Actually, Son of the Pink Panther (1993) is a mini-step up from its predecessor but that's not saying much. The film is ill-conceived and offers not a single laugh, though as the last official film in the Blake Edwards-directed series - this was Edwards' last theatrical film of any kind as director - there is a modicum of entertainment watching the series' veterans at work, and at 93 minutes the film is short enough that it's not too miserable a viewing experience. As a comedy, however, it's pretty awful.

A trite kidnapping plot drives the narrative, with Princess Yasmin (Debrah Farentino）of Lugash (the same fictitious country where the Pink Panther diamond resides) abducted by slimy Hans Zarba (Robert Davi) as part of a larger plot to force Yasmin's father, King Haroak (Oliver Cotton) to abdicate the throne so that the estranged Queen (Indian film star Shabana Azmi) can rule with her militant lover, General Jaffar (Aharon Ipale).

Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) travels to Nice to supervise the case, where jealous Commissioner Lazar (Anton Rodgers) assigns inept local gendarme Jacques Gambrelli (Roberto Benigni), who in fact is the illegitimate son of Dreyfus's former (and, we're told, now dead) nemesis, Inspector Jacques Clouseau. After much confusion, the younger Jacques's mother, Maria (Claudia Cardinale) explains all.

Unlike Curse, Son of the Pink Panther actually boasts a funny actor in the lead, but the film makes the fatal mistake of trying to mold Benigni into a clone of Sellers' Clouseau rather than cut Benigni loose to do the kind of comedy in which he excels. Sellers' Clouseau was an outrageous French stereotype trying to appear serious, intelligent, and dignified but was instead hopelessly bumbling, dense, and unhip. Benigni's appeal, an acquired taste to be sure, is uncontainable manic gregariousness, the very opposite of Clouseau.

On one hand writers Edwards, Steven and Madeline Sunshine (whose biggest credit up to then was the TV show Webster) wisely account for Benigni's origins by making him the son of Maria Gambrelli, Clouseau's lover in A Shot in the Dark. (Cardinale had been in the 1964 film The Pink Panther in another role, however, confusing things. Elke Sommer had played Maria in A Shot in the Dark but she's German and - oh, never mind.)

Almost perversely, however, the screenplay gives Benigni's the same malapropisms as Clouseau ("You received a bewmph on the head," etc.), and something that's apparently supposed to be a French (French-Italian?) accent. Of course, that's akin to casting Maurice Chevalier as a Mexican bandito, and the results are about as bad as one can imagine. More depressing is that Benigni is given routine slapstick set-pieces that are neither his forte nor are they filmed by Edwards with any clear effort to maximize what little potential they offer. These bits have no sense of editing, pacing, are shot from awkward angles in bad light, etc. Absolutely nothing works. In one especially painful sequence involving an out-of-control hospital bed, a TV in the room is running a similar (and, needless to say, far funnier) clip from the Marx Bros.' A Day at the Races which, of course, only underlines the newer film's desperateness. (Key gags involve a dog in heat and a farting hospital patient.)

The film's only charm is watching veterans like Herbert Lom (who never seemed to age) and Claudia Cardinale in their scenes together, climaxing with the picture's single surprise, a sweet wrap-up for the beleaguered Chief Inspector. Burt Kwouk turns up briefly as manservant Cato, but his character has no real reason to be in the film and is awkwardly inserted into the story, as is series veteran Graham Stark's appearance.

Video & Audio

Son of the Pink Panther looks a little soft, a bit less sharp than it should, though passable. The colors are rather muted but okay. The not terribly impressive Dolby Stereo mix is offered in English, French, and Spanish, with optional subtitles in those languages.

Extra Features

There are no supplements, other than a Theatrical Trailer, which is complete with text and narration, and in 16:9 format.

Parting Thoughts

Son of the Pink Panther is an egregiously labored comedy with unimpressive slapstick and a misconceived central character. Only the appearance of series regulars stops this short of drop-dead awful.

Stuart Galbraith IV is a Kyoto-based film historian whose work includes The Emperor and the Wolf - The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune and Taschen's forthcoming Cinema Nippon. Visit Stuart's Cine Blogarama here.