutting out the end of the game.

  President Gerald Ford: Phone call the FBI, the CIA, and the Pentagon, find out who won the game!!

• The Cameo:
  • Omar Sharif plays the Egyptian assassin whom the Russian ane mistakes for Clouseau on their initial meeting; he beds her, and she falls in love and chooses non to kill him, which is extremely confusing for the real Clouseau later on.
  • At that place'southward too a musical cameo: the (intentionally) awful singing vocalisation sported past drag queen Jarvis is supplied by Julie Andrews via dubbing.
• Captain Obvious:

  François: What kind of flop was information technology?

  Clouseau: The exploding kind.

• Carnival of Killers: The globe's greatest assassins descend on Munich in attempt to kill Clouseau and terminate up wiping each other out. (Coincidentally, given this trope's name, the sequence in question takes place at an Oktoberfest celebration.)
• Catapult to Glory: Clouseau is inadvertently lofted through a castle window past a catapult.
• Comically Missing the Betoken: In the opening, Clouseau tells Dreyfus that he might run for office in a few years. Dreyfus stifles a laugh and says he'll certainly vote for him. Clouseau then replies that, in return, he'll ensure he's released. Dreyfus then does the sign of the cantankerous in a "God help me" sort of way, to which Clouseau just says "aye, I know how y'all feel."
• Contrived Coincidence: Clouseau checks into an inn near Mondschein Castle. Later, Dreyfus calls the innkeeper to request a dentist who happens to live there.
• Darker and Edgier: It could be the 2nd darkest film in the franchise, though information technology's more of a Black One-act.
• Delayed Reaction: Clouseau doesn't notice that the helium hump in his Quasimodo disguise has caused him to float out the window until Cato tries to speak to him. Cato is naturally unfazed seeing him floating above the street.
• Disintegrator Ray: The device created by Professor Fassbender (and used by former Master inspector Dreyfus equally a weapon of mass destruction).
• Asymmetric Retribution: Dreyfus attempts to destroy an entire country because he was lied to about Clouseau'south assassination. The state that falsely claimed to kill Clouseau is Egypt. The country Dreyfus decides to punish is England.
  • Well, he did say "they all betrayed me" and his demand to have Clouseau killed was directed at the entire world, and so...
  • And and so there's of course the whole plot hinging on him threatening to destroy/impale the entire world unless someone kills Clouseau for him.
  • Lastly, Professor Fassbender was from England, and Dreyfus was completely insane by that point.
• Do Non Adjust Your Set: Dreyfus hijacks every Goggle box signal in order to announce his death warrant for Clouseau. Problem: Nobody knows what he'south talking most and are more concerned that he interrupted the big football game.

  President Ford: Call the FBI, the CIA and the Pentagon! Find out who won the game!

• Down to the Last Play: The football game that Dreyfus preempted, to President Ford'due south dismay.
• The Dragon: Banking company robber Tournier, who is the first recruit to Dreyfus's army, acts equally an counselor to him and goes to try and impale Clouseau himself afterward most of the world'south assassins fail.
• Dramatic Thunder: The first shot of Mondschein Castle is accompanied past a thunderclap.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: When Dreyfus attempts to blow up Clouseau in his apartment, he calls him, to ensure he'southward within the blast radius, and claims he'southward part of a committee that intends to present him with an award. Clouseau remarks that he wondered why, after nine years of service, he's not been recognized sooner.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Dreyfus has several women every bit role of his crew.
• Evil Costume Switch: Dreyfus is wearing a grey suit in the opening, and once he becomes a supervillain, he dresses in all black.
• Evil Is Hammy: Dreyfus is fully aware that he has turned into a Bond villain and is enjoying every minute of it.
• Exact Words:

  Closeau: Does your dog seize with teeth?

  Hotel Clerk: No.

  Closeau: <petpetpet> Dainty doggie!

  Dog: OMNOMNOM!

  Closeau: I thought you said your dog did not bite!

