Curse of the Pink Panther was conceived as a high-stakes attempt to keep the franchise alive after Peter Sellers's death, but the production quickly became a battleground between director Blake Edwards and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Edwards had refused to simply recast Inspector Clouseau and instead tried to introduce Ted Wass as the disastrously incompetent New York detective Clifton Sleigh. The film and its companion production, Trail of the Pink Panther, were shot back-to-back on a combined budget of $17 million, with principal photography running from February 15 to June 2, 1982. Both pictures ultimately ran approximately $1 million over budget, and the compressed schedule forced them through post-production by October. Edwards later argued that MGM's handling of the films was not ordinary studio mismanagement but a deliberate effort to damage them: after Trail disappointed at the box office, MGM postponed Curse from its planned spring 1983 release to August and gave it virtually no newspaper or television advertising. The decision was especially damaging because the film was already attempting the nearly impossible task of replacing Sellers, whose physical comedy and verbal timing had defined the series.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1980s
Blake Edwards Accused MGM of Deliberately Sabotaging the Post-Sellers Pink Panther
Curse of the Pink Panther / 1980s
Curse of the Pink Panther was conceived as a high-stakes attempt to keep the franchise alive after Peter Sellers's death, but the production quickly became a battleground between director Blake Edwards and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Edwards had refused to simply recast Inspector Clouseau and instead tried to introduce Ted Wass as the disastrously incompetent New York detective Clifton Sleigh. The film and its companion production, Trail of the Pink Panther, were shot back-to-back on a combined budget of $17 million, with principal photography running from February 15 to June 2, 1982. Both pictures ultimately ran approximately $1 million over budget, and the compressed schedule forced them through post-production by October. Edwards later argued that MGM's handling of the films was not ordinary studio mismanagement but a deliberate effort to damage them: after Trail disappointed at the box office, MGM postponed Curse from its planned spring 1983 release to August and gave it virtually no newspaper or television advertising. The decision was especially damaging because the film was already attempting the nearly impossible task of replacing Sellers, whose physical comedy and verbal timing had defined the series.
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