Inspector Clouseau disappears, and the Surete wants the world's second best detective to look for him. However, Clouseau's enemy, Dreyfus, rigs the Surete's computer to select, instead, the world's WORST detective, NYPD Sgt. Clifton Sleigh. Sleigh obtusely bungles his way past assassins and corrupt officials as though he were Clouseau's American cousin.
This film doesn't Sleigh me I want to open this review by starting in the unexpected place. I advocate recasting roles. Recasting roles gives actors new opportunities and gives us, the audience, to see different interpretations on a role. It's something that's been done ever since acting has been a profession. I adore Peter Sellers as a performer and I cannot conceive of a performance of Inspector Clouseau that would delight me in the way he did, but that doesn't mean another performer can't. With that established, I want to propose the fear of replacing Peter Sellers combined with an obsession with lore is what holds this film back. So, it's worth noting that The Curse of the Pink Panther is in some ways a second part to The Trail of the Pink Panther. The French authorities want to find Chief Inspector Clouseau after he went missing in the previous movie, to that end they make a computer programme to find the world's 'second best detective' to find him. Chief Inspector Dreyfus,