  Hotel Clerk: That is non my canis familiaris.

• Explosive Instrumentation: The computers and panels in the control room start exploding equally the doomsday machine overloads.
• Face Death with Nobility: Every bit the laser slowly destroys the castle, Dreyfus remains playing "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" on the organ.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: in his previous films, Dreyfus has been a threat only to Clouseau. Here, he is the leader of a powerful crime group and threatens the world's powers into doing what he wants.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Dreyfus' fate. As he tries to destroy England with his laser, Clouseau accidentally knocks it around at the crucial moment - information technology malfunctions and zaps Dreyfus instead.
• Beloved Trap: Olga, the Soviet agent. She seduces her casualty before killing them, even boasting that no man had always been able to involve her emotionally. However, she ends up seducing the Egyptian assassinator, mistaking him for Clouseau, and falls in love with the real Clouseau, much to his confusion.
• I Have Your Wife: Fassbender's daughter is threatened to brand him build Dreyfus'due south device.
• Instrument of Murder: A clarinet blowgun.
• Intimidation Demonstration: During Kato's surprise set on on Clouseau, Kato displays impressive ability wielding a staff and Clouseau shows off his elite skill with a pair of nunchucks before they first using them to fight.
• It'south Always Mardi Gras in New Orleans: When Inspector Clouseau goes to Munich, the yearly Oktoberfest festival is going on; justified as the film takes place on and around October ninth. During the commemoration, the world's greatest assassins compete to kill him.
• Kidnapped Scientist: Dreyfus kidnaps Hugo Fassbender, a scientist specializing in space-fourth dimension relations, to build a doomsday weapon. To ensure Fassbender'due south cooperation, Dreyfus kidnaps his daughter as well.
• Laughing Gas: In order to infiltrate Dreyfus's castle, Clouseau disguises himself as a dentist who has come up to take care of Dreyfus'due south toothache. He administers nitrous oxide (laughing gas) to both Dreyfus and himself, causing both of them to be overcome with laughter.
• Madness Mantra: Dreyfus' "Every day, in every style, I'm getting meliorate and improve!"
• Manly Gay: Jarvis the butler is a drag queen and kisses Clouseau at one point only drives around on a motorcycle and is able to kill an assassinator who tries to silence him.
• Monumental Damage: Dreyfus vaporizes the United nations building to make his threat clear. He is initially disappointed when told that the motorcar volition not leave a crater or wreckage.
• Potato's Bed: It'south the basis for the concluding non-blithe gag.
• Nails on a Blackboard: Used equally a literal torture method.
• Naked in Mink: Olga Beriosova (Lesley-Anne Down) seduces Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) in a scene that is across words.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: The U.Due south. President and Secretarial assistant of State are obvious parodies of Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Upon reading the transcript of Dreyfus' threat, the Scotland K detectives initially laugh it off, until they read that he intends to make the Un edifice disappear. They realize he intends to use Fassbender'southward work to make proficient on his threat.
  • The The states President's Secretarial assistant of Country has one when he learns that twelve countries accept their summit assassins converging on the Oktoberfest to kill Clouseau:

  Secretary of State Henry Kissinger: My god information technology'll exist like a shooting gallery.

