The Pink Panther: An Introduction
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The Pink Panther is a series of comedy films featuring the bumbling French police detective Jacques Clouseau. The role was originated by, and is most closely associated with, Peter Sellers. Most of the films were directed and co-written by Blake Edwards, with notable theme music composed by Henry Mancini.
Despite its use in the titles of most of the films of the series, 'The Pink Panther' is not the Clouseau character, but a large and valuable fictitious diamond which is the 'MacGuffin' of the first film in the series.
The phrase reappears in the title of the fourth film, The Return of the Pink Panther, in which the theft of the diamond is again the center of the plot. The phrase has been used for all the subsequent films in the series, even when the jewel does not figure into the plot (the diamond has only appeared in five of the ten films in the series).
The first film in the series had an animated opening sequence (created by DePatie-Freleng) set to the theme music by Henry Mancini, featuring The Pink Panther character. This character, designed by Hawley Pratt, was subsequently given its own series of animated films — as well as being featured in the opening of every film in the series except A Shot in the Dark and Inspector Clouseau — and came to be known simply as 'the Pink Panther'.
These are great cards for Pink Panther afficiandos.
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