SNOW DAY SPECIAL                              ☼ online event

While you’re stuck inside during the winter storm, you may as well have a good laugh. Peter Sellers famously created the character of Inspector Clouseau, a French police officer with a distinct inability to solve crimes and an accent destined to enrage the population of France and bewilder everyone else. Fortunately, he’s the sort of bumbling fool that Fortune likes to favor, so while he takes some hits during his attempted investigations, it’s usually someone else who fares the worst.

Clouseau wasn’t even the main character in the first film in which he appeared, The Pink Panther. The title, by the way, refers to a fabulous diamond with a pink streak that’s shaped somewhat like a panther. Sellers’ performance captured the public’s fancy so well that the studio immediately began work on a sequel. A Shot in the Dark was adapted from a stage play that was written for an entirely different character, but it wasn’t difficult to adapt the main role for Clouseau, and Sellers put in another memorable – and ridiculous – performance. The movie also introduced the character who would become Clouseau’s archenemy, Chief Inspector Dreyfus, played with ever increasing fervor by Herbert Lom over the course of the next three installments.

The quality of the productions remains high throughout the series, with some of the best scenes coming in the later movies. You can watch all of them for free on Tubi through the links below. Yes, there will be commercial interruptions, but you’ll need them – if not to get a snack, then to catch your breath after laughing so hard that you nearly fell out of your seat. Few franchises offer five movies in a row with such great entertainment value. Enjoy!

The Pink Panther (1963)
https://tubitv.com/movies/689650/the-pink-panther
A Shot in the Dark (1964)
https://tubitv.com/movies/302248/a-shot-in-the-dark
Return of the Pink Panther (1975)
https://tubitv.com/movies/300463/return-of-the-pink-panther
The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)
https://tubitv.com/movies/306940/the-pink-panther-strikes-again
Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978)
https://tubitv.com/movies/312194/revenge-of-the-pink-panther

As always, you can watch Oddball Cinema’s online movies any time you want. This may be a particularly useful opportunity over the coming weekend, which may involve snow, sleet, and freezing rain over the course of several days. Stay inside and stay safe!