Panther Soundtrack

The fourth Pink Panther film with Peter Sellers and directed by Blake Edwards is easily the most over-the-top, but it's still pretty entertaining. The story finds Clouseau's former boss (Herbert Lom) totally insane after years of enduring the bumbling detective, and sequestered in a castle with a death-ray gun. Clouseau has to stop him from using the weapon on the world, and his efforts to do so make for some choice, Edwards-style slapstick. The quotient of destruction (a Clouseau staple) is higher than average, but there is also real wit--particularly in a final scene where Lom re-creates his most famous role as the monster from the 1962 Phantom of the Opera. --Tom Keogh