- This article is about the character. For the film of this title, see Inspector Clouseau (1968 film).
Peter Sellers in one of a number of appearances as Inspector Clouseau
Inspector Jacques Clouseau (later chief inspector) is a fictional
detective in Blake Edwards's Pink Panther series. In most of the films, he was played by Peter Sellers, with one film in which he was played by Alan Arkin and
one in which he was played by an uncredited Roger Moore. In the most recent Pink
Panther film and its 2009 sequel, he was played by Steve Martin. Sellers is widely
regarded as the definitive Inspector Clouseau of pop culture by fans and critics alike.
He is also the inspiration of the main character in a series of short animated
cartoons inspired by the titles of the feature films. Though the character in the animated The Inspector was never given a name, he is clearly based on Clouseau.
In many countries, such as Greece, this character's name has become synonymous with policemen who keep making ludicrous
assumptions and are utterly unable to crack even the easiest case.
Character
Films
The Pink Panther (1963 film)
Jacques Clouseau makes his first appearance in the 1963 film The Pink
Panther.
He is a bumbling and incompetent police inspector with the French Sûreté, whose investigations are most notably marked with chaos and destruction that he himself largely causes.
Immensely clumsy, his various attempts at solving the case frequently lead to misfortune for himself and others; in
A Shot in the Dark, he cannot even interview witnesses to a crime without
falling down stairs, getting his hand caught in first a medieval knight's glove and then a vase,
knocking a witness insensible, destroying a priceless piano or accidentally shooting another
officer in the rear end. Clouseau is also not particularly intelligent, and will frequently follow a completely idiotic and
incorrect theory of the crime rather than what actually happened. His sheer incompetence, clumsiness and stupidity is enough to
eventually transform his direct superior, Chief Inspector Dreyfus, into a homicidal psychopath –
to such a degree that Dreyfus even went so far as to construct a doomsday device and threaten to destroy the world in a desperate
attempt to kill Clouseau.
Regardless of his rather limited ability, he successfully solves his cases and finds the correct culprits, even if this
success is achieved entirely by accident. As such, he was even promoted to Chief Inspector over the course of the series, and is
regarded by many other characters who presumably have not met him as France's greatest detective;
those characters he actually encounters, nevertheless, are quick to realise his incompetence and limitations. He is immensely
egocentric and self-important; despite his many failings, he is seemingly convinced that he
is a brilliant police officer destined to succeed and rise through the ranks of the Sûreté.
Despite this, Clouseau does appear to show some awareness that he is not the most competent or intelligent person, as he is
notably embarrassed by and quick to brush aside his more extreme acts of clumsiness with phrases such as "I know that," and
attempts to appear elegant and refined regardless of what calamity he has just caused.
Sellers said in several interviews that the secret of Clouseau's character was his tremendous ego. His favourite example of
Clouseau's ego was whenever someone said, "Phone call for Inspector Clouseau," Clouseau would reply, "Ah yes, that would be for
ME." Sellers maintained that Clouseau's ego is what made the character's klutziness funnier because of his quest to remain
elegant and refined while causing chaos everywhere he turned.[citation needed]
As portrayed by Sellers, Clouseau's French accent became steadily more exaggerated in successive films (for example,
pronouncing "room" as "reum"; pronouncing "Pope" as "Peup";
pronouncing "bomb" as "beumb"; and pronouncing "bumps" as
"beumps"), and a frequent running gag in the movies was that even French characters would have difficulty understanding what he
was saying. The accent may originally have been inspired by a comment by a French film director, in which he pronounced "house"
as "'arse," to Sellers's fellow Goon, Michael
Bentine, at a dinner party.[citation needed] Much of that humor was of course lost in the french dubbing : in order
to keep some of Seller's characterization, the french post-synchronization gave Clouseau an odd-sounding, nasal voice.
A Shot in the Dark
In his earliest appearances, Clouseau is actually less inept and exaggerated; much of the above character elements were not
added until the 1970s. Sellers stepped away from playing the character following 1964's A
Shot in the Dark (a film based upon a stage play into which the Clouseau character was inserted).
Inspector Clouseau
When the character returned for the 1968 film Inspector
Clouseau, he was portrayed by American actor Alan Arkin; Edwards was not involved
in this production. The creation of the animated Inspector character coincided with this film's release; thus, the cartoon
version is based upon Arkin's portrayal of Clouseau.
The Return of the Pink Panther
The 1968 film does appear to have had an impact on the character when Sellers returned to the role in 1975's
The Return of the Pink Panther, particularly in the character's
mode of dress.
The Romance of the Pink Panther
According to DVD liner notes for Return of the Pink Panther, Sellers and Edwards originally planned to produce a
British television series centered around Clouseau, but a film was made instead. The movie was a box office success and led to
several more films before Sellers died in 1980; biographies of Sellers such as Peter Sellers—A
Celebration reveal that he was involved in the pre-production of another Clouseau film, The Romance Of The Pink Panther at the time of his death.
Trail of The Pink Panther
Blake Edwards attempted to continue telling Clouseau's story despite losing his lead actor. The 1982 film Trail of the Pink Panther utilized outtakes and alternate footage of Sellers as Clouseau
in a new storyline in which a reporter investigates Clouseau's disappearance. In the process, she interviews characters from past
Clouseau films, and also meets Clouseau's equally inept father (played by Richard
Mulligan). The immediate sequel, Curse of the Pink Panther
(1983) reveals that Clouseau underwent plastic surgery to change his appearance; the
character appears on screen briefly in the form of a joke cameo appearance by
Roger Moore, billed as "Turk Thrust II." Neither film was a box office success and the
series (and the character) were retired.
Son of the Pink Panther
Edwards attempted to revive the series in 1993 with Son of the Pink
Panther, in which it is revealed that Clouseau had illegitimate children by Maria
Gambrelli (a character who first appeared in A Shot in the Dark). Clouseau's son, Jacques Jr., was portrayed by
Roberto Benigni, and has a twin sister, Jacqueline, played by Nicoletta Braschi. Jacques Jr. attempts to follow in his father's police footsteps, but is revealed to
have inherited the same ineptness as his father.
The Pink Panther (2006 film)
Steve Martin as Inspector Jacques Clouseau.
Steve Martin's rendition of Clouseau in the 2006
film is considered to be a rebooting of the character. The film gives an origin to his role as an inspector: originally an inept
police officer, he is hired by Chief Inspector Dreyfus to look bad and give Dreyfus the glory of solving the case himself.
However the new film is set in a different continuity: Martin's Clouseau is considerably older than Sellers', and although the
2006 film was promoted as taking place prior to the events of the first Pink Panther film,
the time frame has been advanced to the present day. A sequel is currently under production.
Filmography (and actors playing Clouseau)
Peter Sellars
Alan Arkin
- Inspector Clouseau (1968)
Roger Moore
Steve Martin
Other films
See also
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