  • Clouseau is catapulted onto the doomsday machine, knocking it out of position. Anybody in the control room panics upon seeing the machine is now pointing inside.
• Oktoberfest: The hilarious scene where Clouseau goes to the Munich Oktoberfest and several dozen assassins from around the earth accidentally kill each other while trying to kill him.
• Ominous Opera Cape: Dreyfus wears a blackness opera cape while making his threat to the world.
• Ominous Pipe Organ: Former Principal Inspector Dreyfus plays a version of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" instead of the usual Bach Toccata.
• One-Human being Army: The US President refers to Clouseau as this when he is told that twenty-six assassins dies trying to kill the French inspector. However, Clouseau is actually an aversion; the assassins took each other out by blow while Clouseau, who wasn't even aware of them, survived through dumb luck.
• Functioning: [Bare]: Fassbender worked on a projection chosen Functioning Looking Drinking glass, which serves as the basis of Dreyfus's doomsday motorcar.
• Pain to the Ass: While at the Fassbender home, Clouseau accidentally sets off a rifle which hits Superintendant Quinlan in the ass.
• Potty Trip the light fantastic toe: Just before activating the doomsday machine, Dreyfus says he needs to go to the bathroom and tells Fassbender to hold off until he gets dorsum. The Professor says he has already started the firing sequence, causing Dreyfus to wince in discomfort equally he watches the motorcar being aimed.
• Pretty in Mink: Would-exist assassin Olga wears a full-length coat and hat.
• Rake Take: While talking with Clouseau in the prologue, Dreyfus steps on one, causing him to fall over in the water... over again.
• Realpolitik: Secretary of Land Henry Kissinger, ane of history's virtually famous proponents of Realpolitik, suggests that Dreyfus will probable hand over the doomsday automobile to whichever country eliminates Clouseau. Hence, the assassins are ordered to kill each other in order to be the one with a shot at Clouseau, though they all fail confronting him nevertheless. In reality, Dreyfus muses that he might continue his reign of terror regardless of whether Clouseau is killed or not.
• Reference Overdosed: The opening titles include parodies of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Batman, Rex Kong, The Sound of Music, Dracula, Singin' in the Pelting, Steamboat Bill, Jr., and Sweet Charity. The endmost scene includes a parody of Jaws.
• Reluctant Mad Scientist: Professor Fassbender. Dreyfus kidnaps him and threatens to torture his daughter if he doesn't build a doomsday machine based on his theoretical studies.
• Revenge of the Sequel: The "Strikes Again" version is used for this title.
• Running Gag: The amount of times Dreyfus is knocked into the swimming at the beginning.
• Sanity Slippage: Dreyfus is due to be released from the insane asylum when Clouseau drives him to insanity within the bridge of five minutes. Afterwards that, he goes total James Bond supervillain but to have Clouseau killed.
• Screen-to-Phase Adaptation: A stage version was created for regional/amateur theaters in 1981. It's a Pragmatic Accommodation that, among other things, gives the Girl of the Week more characterization, has its ain "Pink Panthers" (stagehands who sometimes interfere with the plot), and completely rethinks the climax: the disintegrator ray has a self-destruct machinery built in that the professor activates. Dreyfus is set up to go downward with information technology, only Clouseau'south morals and sense of honor mean he's fix to Save the Villain...or go downward with him. The prospect of going into eternity with Clouseau is terrifying enough for Dreyfus that he allows himself to be saved and taken into custody.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: After Clouseau knocks the doomsday machine out of position and zaps Dreyfus, anybody immediately flees the castle.
• Separated by a Mutual Language: Clouseau and the hotel clerk.

  Clouseau: (in his usual exaggerated French accent) Tell me, do you have a room?
  Clerk: I practice not know what a "rrrheum" is.
  Clouseau: (pulling out his English-to-High german lexicon) "Zimmer".
  Clerk: Ah! A "room"!
  Clouseau: That is what I've been saying, you lot idiot...!

