Curse of the Pink Panther (1983) * 1/2

Directed by:  Blake Edwards

Starring:  Ted Wass, Herbert Lom, David Niven, Capucine, Robert Wagner

Filmed at the same time as the new scenes in Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), The Curse of the Pink Panther is the first Pink Panther film not to feature Peter Sellers in any way, shape, or form.     Blake Edwards simply couldn't let go of the franchise and shamelessly plodded ahead with this film and 1993's Son of the Pink Panther, featuring Roberto Benigni as Clouseau's hapless offspring.    

Curse of the Pink Panther features Ted Wass in the Clouseau role as Clifton Sleigh, a bumbling New York police detective who is chosen via a computer to find the missing Jacques Clouseau.     The computer is rigged by Inspector Dreyfus so it would choose a goofball instead of a skilled detective.    When we first meet Sleigh, he is dressed in drag and bungles an undercover sting operation.    We know we're in for a long movie after those opening scenes.  

Wass, who was much better utilized in 1984's Oh God!, You Devil, gives plenty of effort but he is essentially an American version of Clouseau.     He causes calamity wherever he goes, but after six previous Clouseau films, this is very old hat.     The "been there, done that" stage started around Return of the Pink Panther (1975).    Eight years later, Edwards was trying mightily to eke laughs out of the same old, same old in a different package.   

Sleigh manages to solve the case, sort of, much like Clouseau would've done which means it happened due to pure luck or by accident.     An actor famous for playing James Bond appears with a quasi-Clouseau accent, and no it isn't Daniel Craig.    I don't know what favors this actor owed Edwards or a friend of Edwards', but he should consider his debt paid in full.   David Niven was in failing health  while filming and couldn't overdub his dialogue, so his lines were dubbed by Rich Little, who sounds like someone impersonating Niven and not Niven himself.   What a nice guy Niven must've been.    Certainly too nice for this dreck.  

I didn't even bother with Son of the Pink Panther.    I have no interest in seeing it.    Maybe it is the funniest film ever made and I'm missing out.    Maybe Roberto Benigni falls off a bike or trips over something and causes side-splitting laughter.    I doubt it.