Lytton's partners in crime include Clouseau's sexy wife, Simone (Capucine). Lytton has a grown nephew, George (Robert Wagner), who shows up to also date Simone. George learns in a day what Clouseau could not discover in ten years, that Lytton is The Phantom. Instead of turning in his uncle for a reward, he decides to become another partner.
Lytton's next conquest, both romantically and financially, is The Princess (Claudia Cardinale), a comely and wordly woman who somehow has remained a virgin and teetotaler despite the apparent lack of any supervision. The Princess owns the Pink Panther, one of the world's most valuable jewels.
How others will see it. It is well known that The Pink Panther launched the career of its namesake cartoon character, last seen in fiberglass commercials; made Peter Sellers a household name in America; and was the first in a series of Pink Panther movies that extended to 1993.
The film was also an international box office success, and secured nominations from the three most important English-language film festivals: Best Score (Henri Mancini) at the Oscars, and Best Actor (Peter Sellers) at BAFTA and the Golden Globes.
Today at imdb.com, the movie is remembered chiefly for Peter Seller's introduction of the bumbling Inspector Clouseau character. The 38K user votes is reasonable, and the 7.2 rating is relatively high for a sex comedy. There are naysayers who think the film is stupid, and others would like to push David Niven and his preening nephew out of the movie to make room for additional scenes with Sellers.
How I felt about it. The most obvious problem with The Pink Panther is the casting of David Niven as dashing girl-magnet Sir Charles Lytton. Niven looks even older than his 53 years, and in addition, he appears frail and effete. It seems ridiculous that Simone would be so in love with him that she would marry a clumsy idiot like Clouseau merely to serve as a spy for Lytton. Particularly when he is simultaneously romancing all these other women.
It is even more ridiculous that ravishing Claudia Cardinale, 28 years his junior, would be so smitten with him that she would enter into a criminal conspiracy with jewel thieves to free him, and instead frame an innocent police inspector. Particularly when her country also claims the jewel, and having it declared stolen would make it much easier to keep it.
It also is difficult to believe that Clouseau has made a career out of investigating The Phantom, and has attended 16 "scenes of the crime" where Lytton was present, and has yet to at least build a file on Lytton as a suspect, if for no other reason than to learn where Lytton obtains the money to date all these gold diggers half his age.
Since George is effectively getting paid by Lytton to stay in America, why is Robert Wagner even in the movie? Because he's the only male actor who looks under 40. Simone is completely nonplussed by Clouseau's clumsiness and eccentric behavior, yet has a coughing fit when she meets Lytton's nephew?
But there are reasons why this movie ends up better than it should be. It has a marvelous score, at least by Hollywood movie standards, and thus merited its sole Oscar nomination. Fran Jeffries is beautiful and has a nice musical number. Claudia Cardinale is even more gorgeous. The screenplay is amusing. Peter Sellers, every director's favorite, is beloved, and deserves to be for reasons difficult to convey in print. Clouseau is the stereotypical Sellers character, clueless yet somehow effective.
But most of all, writer/director Blake Edwards knows the film's limitations. It is a sex comedy with slapstick, and since it can be nothing more, at least make it look and sound nice. Which he accomplishes.