In this, the third film to feature the incomparable Peter Sellers as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, the humorous nature of Sellers' portrayal starts to stretch a bit thin at times - as Bilbo Baggins once put it, "a little like butter scraped over too much toast."

Perhaps it is that familiarity does, on occasion, truly breed contempt; perhaps it is that it is difficult to find new scenarios to exploit with a one-note (or two-note) character. With both The Pink Panther and A Shot in the Dark, obvious enthusiasm and slapstick were enough to fuel the comedic performances, and Clouseau was such a foolish delight that viewers could not help but laugh.

This film was originally shot in 1975, some ten years after Sellers originated the character in The Pink Panther, and after Alan Arkin tried the inspector on for size in 1968's Inspector Clouseau. What has often been intriguing to me is how the first film was initially more of a caper film - David Niven's jewel thief was supposed to be something of a take on Cary Grant's character in To Catch a Thief, and audiences weren't really supposed to find the inspector quite so endearing. But much like the way in which Johnny Depp commandeered the screen in Pirates of the Caribbean, Sellers' performance rather pushed Niven to the sideline. The result? The second film in the series, which many fans actually consider to be the best, or at least the funniest. In it, Clouseau was given ample time to exhibit - and exhibit he did, to the audience's delight.

Personal differences between Sellers and Edwards resulted in the lengthy hiatus between films, but after the commerical success of this film in 1975, a number of sequels were launched, including The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Revenge of the Pink Panther, and Trail of the Pink Panther. As the series progressed, the character of Clouseau became more and more of a caricature, with the accent slowly becoming more exaggerated and his antics more bumbling and bizarre. While the subsequent films certainly featured some very funny moments, they often were not as cohesive a whole as the first couple of films.

Indeed, in Return of the Pink Panther, some of the gags just seem a little tired, although on the whole it remains a funny film. In an even more blatant riff on To Catch a Thief, Christopher Plummer is a retired cat burglar whom Clouseau believes has returned to his wayward ways - which, of course, given Clouseau's interminable ineptness, means that he must be all wrong (or at the very least that if he's right, it'll all go wrong somehow). Herbert Lom plays Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus, who is slowly being driven insane by Clouseau (especially given that Clouseau always seems to be able to come out smelling like a rose). Burt Kwouk as Kato, Clouseau's karate master manservant, is also given a fairly prominent role, and clearly relishes it.