The "worst" buzz of activity due to the release of NTTD has died down and I think it's time to get the next watchalong off the ground. This will never happen without active participants, both during and before the night itself, so please post!
I suggest Friday the 29th this month at 8 PM GMT. Who's onboard?
I have some deeply embarrasing news. I can't find my Pink Panther DVD 😩. I've searched for it all afternoon, but it doesn't look good. Fortunately I asked my good friend Higgins to handle any management of the watchalong. He was more than willing to help out as watchers of this and simular threads might have guessed. A sincere thanks to Higgins. I wish you a great evening, and I may drop in. 😊
The original "The Pink Panther" movie may seem slightly strange to those who've only seen later films in the series. There's no Dreyfus or Kato, for example (they are introduced in the next film, "A Shot In The Dark") and the film's plot centres more around David Niven as Sir Charles Lytton than Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau.
Niven was a big international star at this point- he'd been in successful films such as "The Guns of Navarone" and "Around The World in 80 Days" and had won an Oscar a few years prior. Many years earlier, he'd starred as "Raffles", about a suave gentleman jewel thief very similar to Sir Charles and a part which he was well suited for. The idea was to launch a series starring Niven about Sir Charles Lytton, aka "The Phantom".
As comedy relief, Peter Ustinov was to play the bumbling Clouseau but when he backed out close to the start of filming Peter Sellers was brought in. At this point, Sellers was on his way up but was not the international star he was soon to become. His improvisations on set matched well with director Blake Edwards' ideas, and he ended up stealing the movie and becoming the central character for the sequels.
The actor playing the thief "The Phantom" was a squadron commander in the WWII special forces unit Phantom Unit. His batman was Peter Ustinov who was intended in the Peter Sellers role.
In a brief scene we can see an extra who later became a PLO terrorist. He was the first to be assassinated by the Mossad during Operation Wrath of God. The killing is shown in the movie "Munich" starring one Daniel Craig.
Claudia Cardinale didn't speak English and had to be dubbed. She was also absolutely stunning! 🥰
The character of Sir Charles Lytton wasn't seen again until "The Return Of The Pink Panther" (1975) in which he was played by Christopher Plummer. Whether this was because David Niven was busy making a film called "Paper Tiger" or because at 65 he would have simply been too old for the part, which involved some Bond-style stunts, I don't know.
Niven did return as Sir Charles after Sellers' death in "Trail Of The Pink Panther" (1982) and "Curse Of The Pink Panther" (1983) in both of which despite high billing (top billing in the second) he played merely cameos- his health was poor and he died before the second film's release.
Sellers played Clouseau again in "A Shot In The Dark" (1964) but not in "Inspector Clouseau" (1968) where he was played by Alan Arkin- not very successfully. Sellers returned for "The Return Of The Pink Panther" (1975) which was a large success and the following two movies in the series ("Strikes Again" and "Revenge") before dying in 1980.
Blake Edwards cobbled together the above mentioned "Trail" using out-takes and clips, then tried a new lead in the above mentioned "Curse". These were not successful. Many years later, he tried again in "Son Of The Pink Panther" (1993), and again this was a failure. This meant the end of the series until the reboot starring Steve Martin.
Comments
That's good. But this Friday is too close. I plan to watch NTTD om Friday October first, at least for the first time. We'll see later on.
The "worst" buzz of activity due to the release of NTTD has died down and I think it's time to get the next watchalong off the ground. This will never happen without active participants, both during and before the night itself, so please post!
I suggest Friday the 29th this month at 8 PM GMT. Who's onboard?
Obviously me.
I'm on board.
Good, now we're three. I think we need at least two more, hopefully many more. Where is Higgins?
Next Friday will be ok for me.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
I could do Friday 29th or most other Fridays at that time for the foreseeable.
Great!
Even more people would be even better, but five is enough to give the go-ahead. It's official and I'll change the thread title. 😃
I am really looking forward to watching "The Pink Panther" tonight at 8pm GMT.
I'm looking forward to it too! At 8 GMT in this thread. 🎉
As far as I know, Pink Panther is only out on DVD yes, or does anybody own a HD version of it?
Where exactly do we start? Before or after the MGM lion logo?
