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Show ing flat. If his role had been conceived as merely one of adventure, it would have enhanced en-hanced the film. But he is given comic sequences as well, and he has neither the timing or the sublety of Sellers Sel-lers to pull them off. The Chief Inspector, as well, detracts from the aura around Sellers, offering himself as much too obvious a comic character. Fewpos-sessed Fewpos-sessed and crazy men resort to such obvious gestures as rolling their eyes and cackling cack-ling with such desperate gusto. gus-to. The sequences with Sellers, Sel-lers, in reflection after seeing see-ing the film, are the only ones that come off well. We enjoy en-joy them with all their faults and obvious gestures, laugh ing at the expected and the unexpected as well. These are the moments of belly laughs, of gusto that make the film a success, Roaring with laughter replaces re-places the titters that accompany ac-company the other roles. But we realize that these scenes are too few and far between, and often merely thrown in to carry the film. Clouseau has it, but the rest of the film lacks the finesse expected by those who lovingly lov-ingly recall the original. RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER offers an evening of cotton candy comedy, delicious de-licious in small doses, and wisely delved out in this manner. Few comedies have had such successful mass ap peal, proving to be funny to the young and old on very different levels as well as common ground. You don't have to think to enjoy Clouseau, but just settle back and be carried by him through a few hours of fun and frolic. It is escapism es-capism at its best, requiring requir-ing only laughter from the audience, as even the detective detec-tive sequences need little thought or attention to follow them, for there are no clues in this mystery to weave into a solution. Instead, we just enjoy, and this is a welcome change for the masses, and for those tired film viewers who have been zapped enough by intellect. intel-lect. For an eveningof froth, you cannot beat the Detective Clouseau. down until the film often becomes be-comes one bumble after another an-other without connection. Sellers becomes less the detective and more the fumbling man. The film is very funny, offering high moments of slapstick. But the film also is so contrived as to weave one bungle into another, setting set-ting us up for them with such blatant clues that we not only see it coming and say, "Oh, boy, here it comes," but for minutes after this realization we continue to say, "any minute now," and wait until the film finally zaps us. But the build up has been so obvious and so tedius that we often find it falling flat. The moments that work best are those that quickly happen, hap-pen, each avalanching upon the other until there is a whole series of mishaps to leave tears of laughter in your eyes. This is the Clouseau Clou-seau of old that we all love. And these are the moments in the film that are remembered. remem-bered. The main failingof the film is the actors aroundSellers. Most of them lag the scenes, lacking that talent for the zany. We see our belovedClous-eau belovedClous-eau surrounded by others almost al-most equally inept, and this is a sacrilege. Clouseau is the epitome of the enept, the pinnacle of bumbling, and we are s ub j ec ted to mere amatuers next to him. The detective workings of Christopher Plummer often distract from the film, fall- Film sequels are very popular this year, and, surprisingly, sur-prisingly, many offer exciting excit-ing film viewing often surpassing sur-passing the original. But when dealing with a film like RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER, one wonders if it is funny in itself, or we all have fallen into a good case of nostalgia for those days when we were youngandgay. The original PINK PANTHER PAN-THER was made longenough ago that we fondly remember its humor and on that alone flock to the theatre to see this sequel. Peter Sellers has created a character of his own in his Detective Clouseau that is unique. Sellers has an ability much akin to the old comedians like Keaton to dryly pull off his slapstick in a pace all his own. One must commend the man for his ability, although al-though consistency is lacking. lack-ing. Clouseau is a once and done character, one that cannot can-not be carried above and beyond the Pink Panther series. ser-ies. Although Sellers' has offered of-fered some fine moments in other films, he often lacks that genius to carry it off. Clouseau is where his talents tal-ents come to rest, the one character in which he is truly comfortable. It has been longenough between be-tween the original and the sequel se-quel that comparisons between be-tween the two are almost impossible. im-possible. You sit in the theatre, watching the antics of the bumbling detective, and it is impossible to recall his performance per-formance of old with clarity. This aids the film well, since it often fails where the original succeeded. In this way, the sequel must stand on its own in viewing. But, all too often, we find ourselves romantically roman-tically remembering how funny it all was before, and are much readier to overlook this film's flaws. The one fault with the film that is most distracting is its pace. As I remember the original, I recall a frantic, fran-tic, zany pace of incidents and circumstances. In RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER, we f i nd a reliance re-liance on sight gags and gadgetry that overtakes the entire plot, pulling its pace |