The Pink Panther Theme The Pink Panther Theme "The Pink Panther Theme" is an instrumental composition by Henry Mancini written as the theme for the 1963 film "The Pink Panther" and subsequently nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score at the 37th Academy Awards but lost to the Sherman Brothers for "Mary Poppins". The eponymous cartoon character created for the film's opening credits by David DePatie and Friz Freleng was animated in time to the tune. The tenor saxophone solo was played by Plas Johnson. The song was included on the film's soundtrack album and issued as a single (in the United
Henry Mancini whom Mancini had a longstanding partnership was Stanley Donen ("Charade", "Arabesque", "Two for the Road"). Mancini also composed for Howard Hawks ("Man's Favorite Sport?", "Hatari!" – which included the well-known "Baby Elephant Walk"), Martin Ritt ("The Molly Maguires"), Vittorio de Sica ("Sunflower"), Norman Jewison ("Gaily, Gaily"), Paul Newman ("Sometimes a Great Notion", "The Glass Menagerie)", Stanley Kramer ("Oklahoma Crude"), George Roy Hill ("The Great Waldo Pepper"), Arthur Hiller ("Silver Streak"), Ted Kotcheff ("Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?"), and others. Mancini's score for the Alfred Hitchcock film "Frenzy" (1972) in Bachian organ andante, for organ and an orchestra