Character
Inspector Jacques Clouseau, later granted the rank of Chief Inspector, is a fictional character in Blake Edwards' farcical The Pink Panther series. Clouseau's immense ego, eccentr…
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Inspector Jacques Clouseau (French: [ʒɑk kluzo]), later granted the rank of Chief Inspector, is a fictional character in Blake Edwards' farcical The Pink Panther series. Clouseau's immense ego, eccentricity, exaggerated French accent, and prominent mustache are all a parody of Hercule Poirot, the fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie.
Inspector Jacques Clouseau, later granted the rank of Chief Inspector, is a fictional character in Blake Edwards' farcical The Pink Panther series. Clouseau's immense ego, eccentricity, exaggerated French accent, and prominent mustache are all a parody of Hercule Poirot, the fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. He is portrayed by Peter Sellers in the original series, and also by Alan Arkin in the 1968 film Inspector Clouseau and, in a cameo, by Roger Moore in the 1983 film Curse of the Pink Panther. In the 2006 reboot and its 2009 sequel, Clouseau is portrayed by Steve Marti
Inspector Jacques Clouseau (French: [ʒɑk kluzo]), later granted the rank of Chief Inspector, is a fictional character in Blake Edwards' farcical The Pink Panther series. Clouseau's immense ego, eccentricity, exaggerated French accent, and prominent mustache are all a parody of Hercule Poirot, the fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. He is portrayed by Peter Sellers in the original series, and also by Alan Arkin in the 1968 film Inspector Clouseau and, in a cameo, by Roger Moore (credited as Turk Thrust II) in the 1983 film Curse of the Pink Panther. In the 2006 reboot and its 2009 sequel, Clouseau is portrayed by Steve Martin. Clouseau's likeness also appears in the Pink Panther animated cartoon shorts and segments, where he is known as simply "the Inspector".
Clouseau is an inept and incompetent police detective in the French Sûreté, whose investigations quickly turn to chaos. His absent-mindedness and extreme clumsiness almost always lead to destruction of property: while interviewing witnesses in The Pink Panther Strikes Again, he falls down a set of stairs, gets his hand caught in a medieval knight's gauntlet, then in a vase; knocks a witness senseless and voiceless, destroys a priceless piano, and accidentally causes a Scotland Yard superintendent to be shot in the buttocks, all within nearly five minutes. Despite his lack of judgment and skill, Clouseau always manages to solve his cases and finds the correct culprits, almost entirely by accident.
Clouseau is promoted to Chief Inspector over the course of the series, and is regarded in other countries as France's greatest detective, until they encounter him directly. His incompetence, combined with his luck and his occasionally correct interpretations of the situation, frustrate his direct superior, former Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus so intensely, Dreyfus is eventually driven to insanity.
Source: Inspector Clouseau (CC BY-SA)
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While Clouseau is generally oblivious to his own ineptitude and genuinely believes he possesses superior expertise and intelligence, he occasionally appears to recognize his limitations. As a police detective, Clouseau also insists upon wearing ridiculously elaborate disguises and aliases that range from the mundane (a telephone company repairman) to the ludicrously preposterous (a buck-toothed hunchback with an oversized nose); but even in these absurd disguises he cannot hide his characteristic inanity.
Clouseau is a patriotic Frenchman; later films reveal he had fought in the French Resistance during the Second World War. He is repeatedly perplexed by transvestites, to the extent that he addresses them as "Sir or Madam". He has been prone to infatuation (often reciprocated) ever since the first film, in which his antagonist cuckolds him.
Clouseau's faux French accent became much more exaggerated in the later films (for example, pronouncing "room" as "reum"; "Pope" as "Peup"; "bomb" as "beumb"; and "bumps" as "beumps"), and a frequent running gag in the movies was that even French characters had difficulty understanding what he was saying. In his earliest appearances, Clouseau appears slightly less inept than in the later films; but even in his first appearance he believes himself a skilled violinist, but plays out of tune, and often appears clumsy at moments of highest seriousness. Sellers maintained that Clouseau's oversized ego made his klutziness even funnier, particularly in his regular attempts to remain dignified, elegant, and refined while causing comic chaos.
Jacques Clouseau makes his first appearance as the Inspector in the 1963 film The Pink Panther, which was released in the United States in March 1964. The movie is centered on David Niven's role as Sir Charles Lytton, the infamous jewel thief nicknamed "the Phantom", and his plan to steal the Pink Panther diamond from a vacationing princess. The Clouseau character was a supporting, comedic role as Lytton's incompetent and oblivious antagonist. Clouseau's wife Simone (Capucine), is secretly Sir Charles's lover and accomplice, and departs with him at the end of the film after they have framed Clouseau for the theft of the Pink Panther.
A Shot in the Dark (1964) was based upon a stage play that originally did not include the Clouseau character. In this film, Sellers began to develop the exaggerated French accent that later became a hallmark of the character. The film also introduces two of the series' regular characters: his superior, Commissioner Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), who is driven mad by Clouseau's blundering in the investigation; and his long-suffering Chinese manservant, Cato (Burt Kwouk), who is expected to improve Clouseau's martial arts skills by attacking him at random.
In Inspector Clouseau, the character was portrayed by American actor Alan Arkin; Blake Edwards was not involved in this production. The film's opening credits, animated by TVC London for DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, feature their Inspector character from the series of cartoon shorts under that title. Sellers declined to appear as Clouseau in Inspector Clouseau (1968) but he returned for The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) and its sequels.
The 1968 film does appear to have influenced the Clouseau character when Sellers returned to the role in The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), particularly in the character's mode of dress. According to DVD liner notes for The Return of the Pink Panther, Sellers and Edwards originally planned to produce a British television series centered on Clouseau, but this film was made instead. The opening credits were animated by Richard Williams. The plot centers on Clouseau once again seeking to retrieve the stolen Pink Panther diamond. David Niven was unavailable to reprise the role of Sir Charles Lytton, so Christopher Plummer was cast. Catherine Schell appears as Lady Lytton.
The film was a financial success and led to Edwards quickly developing a sequel.
The Pink Panther Strikes Again continues the story from the end of The Return of the Pink Panther, featuring the now-insane Dreyfus creating a crime syndicate and constructing a doomsday weapon with t
