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 Return of the Pink Panther of the Pink Panther' is a cheerful escape from all the things that ail us." Gary Arnold of "The Washington Post" called it "a frequently hilarious and generally satisfying return to comic form on the part of Peter Sellers, recreating the role of the hapless but dogged French sleuth." Penelope Gilliatt of "The New Yorker" wrote that Sellers was "working here at his best." The film holds a score of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7 out of 10. The film had been released on VHS, Betamax, CED and Laserdisc in the