Redundant and unnecessary.

Just perfect...

best movie i've ever seen.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Like two films in one: Half silly slapstick romp, half straightforward, non-comedic (though still light-hearted) crime caper. The former boasts Peter Sellers (brilliant as always) reprising his role as the fantastically inept Inspector Clouseau. The latter features Christopher Plummer as the suave, retired jewel thief out to clear his name when he becomes prime suspect in the disappearance of the diamond of the movie's title.The Sellers half is great, with many fine, extended sight gags. But Plummer's half - while beautifully lensed on location in scenic Morocco - is sometimes exciting but too often tedious. You keep waiting to jump back to Sellers.So overall it's a mixed bag - alternately funny and slow. But Edwards remains a fine writer (he co-wrote the screenplay) and a master of composition and staging. The movie looks terrific - as does Catherine Schell as Plummer's sophisticated wife with some secrets of her own. My score card: Sellers' half rates an A. Plummer's half, C+.

I don't know why I watched this movie. There is no entertainment to be had here. It is really, really, really boring.

Return of the Pink Panther (1975)Complete with the great Mancini sax theme, the nutty smart Blake Edwards directing, the sassy cartoon panther himself, and of course Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau (taking on many absurd disguises). This is the third of the original Pink Panther movies series (omitting the oddball fourth one from 1968 that didn't have Mancini, Sellers, or Edwards), and it comes over a decade after the first two. Was the public interested? Yes--it did well. It was a great formula. Is it still a good formula in 2012?Good question. It depends on your taste. But surely the names repeated above are all cinema greats that, like Chaplin, rise above their time. But of course, Sellers, as terrific as he was, was no Charles Chaplin. At his best, the comedy is hilarious. And that makes the movie worth watching for sure. But he is sometimes a bit off in his timing, or is stuck playing a stunt that isn't worthy of him. There's also a lag in the filler material, the scenes between the great stuff. Some marginal characters (including the leading woman, who is totally a late 60s type, not a 1975 type, and she feels oddly unnecessary) don't command their parts, or their scenes. The drift begins to drift. And then you realize there isn't much of a plot. The whole recovery (sort of) of the famous Pink Panther diamond after an elaborate theft isn't really the driving force of the movie. What takes its place is a slow interplay of the characters all stumbling over each other trying to trick the perpetrator into revealing the gem. So then you are back to the stumbling as comedy, and sometimes it's great. There are so many ridiculous moments with Sellers being a bumbling fool like no one, you are sure to laugh. And that's what you're here for. "The Pink Panther" is the original, and at times also a bit sluggish, but it's the first. And "A Shot in the Dark" is the best of the three, I think. But if you like them, you'll be just fine here. If you haven't seen any, you might go in order, since the sets and music are really spot on in the first two, and a bit more transporting. There is something a little off kilter here that make it an awkward, but decent, third.

Peter Sellers and Blake Edwards' careers had stalled when the idea to do a new 'Pink Panther' was mooted. The last 'Clouseau' movie had been the ill-fated Alan Arkin version from 1968. It was not any old Clouseau audiences wanted, but Sellers. Both men agreed to put aside their creative differences and restore the original.'Return' begins in Lugash where the fabulous 'Pink Panther' diamond is stolen once more. The only clue is a white glove found at the scene of the crime, embroidered with the letter 'P'. The authorities call on the man who recovered it last time - Clouseau. The passing years have not been kind to our hero - he is pounding the beat as a gendarme. During an argument with a street musician ( John Bluthal ), Clouseau fails to notice a bank robbery is in progress behind his back. Worse, he helps the robbers get away.Chief Comissioner Dreyfus ( Herbert Lom ) is only too happy for Clouseau to go back to Lugash. It would appear that Sir Charles Lytton ( Christopher Plummer ) is up to his old tricks again. Now retired from crime and living in the South of France with his wife Claudine ( Catherine Schell ), he is concerned that someone is imitating him and decides to track down the real culprit...Forget the plot. It is nothing more than an excuse on which to peg the gags, and many are first rate. There are more laughs to be found here than in the original 'Pink Panther' ( which had too much of David Niven for my liking ) and the Arkin 'Clouseau'. I think I'm right in saying this film was the beginning of Clouseau's habit of mangling the French language. Not only do English people not understand him, but other French people do not either. When he asks Victor Spinetti's hotel clerk for a room, the man thinks he is asking for a 'rheum'.In addition to Sellers returning, we also get back Herbert Lom as the harassed 'Dreyfus', whose hatred of the detective is so great he keeps trying to kill him, and Burt Kwouk as 'Cato', the Chinese manservant who is under orders to attack his boss every chance he gets. 'Return' has one of the best Clouseau vs.Cato scenes, ending with the former trying to do a flying kung-fu leap and crashing through a door into his kitchen. Christopher Plummer replaces Niven as 'Sir Charles Lytton'. When we last saw him, he was with Clouseau's wife ( Capucine ). Catherine Schell's character is not the same woman. It would not be until 1981's 'Trail Of The Pink Panther' that the former 'Mrs.Clouseau' would be seen again. Graham Stark is back also, but as seedy crook 'Pepe', who keeps getting his fingers crushed.'Return' was a big success, paving the way for further sequels. It is not included on the box set though, due to it having been made by a different company. It has since been released separately.Funniest moment? For me its the bit where Clouseau enters the hotel, and a man requests politely he hand over his hat, coat and gloves. Thinking him to be a member of staff, the Inspector does this, and then watches dumbfounded as the man casually walks out of the foyer, gets into a car, waves, and drives off!