Peter Sellers died in 1980, but Blake Edwards made two more installments of the Pink Panther series without him, both of which were a little hard to watch for those who missed him. In Trail of the Pink Panther, the film used archival footage from previous films, so Peter Sellers is still seen in the movie. Depending on your point of view, that's either comforting or even sadder. In the next film, Curse of the Pink Panther, Peter was completely absent from the film.Other old standbys from the original series were in this seventh installment, including David Niven, Herbert Lom, Capucine, and Burt Kwouk. The plot tries to make sense of Peter's lack of sufficient screen time by explaining that he's gone missing, and everyone's out to find him.It's up to you whether you want to see this one to support the famous slapstick series, or if you'd rather only watch the Peter Sellers ones. David Niven was ill during the making of the movie, so if it will upset you to see him without his usual vigor, you might want to just stick to the original. But, if slapstick is the name of your game, and you can appreciate the spirit of the series, go for it!

Filmed and released two years after the untimely death of Peter Sellers, this sixth film in the 'Pink Panther' series consists of previously unseen outtakes from 'The Pink Panther Strikes Again', archive footage from all five prior films and new footage with many supporting characters reprising their roles. While this might sound like a recipe for disaster, 'Trail' is as a surprisingly lucid motion picture. The plot is no great shakes as the jewel disappears again with Inspector Clouseau of course invited to investigate again, however, the story is relatively easy to follow and the filmmakers use a parallel plot of Herbert Lom again descending into madness well to provide more narrative drive than all the rather random Sellers klutziness. The outtakes are frequently funny too as Sellers confuses "message" with "massage", dances on rice and has trouble when travelling on a plane incognito (but those scenes might well be his stunt double). The second half of 'Trail' is weaker than the first half though as Clouseau goes missing-in-action and a nosy female reporter interviews those who were once close to him. The second half of the film contains at least three (maybe four) times as much archive footage and amounts to a 'greatest hits' collection and little more. That said, there is also some newly shot footage of Clouseau as a child in the mix, which has definite curiosity value. The end credits (and opening credits) are also as imaginative as usual for the series, but with or without scattered virtues, it is easy to see why many regard this as a low point in the franchise.

Victor Frankenstein's monster was never as hideous as this. This movie called itself a tribute to Peter Sellers, but it was really an insult, as Sellers would never have allowed old footage of himself to be used in new movies. Yet this movie not only includes highlight scenes culled from prior Pink Panther movies, but unused footage that should have stayed unused. Add a thin story about the disappearance of Clouseau and a lot of mostly poorly-acted new material (though the scene where Dreyfus tries to keep from showing joy at the prospect of Clouseau's disappearing for good was the movie's only funny part), and that is exactly what this movie is. No exaggeration.Blake Edwards may have disliked Peter Sellers, and may have had good reason, but that didn't justify his obvious grave-robbing here.

Some see this as a tribute to Sellers, some see it as an insult to his memory. Whatever way you look at it The Trail of The Pink Panther remains a very shoddy and tacky film.It's the type of film that nowadays could be made on YouTube as it primarily is a bunch of clips from previous films strung together by the weakest of plots. Although it boasts new footage of Sellers from beyond the grave these "new clips" are really just deleted scenes and bloopers from the other films, many of which don't even fit the story or are just extended versions of what we have been seen before.All the familiar faces (Herbert Lom, Graham Stark) are present but they are really just there to be part of a filmed eulogy for Sellers. Blake Edwards may have felt that the series could go on without Sellers but this film, The Curse of The Pink Panther (Shamefully filmed at the same time as this tribute) and the dreadful Son of The Pink Panther proved him wrong. Edwards knew he had a cash cow and he was determined to milk it dry.RIP Peter Sellers - A Comedy Genius who will live on forever.