Sellers personifies Clouseau in 'Pink Panther'
By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service
I cannot say with any conviction that Steve Martin is the ideal choice to play one of the great comic creations of the 20th century, the bumbling French Inspector Clouseau, in the long-gestating revival of the "Pink Panther" franchise. As gifted as Martin may be, he is the John Wayne of comedy, always Steve Martin in what ever role he plays — even Silas Marner.
My personal choice was Kevin Kline (a look at "A Fish Called Wanda" should make the case), and I would have also been hopeful about Kevin Spacey, who apparently gave it semi-serious consideration. The brief and quickly forgotten missteps of Roberto Benigni and Ted Wass (not Wass) in Clouseau-relative roles are at least easily forgotten, but the trial balloons of Mike Myers and Chris Tucker had me muttering sacre bleu and worse.
There is, finally, only one true Clouseau, the chameleon Peter Sellers, a point proven by "The Pink Panther Film Collection" (MGM), which collects five of the "Panther" films in which Sellers starred.
Fans will already know that the recently departed Peter Ustinov was originally tapped to play Clouseau, the most inept and deluded French policeman of all time — an achievement unto itself — and that his departure led to the casting of Sellers, who became an international star with the success of 1964's "The Pink Panther," titled for the legendary museum gem that dapper jewel thief David Niven plotted to steal. As funny as Sellers is as the pompous baton-twirler with the ridiculous accent, the film's success owed a great deal to the slinky, instantly memorable, do-doot-da-doo theme by Henry Mancini (which became a top-40 hit) and the animated title sequence that made the suave cat an instant icon.
The success spawned a quick, even better sequel, "A Shot in the Dark" (1964), that introduced Herbert Lom as Clouseau's violently frustrated boss and Elke Sommer as a suspect whose guilt is obvious to everyone but Clouseau. Sellers declined to reprise the role in 1968's "Inspector Clouseau," leaving the job to a game but miscast Alan Arkin, but returned in 1975's "The Return of the Pink Panther" which, because of rights issues, is not included in the box, to no big loss.
Sellers was back in free-fall trim for 1976's hilarious "The Pink Panther Strikes Again," wherein he literally drives Lom insane, and gets to bust an unlicensed organ grinder with the classic query "Ees thees your feelthy minkey?" and salvages "Revenge of the Pink Panther" in its final half-hour with side-splitting sight gags. "The Trail of the Pink Panther" from 1982 is an affectionate clip-job tribute, with a dying David Niven (his voice dubbed by Rich Little) recounting his encounters with the late Clouseau for a TV reporter played by Joanna Lumley.
A sixth disc is anchored by "The Pink Panther Story," which does an extremely good job of sorting out the various permutations of the character and his animated alter ego, while giving Blake Edwards the respect he deserves for reviving the Chaplinesque art of of intelligent physical comedy.
The bonus disc also includes an assortment of animated films starring the Panther himself, and a feature exploring the symbiosis of the films and their cartoon-credit ambassador.
Garland at her best
If you have been holding out for the definitive versions of classic films, this is your week: 1944's "Meet Me in St. Louis" (Warner) is on anyone's list of great American musicals.
Judy Garland gives her all-time best performance — yes, including "The Wizard of Oz" — as a teenager who couldn't be more thrilled that the World's Fair is coming to her hometown of St. Louis and couldn't be more devastated to learn that her family is moving to New York.
Margaret O'Brien proved herself one of the great scene-stealers (and won a special child-sized Oscar for her trouble) as Garland's little sis, and director Vincente Minnelli brings the remarkable score ("The Boy Next Door," "The Trolley Song"), the choreography and the storytelling together in ways few musicals ever achieve.
It's been beautifully remastered, and the extras disc is packed, including a fun making-of documentary narrated by Roddy McDowell; the Emmy-winning 1972 documentary about MGM, "The Dream Factory," hosted by Dick Cavett; a 1996 Garland bio made for TCM; and, best of all, the full version of the much-clipped "Bubbles," an MGM short from 1930 starring Garland at age 7. There's also a photo-reconstruction of the cut number, "Boys and Girls Like You and Me."
"A Room With A View" (Warner) remains one of the two best (the other being "Howard's End") films in a genre that became known as Merchant-Ivory. Producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory make veddy literary, beautifully appointed dramas, often adapted, as was this, from the novels of E.M. Forster.
This was most people's first look at Daniel Day Lewis, cast as the priggish fiance of Helena Bonham Carter, a young woman who, after touring Italy with her protective aunt (Maggie Smith), is pining for the far more passionate (but socially unconnected) Julian Sands. It's a fine tale of class and manners and the yearnings of the heart, and it looks better than ever in a new transfer from the original negative.
The two-disc upgrade includes commentary from Merchant, Ivory, supporting actor Simon Callow and cinematographer Tony-Pierce Roberts; short features on the Merchant-Ivory partnership and author Forster, and rare clips of the reclusive Lewis actually shilling the film on British TV.
Like all the films in Fox's Classics series, the new edition of John Ford's acclaimed adaptation of "The Grapes of Wrath" (Fox Home Video) is only a single-disc affair with bare-bones packaging. Yet much care has obviously gone into restoring a film that often seems more important than truly involving. The heart of the film is Henry Fonda's excellent portrayal of Tom Joad, who returns to Oklahoma after a prison stint to discover that his entire family is abandoning the Dust Bowl for the promised land of California.
Putting all this in historical and literary perspective on a commentary track are scholars Joseph McBride and Susan Shillinglaw, and also included is an A&T "Biography" episode on producer Daryl Zanuck. But the real finds are a prologue that was attached to the version seen in Great Britain, explaining the effects of the Great Depression on America, and brief outtakes Ford cut to keep the film at a manageable length.
'Freaks' lead the way
This week's TV box brigade is led by "Freaks and Geeks — The Complete Series" (Sony), containing all 18 episodes of one of the best series in recent years — which, of course, was dumped by NBC when it failed to swiftly find a mass audience. Set in a Michigan high school in 1980, and following various members of the outcast social groups of the title, it is as heartfelt as it is funny, and if you missed it when it originally aired, consider this box a favor and an opportunity. The six-DVD set contains the director's cut of the pilot with scenes ultimately cut, assorted other outtakes and extended scenes and, best of all, the original music tracks by the original artists, something becoming increasingly rare for TV series DVDs these days.
The end of "Friends" countdown continues with "The Complete Seventh Season" (Warner), otherwise known as "The Season Where Everyone's Salary Was Raised to $750,000 Per Episode and Matthew Perry Looked Like Death." Many of the 18 shows collected here on four discs focused on the Chandler-Monica engagement.
"In Living Color — Season 1" (Fox) proves that some series do improve with age, and if anything, the Wayans Brothers' sketch comedy show seems funnier now than it did 14 years ago. Forget that the show introduced Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey and other stars-to-be to the public at large; it also introduced Homey D. Clown and Men on Film, and parodies like "The Wrath of Farrakhan" without apology.
A weak end to 'Matrix'
Soon after had I belatedly reassessed my original aversion to "The Matrix," the sequels arrived, and while I found "Reloaded" a perfectly passable and visually stunning action flick, I had to agree with the fanboys that final chapter "The Matrix Revolutions" (Warner) was a decidedly weak finale. Its DVD features no commentary from the reclusive Wachowksi Brothers, and the extras are mostly about the special effects.
Still, it's superior to the week's other recent theatrical release, the nominal remake of "Cheaper by the Dozen" (Fox) starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt as parents raising a brood of 12. If it weren't for all the commotion, there wouldn't be anything happening here at all.
