SnoopyStyle It's been a year since Inspector Clouseau disappeared. The Surete is using its supercomputer to select the best detective to solve the case. Chief Insp. Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) does a deal with a criminal to rig the supercomputer and it selects the utterly incompetent NYPD officer Clifton Sleigh (Ted Wass).This attempt to continue the franchise without a reboot is probably the best of many bad ideas. A rebooting of the franchise with a new Clouseau would probably be unacceptable to the audience so quickly after Peter Sellers' death. Ted Wass hopelessly tries to replace the great man but the ghost haunts him throughout the movie. Even Cato attacking him doesn't bring a chuckle. I do like Clifton with Juleta but that's a very small section. Somebody should have insisted to Blake Edwards that this franchise needed to take a break.

TheLittleSongbird Curse of the Pink Panther is not the worst of the series for me, Trail and Son are much worse being shameless messes. Curse is mediocre but it does have some good things.Pros: The film does look decent, the title sequence is fun, the music is wonderful, Ted Wass is good comedic value, Roger Moore's cameo is another bright spot and the part where Wass sits on the giant duck is hilarious. Herbert Lom is entertaining as Dreyfuss and Joanna Lumley doesn't grate like she did in Trail of the Pink Panther.Cons: The story is very standard, slow moving and predictable, and the film is overlong. The script is fairly weak too and some of the gags and jokes don't work as well as they should have done. Sadly this was David Niven's last film, and he deserved a better swan-song, he is a good actor but he looks uninterested and bored.Overall, mediocre but has a few good things to make it watchable. 5/10 Bethany Cox

ShadeGrenade When Peter Sellers died, you'd have thought they'd have let the 'Pink Panther' series die with him. But money talks and in 1981 we got the dire 'Trail Of The Pink Panther'. 'Curse', its successor, was an improvement, thanks to a funny performance from the likable Ted Wass, best known as 'Danny Dallas' from the long-running T.V. show 'Soap'. His character, Clifton Sleigh, had more than a touch of Harold Lloyd about him but alas Sellers proved irreplaceable ( Dudley Moore and Rowan Atkinson knew this too. They both turned it down ), and we never saw Sleigh again. Some good visual gags include Dreyfus falling from his office window and Sleigh's problems with an inflatable doll. The film might have stood a chance had it not been continually looking over its shoulder at what went before. Especially confusing was Joanna Lumley's appearance as Countess Chandra - a totally different character to the one she'd played in 'Trail'. The decision to turn Clouseau bad rankled with audiences as well. David Niven's final film, sadly.

SylvesterFox007 For those who consider the Pink Panther films only watchable for Peter Sellers' performance as Inspector Clouseau, the series could be considered over with "Revenge of the Pink Panther." For those who love the Pink Panther brand of humor and want to see the full extension of the story line, "Curse of the Pink Panther" is worth a look.True, without Peter Sellers this movie doesn't feel quite authentic, but it makes an interesting epilogue to the series, picking up where the wafer-thin plot of "Trail of the Pink Panther" left off.Glad that Clouseau is gone but wanting to appear like he's doing his best to find the missing Inspector, Chief Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) searches for the worst possible detective to put on his old foe's tracks. He settles for Sgt. Clifton Sleigh (a young Ted Wass), a bumbling NYPD officer who can't understand why everyone thinks he's somehow related to Jacques Clouseau.While plenty of the worn-out routines from previous movies are repeated here, there are certainly some new bits, and Wass' likable character breathes some freshness, if only a little bit, into the film. Still, while Peter Sellers is missed, his character is missed even more. The studio could have counted its losses and found a new Clouseau and a new director to bring new blood to the franchise. Instead, the events of the previous films, including the little inconsistencies between movies, are brought to a head as Clouseau's disappearance and the Pink Panther diamond's theft come together in one mangled conspiracy theory. This, sadly, taints the simplicity of the individual films.Certain elements of the classics are here, including an exotic babe (Leslie Ash) and David Niven in his final film role. Appropriate, since this was originally supposed to be his franchise.It turns out in the end that Clouseau has had plastic surgery in order to look like Roger Moore, played by Roger Moore. The scene where Moore and Wass meet is priceless, providing a chance for "Clouseau" and "Sleigh" to see who the bigger buffoon is in a hilarious game of comical oneupmanship.Not as funny as any of the Peter Sellers films by a long shot, but a novelty among the series and a worthwhile comedy for fans of this comedy-mystery series.