Trail of the Pink Panther series regulars include Herbert Lom as Chief Inspector Dreyfus, Graham Stark as Hercule LaJoy (last seen in the 1964 Pink Panther film "A Shot in the Dark"), Burt Kwouk as Clouseau's faithful man servant Cato and André Maranne as Sgt. François Chevalier. "Trail" featured the animated opening and closing credits, animated by Marvel Productions and written and directed by Art Leonardi. Director Blake Edwards dedicated the film to Sellers, "the one and only Inspector Clouseau." Despite the dedication, Sellers' wife Lynne Frederick filed a $3 million lawsuit against the film's producers and the studio, claiming that the film diminished Sellers'
The Pink Panther "Return.") The plot of the first film is based on the theft of this diamond. The diamond reappears in several later films in the series, "The Return of the Pink Panther," "Trail of the Pink Panther," and "Curse of the Pink Panther." It also appears in the revival of the Inspector Clouseau character in the much later Steve Martin films "The Pink Panther" (2006), and its sequel "The Pink Panther 2" (2009). The name "the Pink Panther" became attached to Inspector Clouseau in much the same way that "Frankenstein" has been used in film titles to refer to Dr. Frankenstein's