• Sequel Escalation: Clouseau goes from investigating robberies and murders to try to save the world. As well Dreyfus has been trying to impale Clouseau always since his first advent in A Shot in the Nighttime, just in this film he goes full-blown James Bond supervillain and threatens to destroy the world unless someone, anyone, kills Clouseau.
• Sex–Face Plough: The aforementioned consequence is achieved non by the antagonistic woman actually seducing the hero, but by having her slumber with someone she idea was him when it was in fact another member of the aforementioned multi-national Carnival of Killers as her. This leaves the hero very dislocated when she suddenly appears naked in his bed professing her undying love for him.
• Sherlock Browse: In the opening, Dreyfus shows off some of his policeman skills by remarking that his psychiatrist has had another fight with his married woman, as it is the merely fourth dimension he doodles.
• Shout-Out: The movie has this in spades, eight of which are in the Animated Credits Opening alone.
• Siege Engines: Inspector Clouseau is accidentally propelled upward and through a castle window past a catapult.
• Singing Vocalisation Noise: Exaggerated. Ainsley Jarvis appears to exist singing a song in a operatic female voice, only when he talks information technology'south clearly a man in drag.
• Spanner in the Works: When Clouseau unwittingly lands on top of the laser and ends up unintentionally aiming it at Dreyfus.
• Stating the Simple Solution: Some of the criminals ask Dreyfus why they don't just go after Clouseau themselves, instead of having the world'due south assassins do it. Dreyfus replies that they would not stand a adventure (as we see, he's right - even the earth's top assassins are helpless against Clouseau's incredible luck).
• Supervillain Lair: The Bavarian castle that Dreyfus has bought and converted into his hiding spot for the doomsday machine. The control room definitely looks similar something out of a James Bond movie.
• Sweater Girl: Margo Fassbender spends almost if not all of her screen time in a sweater that isn't exactly bulky.
• Sweet Tooth: Dreyfus helps himself to sweets, eventually getting a cavity.
• Take Over the World: Dreyfus' ostensible goal in creating the doomsday device, merely the true reason is simply to get Clouseau killed. Though he later tells Fassbender that he considered continuing his reign of terror regardless of whether Clouseau is eliminated.
• Likewise Dumb to Live: Jean Tournier, an otherwise vivid criminal, goes against Dreyfus's advice and decides to take out Clouseau himself for clout. His plan? Sneak into Clouseau'due south hotel room bearded equally Clouseau himself. He is immediately gunned down by the Egyptian assassin, showing that perhaps dressing as the man all the world'southward greatest killers are openly gunning for may not take been the all-time call.
• The Tooth Hurts: Former Chief Inspector Dreyfus gets a bad toothache and sends for a dentist. Clouseau pretends to exist the dentist and performs dental malpractice on Dreyfus.
• Torpedo Tits: One of the killers, a cross-dressed homo, attacks Clouseau with spikes emerging from the faux tits in his dress. He meets his end when he's pinned to a table.
• Twitchy Eye: Dreyfus' famous twitch is more pronounced than ever hither. When he is disintegrated at the end, it'southward the last thing that nosotros run into of his face.
• Uncertain Doom: Two of the assassins at the Oktoberfest who kill other assassins (a sniper peeking out the oral cavity of a dragon prop and a piper who shoots a poisoned dart) aren't shown dying on screen, although it's later claimed that the Russian and Egyptian assassins are the last ones left and there'due south piddling reason to dubiousness that statement.
• Villain Ball: Upon seeing that Clouseau is in the castle, Dreyfus announces he will pick a target then worry about Clouseau. And then again, he has gone completely insane by this point.
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Naught: At the Oktoberfest, Clouseau wanders frantically through the festival while dozens of assassins end upward killing each other while trying to kill him. The easiest incident to draw was when he entered the centre stall at a restroom, while two gunmen entered the other two. Clouseau bends over to pick up a dropped curl of toilet paper at the moment the assassins burn, resulting in a Mutual Kill.
• Would Hurt a Child: Dreyfus gleefully tortures Fassbender's daughter Margot to convince him to build the laser.
• Yank the Dog'south Chain: After iii years of therapy, Dreyfus is finally sane again and within hours of being released from the aviary. He suffers a total relapse and ends upward even crazier than before after spending a mere v minutes (almost to the second) in Clouseau's company.
• You Tin can Leave Your Hat On: In the terminal scene, Clouseau tries (and fails) to seductively take off his suit to a Tom Jones song before his honey scene with Olga.
• You lot're Insane!: Professor Fassbender is quick to point out that Dreyfus is mad.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/ThePinkPantherStrikesAgain

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