When Peter Sellers died, you'd have thought they'd have let the 'Pink Panther' series die with him. But money talks and in 1981 we got the dire 'Trail Of The Pink Panther'. 'Curse', its successor, was an improvement, thanks to a funny performance from the likable Ted Wass, best known as 'Danny Dallas' from the long-running T.V. show 'Soap'. His character, Clifton Sleigh, had more than a touch of Harold Lloyd about him but alas Sellers proved irreplaceable ( Dudley Moore and Rowan Atkinson knew this too. They both turned it down ), and we never saw Sleigh again. Some good visual gags include Dreyfus falling from his office window and Sleigh's problems with an inflatable doll. The film might have stood a chance had it not been continually looking over its shoulder at what went before. Especially confusing was Joanna Lumley's appearance as Countess Chandra - a totally different character to the one she'd played in 'Trail'. The decision to turn Clouseau bad rankled with audiences as well. David Niven's final film, sadly.

While this is not quite the train wreck that TRAIL OF THE PINK PANTHER was, it's still a pretty weak entry in the PANTHER series. Ted Wass is bland and ineffectual; when I watch him here I keep thinking of how much better this movie could have been if most of his scenes were acted or directed differently. One of the few times he made me laugh was when he was doing the voice for his "instant companion."

The "new Clouseau" at the end was an interesting touch -- not convincing, exactly, but funny.

In hindsight, if Blake Edwards really wanted to wrap up the series after Sellers' death, I think it would have been better if he combined the "using deleted Sellers scenes" concept from TRAIL with the "searching for Clouseau" concept from CURSE into just one movie, and left it at that.

This admittedly pointless attempt to continue the series without Peter Sellers is a far cry from most of its predecessors, but it has its share of genuinely funny scenes and a great performance by Ted Wass.

Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Lom, terrific as always) is urged to investigate the disappearance of Inspector Clouseau, and reprograms the police department's database to find the single most inept detective for the job. The computer finds Clifton Sleigh.

Wass has some enormous shoes to fill, and he wisely doesn't even attempt to do so. Instead of mimicking Sellers, he creates a completely new character, one who is smarter than Clouseau, but about twice as accident-prone. A scene in which he is sitting with his "instant companion" doll at a French cafe is hilarious, especially when it springs a leak and he attempts to keep it from deflating.

The movie's weakest moments are his dealings with actors from previous PINK PANTHER movies, such as David Niven, Robert Wagner, Cappucine and Burt Kuouk, who all appear to be doing this as a personal favor to director Blake Edwards. On the other hand, Harvey Korman has a funny bit taking over the role of disguise designer Professor Balls.

The movie leads up to a bizarre and hilarious finale which is best left a surprise. Suffice it to say there is a surprise cameo by an actor who DOES do a flawless Clouseau impersonation! I'd guess I recommend this movie. It's pretty funny, and has a few gems hidden in there with the more sophomoric stuff. But there will only ever be one Peter Sellers, and there's really no reason for this movie to exist.