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
20:00 GMT
21:00 London local time
22:00 Paris local time
13:00 Los Angeles local time
16:00 New York local time
04:00 Manila local time
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Thanks! We start just before the MGM logo. That way we can do our own lion roar like they do in the James Bond & Friends watchalongs! 🦁
Higgins, 18.00 is not 8pm. Please clarify
I own a blu--ray of The Pink Panther. Looking forward to the watchalong later
The watchalong starts at EIGHT, that is 20.00 PM GMT!
And of course GMT is one hour behind BST so in blighty it's all go at 9pm...
If you also own the DVD, could you please use this?
With the Bond watchalong we experienced that Blu Ray was playing slower than DVD
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Like Golrush007 I have the bluray but unfortunately only that. If it lags I may need the odd marker to catch up a bit.
I hope some new members join us for this. If you're there, welcome! We start in about an hour.
I have some deeply embarrasing news. I can't find my Pink Panther DVD 😩. I've searched for it all afternoon, but it doesn't look good. Fortunately I asked my good friend Higgins to handle any management of the watchalong. He was more than willing to help out as watchers of this and simular threads might have guessed. A sincere thanks to Higgins. I wish you a great evening, and I may drop in. 😊
Things we won't have time for during the film.
The original "The Pink Panther" movie may seem slightly strange to those who've only seen later films in the series. There's no Dreyfus or Kato, for example (they are introduced in the next film, "A Shot In The Dark") and the film's plot centres more around David Niven as Sir Charles Lytton than Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau.
Niven was a big international star at this point- he'd been in successful films such as "The Guns of Navarone" and "Around The World in 80 Days" and had won an Oscar a few years prior. Many years earlier, he'd starred as "Raffles", about a suave gentleman jewel thief very similar to Sir Charles and a part which he was well suited for. The idea was to launch a series starring Niven about Sir Charles Lytton, aka "The Phantom".
As comedy relief, Peter Ustinov was to play the bumbling Clouseau but when he backed out close to the start of filming Peter Sellers was brought in. At this point, Sellers was on his way up but was not the international star he was soon to become. His improvisations on set matched well with director Blake Edwards' ideas, and he ended up stealing the movie and becoming the central character for the sequels.
People, let‘s remember that everybody should load their BEFORE the 20:00 time.
So please fire up the players 10 minutes earlier, browse thru the menus and start the movie and pause
We will start at 20:00 sharp!
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
I can share some more trivia:
The actor playing the thief "The Phantom" was a squadron commander in the WWII special forces unit Phantom Unit. His batman was Peter Ustinov who was intended in the Peter Sellers role.
In a brief scene we can see an extra who later became a PLO terrorist. He was the first to be assassinated by the Mossad during Operation Wrath of God. The killing is shown in the movie "Munich" starring one Daniel Craig.
Claudia Cardinale didn't speak English and had to be dubbed. She was also absolutely stunning! 🥰
The character of Sir Charles Lytton wasn't seen again until "The Return Of The Pink Panther" (1975) in which he was played by Christopher Plummer. Whether this was because David Niven was busy making a film called "Paper Tiger" or because at 65 he would have simply been too old for the part, which involved some Bond-style stunts, I don't know.
Niven did return as Sir Charles after Sellers' death in "Trail Of The Pink Panther" (1982) and "Curse Of The Pink Panther" (1983) in both of which despite high billing (top billing in the second) he played merely cameos- his health was poor and he died before the second film's release.
Sellers played Clouseau again in "A Shot In The Dark" (1964) but not in "Inspector Clouseau" (1968) where he was played by Alan Arkin- not very successfully. Sellers returned for "The Return Of The Pink Panther" (1975) which was a large success and the following two movies in the series ("Strikes Again" and "Revenge") before dying in 1980.
Blake Edwards cobbled together the above mentioned "Trail" using out-takes and clips, then tried a new lead in the above mentioned "Curse". These were not successful. Many years later, he tried again in "Son Of The Pink Panther" (1993), and again this was a failure. This meant the end of the series until the reboot starring Steve Martin.
What!!!! 😯
15 minutes until we hit play!
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Good evening watchalongers...
Number24, shocked to hear that your copy of The Pink Panther has gone AWOL.